prolapse

[danl]

Went back at 5:00 this morning to check on a cow that is very near calving. She has a prolapse about the size of a softball. Was laying on a hay pile happily chewing her cud.

Ruined my morning. It is my fault...

She prolapsed shortly after calving last year, a little smaller than a volleyball. Took her to the vet had her sewed up. Told the vet I was sending her to slaughter. He said if she was a good cow there was no need. wouldn't happen again. Just a one time thing because she kept straining.


I had one 15 years ago prolapse 2 months before calving, had her sewed up and watched her constantly, cut strings right before calving. A real pain keeping an eye on her. She went to sale.

Should have repeated my actions

What do I do today? She is very close to calving. Been checking on her two or three times a day for a week. She has had stringy mucous for a week, floppy in the back, bag is pretty big. not busting tight yet though.

I assume all I can do for now is wait and plan a trip to the vet.

 

[dun]

If it goes in when she gets up and walks all you do is wait. If it stays out and she's real close I would induce her

 

[danl]

Thanks Dun

also for not beating me up. doing that to myself.

The vet from 15 years ago told me." she's gonna have a good calf and you are going to think she is ok. she won't be."
Should have followed his advice again.

 

[dun]

Thanks Dun

also for not beating me up. doing that to myself.

The vet from 15 years ago told me." she's gonna have a good calf and you are going to think she is ok. she won't be."
Should have followed his advice again.

We did the same thing only it was because the sclaughter cow market was so bad. We figured we would just wait a month or 2. Ended up having to pull a stitch when she calved the next year. That time we didn;t care what the slaughter cow market was, she hit the road.

 

[Lucky_P]

Vaginal prolapse is a heritable defect. Daughters of this cow(and granddaughters, if you keep a son as a breeding bull) will potentially display the same trait.
I don't get too bothered about it if its small, shows only when she's lying down and goes back in by itself and stays in the majority of the time - but I wouldn't keep heifers out of her.
If it stays out enough to get nasty or dried out and needs a stitch to keep it in, she'd be leaving my place as soon as possible; however, if I was in your shoes, I'd probably go ahead and calve her out and sell her when you wean the calf.

 

[Beef Man]

Lucky is right on send er down the road and do'nt keep any heifers out of her. ther are plenty of good problem free cows available. If this would have been practiced for the last 50 years ther wouldnt be such a thing except maybe an injury or something. Used to blame herefords and it was true to a certain degree,but it was also true that 80-90% ofthe beef produceing range cattle were hereford. Along came the exotics and they were going to make all of us rich over night. They brought their problems along with them. Also the european cattleman was no dummy and if he saw a chance to move a few cattle with problems across the world, and do it at a handsome profit, It's a given that it was done. Now prolapse shows up in all color's ond types and as loose and reckless as many were with pedigrees and the many composites that there are ,prolapse as well as many other genect problems are here and will be damn hard to stamp out. I read about the genetic things that is faceing the Angus breed and wonder how many of them came withsomme other imported breed's and inthe frenzy to make everything black a lot of things were'nt overlooked as unimportant.Spend sometime around the salesring's in this area and one thing I have noticed is that generally all cattle are loseing ground in the temperment area. Used to be a few accidents in yeare gone by with cows at calving,now it is a rule that at every sale ther is several --to many on the fight. Thought at the last sale a lot of the guys just as well be raiseing buffalo,at least the people working with them would know what to expect. Disposition better be right next to fertility in importance or there is going to be a lot of people learning to be as good of cowboys as the old timers were.

 

[Lucky_P]

Vaginal prolapse is most common in Herefords, Shorthorns, and composites that contain those breeds in their makeup. From watching posts here, I see that it's still hanging on in the Hereford breed.
However, the very first vaginal prolapse I ever saw, while in vet school, was in some sort of nondescript black Brahman-crossbred cow.
The ONLY one I ever encountered that I couldn't put back in was in a big, CRAZY 3/4 bison 1/4 Brahman heifer; thing was not much bigger than a grapefruit, but the 'hole' it would have had to go back in through was only about an inch in diameter.
I've seen some in big ol' Beefmaster cows that were nearly as big - 'round and long - as a 5-gallon bucket, but, with an epidural, I could get 'em back inside and put in a Buhner stitch to hold 'em in.

 

[danl]

She was laying with her rear downhilll that morning and it looked fairly bad. By the time I got home from work it had went back in and stayed in,

She had the calf Sunday morning with no problems and still looks ok (knock on wood). She actually looks tighter than before.
I bought a calving ease bull since her previous first calf and maybe that helped??

This calf was pretty small , I kind of like them that way. My father in law always says the smaller the better that way they can come out sideways if need be

 

[fargus]

Lucky hit on it already. A vaginal prolapse will probably recur, and is heritable. A uterine prolapse is another story, and if she's a heifer and lives through it, I'm going to give her a chance to rebreed and work off the money she owes me. I have only had one cow with a vaginal prolapse and she was a papered Simmental. She hit the road, and the rest of the cow family is now gone as well. Not something I want, nor need to worry about.

If it were me, I'd get this calf weaned and send her down the road to the "pasture of endless green."