Nite Hawk
Well-known member
I tried to edit this story for size but couldn’t seem to shrink it down.. maybe some ideas of a better approach to over due calves or maybe someone out there might be helped..
We encountered something yesterday that I have not ever encountered before…
We had been waiting on “pins and needles” for our piedmontese heifer to calve. We fed her carefully—a decent amount of grain early on trying to get some size on her, and then cutting her off grain around the 6 months and then only decent hay and minerals and then grass, trying to keep the size of the calf down.
I wasn’t happy that she didn’t get as much growth herself, and we could see it looked like the calf was going to be a big one. According to other people that I know who raise piedmontese, they almost always go over the standard due day, from what I am told, about 8 days. This heifer was A.I. bred so we knew the date of the breeding, not like a fair amount of pasture breeding where you are not sure. Well this heifer went over, and hit traditional day 8 overdue and kept going. I was fit to be tied, and at day 12, I phoned the vet to ask advice. The vet we normally use was away, and the vet that was working suggested that we bring her in. As I prepared to hook up the horse trailer, I was informed that the U joint on the truck was causing problems, and it wasn’t going to work. Also, this is the long week-end here in Canada, so there would be no vets to be had till Tuesday unless it is emergency, and super expensive.
It was going to be $80 just to get the vet to look at her, on Friday and that was without taxes, and that was with us hauling her in to the office. If they have to come out---look out, you milage fees and if after hours emergency fees…( vets don’t come cheap around here)..
Anways- The bull we had used was supposed to be a “ heifer bull”, but this heifer who was due to calve,- her mother who just had her 3th calf a couple weeks ago, (we used the same bull on both ) and had gotten hip locked when she had her calf, So I was very concerned.
I was sweating and praying—serious, This heifer is very much like her mother, a kind gentle sweet tempered heifer, and I am not keen to lose her either.
She seemed totally healthy and fine, no distress or anything, so all we could do was wait..
Anyways, on Sunday we went to church in the morning and when we came back, and there was a huge puddle in the barn and a few stringers of placenta, so I knew this heifer was due to go into labour.
We put a halter on her and turned her loose and watched her for a while, she was walking around with her tail in the air, and finally after a couple hours she decided it was time to push. This heifer is very familiar and comfortable with people she knows, so didn’t panic when we came up to check on her. I checked on her and she had 2 feet sticking out—sideways though, instead of sole of the feet pointed down. I knew it wasn’t breech from the position of the feet so didn’t panic. The heifer was not inclined to push much though, and a couple times she got up and moved and the feet sucked back in. Finally I decided to see if a gentle pull might stimulate her to push a bit more, as that often works. I flipped a rope on the feet and gave a bit of a pull, and often you will feel a tiny bit of movement, however there was NOTHING at all. It was like pulling on a D8 bulldozer -not a bit of movement at all. I tried it several times, and still was like a solid rock. Family members told me to “just leave her alone- she will be fine”. I didn’t feel good about it, said so, and said—“I have to go in”. I went washed my hands and dumped some iodine water over my arm that I had in ready in a bucket “in case”, and went in the south end.. I went up the legs looking for the head, I went around and around and all over the place, NO HEAD. I pulled out and announced I couldn’t find the head, and tried again. Again NO HEAD. I am trying not to panic.
I went way in and could feel the cervix like a sleeve but no head. I have been in enough cows and sheep I know where the head is supposed to be. I have had enough sheep all tangled up inside with their feet back and their heads all over the place but NEVER a cow. I carefully tried to wiggle into the cervix and felt around, and still NO HEAD. By this time panic is setting in, I know there are basically no vet available, and the one fellow who had told me that he was willing to help if I got stuck, we were pretty sure he was in town ( about
50 miles away). Almost everyone I could think of was gone for the long week end as it was Williams lake stampede week end.
I thought of one on our neighbors who had helped me when this heifer had knocked one of her horns off, and we couldn’t get the bleeding stopped, so we took a shot in the dark and called him. He is retired, but used to manage a lot of dairy farms in the past, and it pretty knowledgeable. When I talked to him, he said he would come over. So back to the field, and while one family member held the heifer ( she is halter broke) a different family member tried to go in and find the calf’s head. Nothing..
The neighbour and his wife showed up, and he wasted no time. He went in and he couldn’t find the head either, and he is very experienced at this kind of stuff.
A 4-H leader appeared and was supposed to drop off a booklet for a family member, and stayed to see what would happen. The 1st neighbour said “ I can’t find the head it is bent back inside the cows uterus”. At the same time the calf’s feet were sticking out the vulva. The heifer had sucked the calf back in most of the way a few times, and the thought was to push the calf back in. the neighbour did push the calf back in a bit, but still no head. He said “ the only way you are going to get this calf out is with a C-section she is just too small and tight in the pelvis”. The 4-H leader said “ can’t we try to snag the head and pull it around with a cord or something” ? We were both thinking sort of like one does with a sheep, you push them back and twist the head around. The neighbour said- “no the head is twisted back- like right here” pointing to the heifers side. I said, “well is it time to butcher her”? not wanting to think either c-section or butchering her, but not willing for her to suffer either. The neighbour said she is so small in the pelvis area, he didn’t think we could get the head around or the calf out of the heifer. I knew it was big cause the size of the hooves were huge. We were standing there for a moment discussing what to do, and all of a sudden the neighbour let out a startled yelp and there was the nose peeking out of the heifers vulva and its tongue hanging out.
I don’t care what anyone thinks—the first thought that came into my mind was—“ that is a miracle- God moved that calfs head out, cause it simply was NOT there a second ago. I had my hand in there and that cervix was very tight, and there was no way that head could come flopping out like that.
Everyone sprang into action, chains and ropes were put on the feet and one person grabbed the head, and 3 started pulling, and I was trying to move the skin back away from the calf’s head. The neighbour’s wife was coaching a family member not to pull unless the cow was pushing so not to prolapsed the heifer, and they twisted that calf and pulled that calf all over the place and she came out. It was a HARD pull but she was alive and heifer sort of flopped over so pooped out she didn’t know what happened.
We rolled the heifer on her chest and showed her the calf, but she wasn’t too interested. the neighbour pulled the halter off so she could lick the calf, but the heifer got up, took a look at that calf and took off like shot out of a cannon. She seemed to think the calf was the source of the problems. ( well it sort of was ). We managed to catch the heifer and put the halter back on, and bring her back to the calf, but she was more interested in eating the hay we were using to dry the calf off. The calf bawled once and that got her interest a little bit, but she still wasn’t too interested.
Everyone left other than family, as there was a thunderstorm rolling in. Finally the heifer decided that just maybe that calf was interesting and started to lick it a bit. One family member brought a wheel barrow, and we loaded the calf in the wheel barrow and started for the barn leading the heifer close behind. We made her a nice place in the horse trailer because it was cleaner and dryer than the barn, and she started to mother the calf, and it finally got up and started to suck, so we left heifer and new calf to bond. We came back later to check on things, and she passed her afterbirth, and seemed ok. Later on we came for a last check and the heifer was having “bearing pains”, and was pushing again. I got her up right away which causes the uterus to fall down in the stomach, so they are less apt to push it out. I got a flashlight and again went in to see what was going on. She was so incredibly bruised and swollen it was causing the sensation that she needed to push something out.. I ran to the house and called the neighbour who was helping earlier. He said that normally after the afterbirth is gone they don’t normally prolapse. The afterbirth the heifer passed was “wash tub size” so was pretty sure it was all gone, but how to stop the swelling from causing her to want to push. The neighbour asked if I had some oxytocin, and I told him I had some real old stuff, he said give her a couple CCs,
it will cause the uterus to contract down so she wont have the urge to push. I said “ wow” “a couple CCs?? We used to give ¼ a CC to get a holstein to drop her milk on the dairy farm, and that a couple CCs was quite a bit.” He said “it won’t hurt her”. I had nothing to lose,
So I went out and put a couple CCs in her hip. The heifer got that sleepy oxytocin look and passed some more fluid, but it worked and fast, it seemed to shrink everything, and I never saw anymore attempts to push.
This morning they seemed to be doing well, and she is bonding with her calf. It was pretty damp this morning, - not sure if this is why, but the calf would shudder once in a while, so I gave her a selenium- e shot. They seem to be doing well now. Left her in to rest inside, as that was the roughest delivery I have ever seen as she needs time to heal up a bit. I was talking to the neighbour about how he had said the heifer was so small in the pelvis. He said he thought that if the head had not been turned back, she probably could have pushed that calf out, as her pushing the calf’s chest against her pelvis wall, may have inflamed everything tightening everything down. He said that position with the head back like that is fairly rare, and I have never seen it before. I have seen breech births on the dairy farm, but never a head twisted back.
I won’t be using this bull on heifers again either, the calves are “gorgeous” ( if you can call a calf “gorgeous”) but they are HUGE.
I was talking to a family member, and she said the same thing about the calfs head just “suddenly popping out and appearing”.
She said—“God helped, maybe we should call this calf miracle or blessing”.
The calf is alive and doing well and so is mama..
We encountered something yesterday that I have not ever encountered before…
We had been waiting on “pins and needles” for our piedmontese heifer to calve. We fed her carefully—a decent amount of grain early on trying to get some size on her, and then cutting her off grain around the 6 months and then only decent hay and minerals and then grass, trying to keep the size of the calf down.
I wasn’t happy that she didn’t get as much growth herself, and we could see it looked like the calf was going to be a big one. According to other people that I know who raise piedmontese, they almost always go over the standard due day, from what I am told, about 8 days. This heifer was A.I. bred so we knew the date of the breeding, not like a fair amount of pasture breeding where you are not sure. Well this heifer went over, and hit traditional day 8 overdue and kept going. I was fit to be tied, and at day 12, I phoned the vet to ask advice. The vet we normally use was away, and the vet that was working suggested that we bring her in. As I prepared to hook up the horse trailer, I was informed that the U joint on the truck was causing problems, and it wasn’t going to work. Also, this is the long week-end here in Canada, so there would be no vets to be had till Tuesday unless it is emergency, and super expensive.
It was going to be $80 just to get the vet to look at her, on Friday and that was without taxes, and that was with us hauling her in to the office. If they have to come out---look out, you milage fees and if after hours emergency fees…( vets don’t come cheap around here)..
Anways- The bull we had used was supposed to be a “ heifer bull”, but this heifer who was due to calve,- her mother who just had her 3th calf a couple weeks ago, (we used the same bull on both ) and had gotten hip locked when she had her calf, So I was very concerned.
I was sweating and praying—serious, This heifer is very much like her mother, a kind gentle sweet tempered heifer, and I am not keen to lose her either.
She seemed totally healthy and fine, no distress or anything, so all we could do was wait..
Anyways, on Sunday we went to church in the morning and when we came back, and there was a huge puddle in the barn and a few stringers of placenta, so I knew this heifer was due to go into labour.
We put a halter on her and turned her loose and watched her for a while, she was walking around with her tail in the air, and finally after a couple hours she decided it was time to push. This heifer is very familiar and comfortable with people she knows, so didn’t panic when we came up to check on her. I checked on her and she had 2 feet sticking out—sideways though, instead of sole of the feet pointed down. I knew it wasn’t breech from the position of the feet so didn’t panic. The heifer was not inclined to push much though, and a couple times she got up and moved and the feet sucked back in. Finally I decided to see if a gentle pull might stimulate her to push a bit more, as that often works. I flipped a rope on the feet and gave a bit of a pull, and often you will feel a tiny bit of movement, however there was NOTHING at all. It was like pulling on a D8 bulldozer -not a bit of movement at all. I tried it several times, and still was like a solid rock. Family members told me to “just leave her alone- she will be fine”. I didn’t feel good about it, said so, and said—“I have to go in”. I went washed my hands and dumped some iodine water over my arm that I had in ready in a bucket “in case”, and went in the south end.. I went up the legs looking for the head, I went around and around and all over the place, NO HEAD. I pulled out and announced I couldn’t find the head, and tried again. Again NO HEAD. I am trying not to panic.
I went way in and could feel the cervix like a sleeve but no head. I have been in enough cows and sheep I know where the head is supposed to be. I have had enough sheep all tangled up inside with their feet back and their heads all over the place but NEVER a cow. I carefully tried to wiggle into the cervix and felt around, and still NO HEAD. By this time panic is setting in, I know there are basically no vet available, and the one fellow who had told me that he was willing to help if I got stuck, we were pretty sure he was in town ( about
50 miles away). Almost everyone I could think of was gone for the long week end as it was Williams lake stampede week end.
I thought of one on our neighbors who had helped me when this heifer had knocked one of her horns off, and we couldn’t get the bleeding stopped, so we took a shot in the dark and called him. He is retired, but used to manage a lot of dairy farms in the past, and it pretty knowledgeable. When I talked to him, he said he would come over. So back to the field, and while one family member held the heifer ( she is halter broke) a different family member tried to go in and find the calf’s head. Nothing..
The neighbour and his wife showed up, and he wasted no time. He went in and he couldn’t find the head either, and he is very experienced at this kind of stuff.
A 4-H leader appeared and was supposed to drop off a booklet for a family member, and stayed to see what would happen. The 1st neighbour said “ I can’t find the head it is bent back inside the cows uterus”. At the same time the calf’s feet were sticking out the vulva. The heifer had sucked the calf back in most of the way a few times, and the thought was to push the calf back in. the neighbour did push the calf back in a bit, but still no head. He said “ the only way you are going to get this calf out is with a C-section she is just too small and tight in the pelvis”. The 4-H leader said “ can’t we try to snag the head and pull it around with a cord or something” ? We were both thinking sort of like one does with a sheep, you push them back and twist the head around. The neighbour said- “no the head is twisted back- like right here” pointing to the heifers side. I said, “well is it time to butcher her”? not wanting to think either c-section or butchering her, but not willing for her to suffer either. The neighbour said she is so small in the pelvis area, he didn’t think we could get the head around or the calf out of the heifer. I knew it was big cause the size of the hooves were huge. We were standing there for a moment discussing what to do, and all of a sudden the neighbour let out a startled yelp and there was the nose peeking out of the heifers vulva and its tongue hanging out.
I don’t care what anyone thinks—the first thought that came into my mind was—“ that is a miracle- God moved that calfs head out, cause it simply was NOT there a second ago. I had my hand in there and that cervix was very tight, and there was no way that head could come flopping out like that.
Everyone sprang into action, chains and ropes were put on the feet and one person grabbed the head, and 3 started pulling, and I was trying to move the skin back away from the calf’s head. The neighbour’s wife was coaching a family member not to pull unless the cow was pushing so not to prolapsed the heifer, and they twisted that calf and pulled that calf all over the place and she came out. It was a HARD pull but she was alive and heifer sort of flopped over so pooped out she didn’t know what happened.
We rolled the heifer on her chest and showed her the calf, but she wasn’t too interested. the neighbour pulled the halter off so she could lick the calf, but the heifer got up, took a look at that calf and took off like shot out of a cannon. She seemed to think the calf was the source of the problems. ( well it sort of was ). We managed to catch the heifer and put the halter back on, and bring her back to the calf, but she was more interested in eating the hay we were using to dry the calf off. The calf bawled once and that got her interest a little bit, but she still wasn’t too interested.
Everyone left other than family, as there was a thunderstorm rolling in. Finally the heifer decided that just maybe that calf was interesting and started to lick it a bit. One family member brought a wheel barrow, and we loaded the calf in the wheel barrow and started for the barn leading the heifer close behind. We made her a nice place in the horse trailer because it was cleaner and dryer than the barn, and she started to mother the calf, and it finally got up and started to suck, so we left heifer and new calf to bond. We came back later to check on things, and she passed her afterbirth, and seemed ok. Later on we came for a last check and the heifer was having “bearing pains”, and was pushing again. I got her up right away which causes the uterus to fall down in the stomach, so they are less apt to push it out. I got a flashlight and again went in to see what was going on. She was so incredibly bruised and swollen it was causing the sensation that she needed to push something out.. I ran to the house and called the neighbour who was helping earlier. He said that normally after the afterbirth is gone they don’t normally prolapse. The afterbirth the heifer passed was “wash tub size” so was pretty sure it was all gone, but how to stop the swelling from causing her to want to push. The neighbour asked if I had some oxytocin, and I told him I had some real old stuff, he said give her a couple CCs,
it will cause the uterus to contract down so she wont have the urge to push. I said “ wow” “a couple CCs?? We used to give ¼ a CC to get a holstein to drop her milk on the dairy farm, and that a couple CCs was quite a bit.” He said “it won’t hurt her”. I had nothing to lose,
So I went out and put a couple CCs in her hip. The heifer got that sleepy oxytocin look and passed some more fluid, but it worked and fast, it seemed to shrink everything, and I never saw anymore attempts to push.
This morning they seemed to be doing well, and she is bonding with her calf. It was pretty damp this morning, - not sure if this is why, but the calf would shudder once in a while, so I gave her a selenium- e shot. They seem to be doing well now. Left her in to rest inside, as that was the roughest delivery I have ever seen as she needs time to heal up a bit. I was talking to the neighbour about how he had said the heifer was so small in the pelvis. He said he thought that if the head had not been turned back, she probably could have pushed that calf out, as her pushing the calf’s chest against her pelvis wall, may have inflamed everything tightening everything down. He said that position with the head back like that is fairly rare, and I have never seen it before. I have seen breech births on the dairy farm, but never a head twisted back.
I won’t be using this bull on heifers again either, the calves are “gorgeous” ( if you can call a calf “gorgeous”) but they are HUGE.
I was talking to a family member, and she said the same thing about the calfs head just “suddenly popping out and appearing”.
She said—“God helped, maybe we should call this calf miracle or blessing”.
The calf is alive and doing well and so is mama..
