Not fun

[Dave]

I have a cow who looked to be calving soon. She was acting a bit strange but not pushing. Well yesterday she was pushing and not getting anywhere. Got her into the chute. B's son was there as soon as we locked her in he started pulling off his shirt. I thought well I will certainly let you do the honors. Turned out that the calf was backwards with its hind legs pointed forward and it is dead and had been for a while. He is in up to his arm pits trying to push the calf forward. The cow kept pushing. B arrives and suggests getting a chain on one leg. That way someone can pull on that leg while M pushes the calf forward. That worked. We pulled the calf out. M was a stinking mess. When things finally came out I thought he might lose his breakfast. He get a sponge bath at the chute and was sent to house for further washing. Nobody was volunteering to skin that calf so we will use different methods to graft a calf on that cow. The cow is fairly easy going and has a good udder so she will get a graft calf this morning.

 

[coachg]

Glad you got it out and saved the cow !

 

[Silver]

Never a good experience

 

[Ned Jr.]

Sounds like a blast. . I’d recommend giving her a big dose of penicillin.

 

[sunnyblueskies]

Hope the cow makes it.

 

[Dave]

Cow is fine. Matt may never be the same again..... but he had issues to start with. Her new adopted calf is working her over. She has stopped kicking at it. The calf gets to suck for about 10-12 seconds and she takes a step or two. Then the calf latches back on again. Repeat. I am sure this will slow down in a bit. This is a Charolais calf out of B's registered herd. I never could figure out who its mother was. Over the last 2 weeks he had seen it nursing on 3 different cows, none of which were its mother. The calf knows how to go find a meal.
We had ran her into the chute and stuck the calf on her there. Then a liberal dose of Orphan-no-more on the calf and on her nose. After the calf had sucked a while we turned them into a small pen where she can't escape him. I much prefer the skinned out dead calf method. But nobody was wanting to skin what we pulled out of her.

 

[Rancher]

Always a chore when that happens, did the cow clean out ok? I keep a uterus bollis handy for such events

 

[simme]

Not only is the whole deal just nasty, reaching into the stew and manipulating those dead calves will sometimes result in skin infections on the arms of the lucky person who dove in, requiring antibiotics to clear up. Something to watch for.

 

[Silver]

Not only is the whole deal just nasty, reaching into the stew and manipulating those dead calves will sometimes result in skin infections on the arms of the lucky person who dove in, requiring antibiotics to clear up. Something to watch for.

OB gloves are a requirement for reaching into any cow.

 

[1982vett]

Had one like that a couple weeks ago. Daughter in law had an emergency c section 6 weeks early. We’ve been away helping with the other grandkids so Mom and Dad could spend time in the NICU. Came home late on a Friday and found a cow off to herself. Back feet out and pointed up. Pretty ripe. Tried to get her penned but she decided to go swimming. By now it was dark. Decided to leave her be and try again in the morning. Next morning calf was out to the chest. Again she beat me to the tank. Left her be again. A while later I saw her under a tree and buzzards were gathering up. Got down to her and the calf was out. Made her get up and move on.

About 20 years ago had another cow hide out for 2 weeks. When she showed herself again feet were hanging out. She expelled the calf in bits and pieces on the “walk”to the barn.

Sometimes we get lucky.

 

[georgiabob]

Good that you got it out. Last Monday I came home to a still born calf. This cow has 100 pound calves no matter what she’s bred to but this is the first one she lost. Last calf was out of a hereford bull and she dropped it in less than ten minutes. This was a low birthweight beefmaster and a heifer. I’m letting her dry off if some older calves don’t sneak some off her