Need help with heifer problems.

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chadreed88

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just had to get a vet out to perform a cesarian on a heifer because she couln't have the calf. The calf was dead when they got it out. I have about 12 other heifers like this that are due to calve although they aren't all out of the same bull. What would you do with a heifer like this that have a problem calving? Do you ship them or do they usually have better luck. I know it depends on the size of calves but this calve was average size. One other thing to add to this was she didn't really bag up at all. Any suggestions on this matter? Thanks
 
Where did the heifers come from?
How long had the calf been dead? If the calf had died before she went into labor that would explain the lack of udder. Could be why she wasn;t able to calve on her own.
If she couldn;t calve because she wasn;t large enough in the pelvic opening she needs go to the kill pen. Keep a close eye on the rest and keep the vet on speed dial.
 
I bought these heifers from a replacement heifer sale. They are supposed to be bred to LBW bulls but I have no proof of that. The calf didn't appear to have been dead long or more than a few hours.
 
Had the heifer acted like she was in labor or show any signs of it? Hopefully you know who the seller was at the replacment sale. Maybe you can get a hold of them and get a better idea what to expect.
 
I work at a fire department and had to come in to work so didn't get to ask no questions but I do agree that asking him will be better.
 
My experience has been that they (many times, maybe not always) don't breed back after a C section anyway, so you may not have to worry about it. Hope you have better luck with the rest.
 
Keren":1u4uv7ms said:
We have always had good success breeding back and calving naturally after a caesar. But most of our caesars are due to malpresentations that cannot be corrected or abnormally large calves.

I asked the vet about this one time when we were killing time. He said that there isn;t any difference between a cows fertitliy/reproduction after a ceaser., also that once they've had one they won;t necesarrilly need another.
 
chadreed88":2pkrsew1 said:
I bought these heifers from a replacement heifer sale. They are supposed to be bred to LBW bulls

If we all had a dollar for every time someone said that a heifer was bred to a low birth weight Angus bull at a sale, we'd all be able to retire. One of the reasons that I don't like to buy bred heifers. Hope you have no further problems. If you do, I'd contact the auction/person you bought them from.

If the heifer is in decent BCS, she shouldn't have trouble breeding again. Agree with Dun that just b/c she had a c section, doesn't necessarily mean she'll need another. I'd base my decision to keep her on how good of a cow she is, or is not.
 
Well we ended up loosing that cow after all that they went through. The pelvis area just wasn't big enough for the calf and it was a small calf that died before they could get it out. Thanks for all the help
 
Cesarian or prolapsed animal; ship her. I don't wast time with second chances in these matters. I don't waste any time worrying about it being the right choice; it is. Could be the bull that was used, could be she had a small pelvis. Regardless once the uterus has been compromised with a cesarian it's down the road she goes. Besides the insult to the uterus, there is a high likelyhood that the pelvis is just plain small and I don't want to keepthose genes around.

Cesarian risks can be minimized by using low birthweight bulls but you can still wind up with a heifer with a small pelvis area that has trouble if you don't watch your breeding (nature used to weed this out of the gene pool herself). One thing to keep in mind is consistently using low birthweight bulls on your heifers and then keeping the heifer calves from those heifers will contribute to females with a smaller pelvis area.
 
RanchManager":2dt8o0rm said:
One thing to keep in mind is consistently using low birthweight bulls on your heifers and then keeping the heifer calves from those heifers will contribute to females with a smaller pelvis area.

BS! With proper bull selection that is not true! There are a lot of low BW bulls who's daughters are easy calvers that have plentry of pelvic opensing. There are also plenty of bulls that have large BW that have daughters with small pelvic openings. Proper selection criteria is required.
 
chadreed88":2395qfxe said:
Well we ended up loosing that cow after all that they went through. The pelvis area just wasn't big enough for the calf and it was a small calf that died before they could get it out. Thanks for all the help
I would get the vet out to do a pelvix measurement on those other heifers. He doesn;t need to use the actual tool, rectally he should be able to palpate the pelvic opening and give you a pretty good idea.
 
we've had PM's done on our original heifers when we bought them... OK, the bulls used were too big, but a lot had trouble with moderate calves

or,, they had PM's done, and they never told us if they passed or not
 

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