pregnancy checking

[denoginnizer]

Has anyone had abortion problems after pregnacy checking heavy bred cows? Old timer was telling me today that the stress plus them bouncing down the chute might cause trouble. Talked to the vet and he didnt seem overly concerned . Just looking for some other opinions

 

[mischief]

It is more likely you will see problems if an inexperienced person palpates your cows in very early pregnancy (30-50 days). At this stage if the embryo and uterus are not handled very gently then harm to the fetus could be done and the pregnancy could be terminated!!

 

[HerefordSire]

I wouldn't take the time to preg check since calf prices are as low as they are. If they are wider than normal, they are pregnant. It doesn't matter if they come up open or not if you only get a couple or two hundred or so on the weaned calf sell side. I am exagerating of course, but who can afford a vet, medicine, hay, feed, land, insurance, etc.... when a calf only brings a couple or so hundred? We may even want to give the cows birth control pills so we don't have to feed a couple of hundred extra calves.

 

[cypressfarms]

Has anyone had abortion problems after pregnacy checking heavy bred cows? Old timer was telling me today that the stress plus them bouncing down the chute might cause trouble. Talked to the vet and he didnt seem overly concerned . Just looking for some other opinions

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Only problem I've ever seen was a cow that aborted heavy bred after she was moved from one farm to another. She was stressed bad by cattle dogs, and it was the middle of the summer. She was preg. checked as well.

Other than that, I've never seen a problem.

 

[EAT BEEF]

I wouldn't take the time to preg check since calf prices are as low as they are. If they are wider than normal, they are pregnant. It doesn't matter if they come up open or not if you only get a couple or two hundred or so on the weaned calf sell side. I am exagerating of course, but who can afford a vet, medicine, hay, feed, land, insurance, etc.... when a calf only brings a couple or so hundred? We may even want to give the cows birth control pills so we don't have to feed a couple of hundred extra calves.

You find me a load of those cheap calves yet? I'll give you $200 a head for your next calf crop at 150 days.I'll even give you half now.

 

[RanchManager]

It's very unlikely. After many seasons, I have never experienced an abortion from palpating. However, we do put off preg'n until as late in the season as possible. According to several vets I've spoken to, it is true that an early bred cow could be made to abort simply from the stress of working her through the chutes. We avoid working the herd for any reason in late spring to mid summer. That being said, we have doctored, probably hundreds, of cows in the early seson for pink eye, foot rot, eye injury, etc. Methods include fairly low stress chute work to fairly stressful team roping in the field. Still I can't recall an instance of causing one to abort that I am aware of; I can't recall one turning up open at season's end that we doctored in early season.

Our feed is fairly cheap (because we operate in conjuction with a large commercial farm operation), yet it is still cost effective to identify open cows and sell them. It is especially prudent for most folks who have to buy their hay at $160 plus a ton. In a typical market, if a cow is open one year in seven, you have lost money.

 

[TexasBred]

Only abortion I know I caused from palpating was due to my inexperience at the time...called a cow open, gave her a shot of lutalyse and caused her to aborn a 30 day calf. Saw it in a blob of mucous on her vulva. Almost made me want to puke.

 

[bandit80]

Dr. Greiger at KSU said it is possible to abort a cow under 90 days from rough palpation, especially if they are under 45 days. He said when pregging short bred cows, handle their reproductive tract like you would handle your privates. :lol:

 

[dyates]

Dr. Greiger at KSU said it is possible to abort a cow under 90 days from rough palpation, especially if they are under 45 days. He said when pregging short bred cows, handle their reproductive tract like you would handle your privates. :lol:

Wish old TMBP were with us still. We could really take this and run with it. :lol:

 

[TexasBred]

Dr. Greiger at KSU said it is possible to abort a cow under 90 days from rough palpation, especially if they are under 45 days. He said when pregging short bred cows, handle their reproductive tract like you would handle your privates. :lol:

Yep...one hand up the cow...the other in your pocket...Never squeeze with the one in the cow any harder than you do the one in the pocket. :lol:

Actually on very short bred cattle I never squeeze anything. Just more or less rub my hand across the surfaces.

 

[bandit80]

Dr. Greiger at KSU said it is possible to abort a cow under 90 days from rough palpation, especially if they are under 45 days. He said when pregging short bred cows, handle their reproductive tract like you would handle your privates. :lol:

Yep...one hand up the cow...the other in your pocket...Never squeeze with the one in the cow any harder than you do the one in the pocket. :lol:

Actually on very short bred cattle I never squeeze anything. Just more or less rub my hand across the surfaces.

I'm sure in your dairy experience you had to preg short bred cows routinely.

I rarely check my beef cows until the shortest they could be bred is about 75 days. That seems to work out to about 2 weeks after weaning usually.

 

[Rangenerd]

If a cow gets slammed hard she might abort. Work them easy and you shouldn't have any problems.

 

[TexasBred]

Bandit when we were using natural service we would preg check very short bred cattle. Got pretty good at it...got the arthritis in my left shoulder to show for it. :x But as you said with beef cattle it's not quite as critical and using AI we just breed and wait for the next heat cycle. We will follow up at 3 months just to confirm and "relax" knowing another one is in the oven.