New born rolled under fence.

[Stepper]

Last night after i got off work at mid night i went to check on the heifers. When i got there one was off to her self and very unrestful. So i knew she was close to having her calf. At 6:20 a.m. this morning she had it. Easy delivery. Born 20 minutes from the time its feet started showing.

The moma was cleaning it real good and the calf was very energetic tring to stand and nurse. It was still dark so i thought i would drive through the pasture and check a couple more heifers that are close to their time.

I was not gone but about 10 minutes but when i shinned my lights on the heifer she was very upset pacing the fence. The calf had i guess rolled through the fence while tring to stand and was on the other side.

I got it back through and put it a little futher out in the pasture away from the fence. It was a nice little bull calf weighed 77 lbs according to the hoof tape.

But i learned that just because a heifer has the calf with out any problems there can be little things like a calf rolling through a fence that could possiably cause you to lose a calf.

I had been up all night and was really tired. It would have been easy for me to have thought all was well and went home to sleep for a few hours. If i had of the calf might not have got to nurse until i got back, the mother would not have been able to clean it up, I dont know if little things like that would have made much of a difference. Because i would have probably been back in 4 or 5 hours. But it is something to think about. I know it would have put alot of unnecessary stress on both the cow/calf.

I am glad that i make it a practice to ear tag/band my calfs now. And from now on i will not even consider leaving a new born calf for at least an hour after it is born no matter how tired i am.

 

[novatech]

Babby calves have a way of doing that. I would not worry to much, those babbies can get back through with very little effort. But if they are anyware near a road I would get them back ASAP.

 

[Gale Seddon]

We've had a couple of calves that seem determined to sneak under the fence and curl up in the woods for a nap...mom is usually standing right at the spot where the calf sneaked out. A couple of our pastaures are along a road, so I try to keep a close watch. This happened three times with one calf within 24 hours of birth, and it's no fun tromping through the woods at night with a flashlight looking for a black calf. So, I found the little devil, picked her up, opened the gate and took mom and baby to the "ain't OK corral" for a few days. That fixed that! I don't think newborn babies can see the wire. And I'm usually thankful when I see them get popped on the nose once or twice.

 

[dun]

Had a cow that twinned in the middle of the night a couple of years ago. Single digits, the calves were squirted under the fence and down hill. When I got to thm one was frozen to the ground and it's joints were frozen and eyes were unresponsive. an hour n a tube of warm water, tubing with colostrum, a shot of dex and selenium and she survived. Today she's a fat pig that the folks that bought her as a bottle calf have spoiled rotten and feed like it's a horse. The other calf I carried up and stucxk with the cow and it got up on it's own, she raised it with no problems.
BTW, I hate twins!

dun

 

[Beefy]

there are soooo many things that can go wrong. ive rescued calves in ponds that have flipped over in there trying to get up, in pond with dogs biting it, in a ditch, (lost some born in ditches in a flood), flipped thru the fence, rolled under the fence, rescued from buzzards, heat stroke, cold, sac over head, seems like i have a newborn wind up in the horse pen every week or so (how?), ive pulled calves underwater, tried to catch one and it ran to the opposite side of the farm-then mama couldnt find it, done more harm than good (that really sucks), etc etc. theres only so much we can do. with life comes death, such is life. just do your best, i'm not sure that spending an hour with a new pair is necessary, maybe even kind of worriesome for the pair. but whatever. i cant do that, i have opportunity costs.