randiliana
Well-known member
Last night we had a cow calving, she wanted to be attached to another cow's calf, so we took her up to the corral. Figured in an hour or so, she would have a calf. She has never had a problem before. An hour later (11:20pm) I went out, and she is showing NO signs of doing anything major, no pushing, no waterbag. So, as it was late I ran her in an checked things out, from what I could tell, she wasn't quite fully dialated, but the calf wasn't huge, and it was coming right. Figured I would give her a couple more hours. Went out again about 1 am, still no sign of hard labour. Figured, oh well, she is just taking her time. So went to bed, told hubby to set the alarm for 3 or 4 am.
He got up, still no calf. When he checked her he thought there should be no reason for her to have not calved. So he pulled the calf, 85 lb DEAD bull calf. It had probably been dead for some time (maybe a day or so), it had never entered the birth canal, and the feet were just on the edge of the pelvis. Thus, no stimulation for the cow to push. Figured the calf was big enough, and he didn't check for a second calf. Big mistake, although, she was still not showing any signs of labour. A few hours later, I went in to let her out of the barn, and low and behold there is a hind leg coming. Bad situation, one leg back, but finally the cow was pushing. It was an easy pull, but of course a second dead bull calf, this one about 75 lbs.
There were no signs that the calves were alive when she went into labour, if alive one or both of them should have taken their first BM (meconium)during this fiasco. No sign of that, both calves were completely clean. It was a wierd situation, and not something most are likely to run into. Plus, when I first examined the cow, I realized that the calf showed no signs of life, didn't pull back, or anything. But I wasn't really paying attention to that, just wanted to make sure that it wasn't huge, or malpresented, and it wasn't.
I guess, I should probably have pulled the first calf at midnight when I checked her the first time, but I really thought she just needed a bit more time. And since she never had the waterbag, there was nothing to time by. She had shown interest in a calf at about 10:30 am, but that really didn't mean any more than that she was probably going to calve, she had her tail up, but there were no definitive signs that she was in second stage labour. I believe the calves were dead before she went into labour, and that there was nothing we could have done to save them.
He got up, still no calf. When he checked her he thought there should be no reason for her to have not calved. So he pulled the calf, 85 lb DEAD bull calf. It had probably been dead for some time (maybe a day or so), it had never entered the birth canal, and the feet were just on the edge of the pelvis. Thus, no stimulation for the cow to push. Figured the calf was big enough, and he didn't check for a second calf. Big mistake, although, she was still not showing any signs of labour. A few hours later, I went in to let her out of the barn, and low and behold there is a hind leg coming. Bad situation, one leg back, but finally the cow was pushing. It was an easy pull, but of course a second dead bull calf, this one about 75 lbs.
There were no signs that the calves were alive when she went into labour, if alive one or both of them should have taken their first BM (meconium)during this fiasco. No sign of that, both calves were completely clean. It was a wierd situation, and not something most are likely to run into. Plus, when I first examined the cow, I realized that the calf showed no signs of life, didn't pull back, or anything. But I wasn't really paying attention to that, just wanted to make sure that it wasn't huge, or malpresented, and it wasn't.
I guess, I should probably have pulled the first calf at midnight when I checked her the first time, but I really thought she just needed a bit more time. And since she never had the waterbag, there was nothing to time by. She had shown interest in a calf at about 10:30 am, but that really didn't mean any more than that she was probably going to calve, she had her tail up, but there were no definitive signs that she was in second stage labour. I believe the calves were dead before she went into labour, and that there was nothing we could have done to save them.
