Pulled A Live Calf Last Night, Found It Dead This Morning…What Happened? What To Do Different?

[Mighty Mouse]

I have a group of Stabilizer heifers that were AI bred to a South Poll with a projected calving date of 2/25. They've been calving one per day this past week with no issues until last night. Here's the timeline of events. I would appreciate any thoughts on why the calf died and what you would have/I should have done differently.

5:00 PM I checked the heifer group and saw #102 had some mucus and yellowish fluid coming out. I walked her up to the loafing shed and shut her in.

6:00 PM After doing some chores, I checked on #102 and saw the bubble-like water bag part way protruding. I went to the house intending to return after supper.

8:00-8:30 PM I checked on her again and found her lying down in the shed with a few inches of one hoof protruding. She stood up as I was observing and the hoof retracted. I went back to the house and called my dad (this particular heifer actually belongs to him) to let him know what was going on. Dad started my way to help out if needed. I went back to the house to help put the kids to bed.

9:30 PM Dad arrived and went down to the shed to observe. She was lying down with a few inches of one hoof protruding.

10:30 PM I joined Dad at the shed and found there had been no progress; she was still lying down with a few inches of one hoof visible.

11:00-11:30 PM We made the decision to intervene. We got her into the head catch, put chains around the calf's feet, and started pulling. The calf was positioned normally, both front feet and the head were pointed toward the exit. The calf came out alive after about 5 minutes of pulling. I don't have much basis for comparison, but Dad said this pull was neither the easiest nor hardest he's done. We released the heifer and she licked her calf for a while then wandered off to the hay ring. We carried the calf to the shed then drove the heifer in with it. She resumed licking while the calf lay down.

12:30 AM After retrieving a square bale to put in the shed and checking on the rest of the heifer group, we checked on #102 again. She was licking her calf intermittently, and the calf was lying down with its head up. We figured all was well and went home.

8:00 AM I found the calf dead in the shed. It didn't appear to have moved from where it was lying when we left the previous night. FWIW the overnight low was around 15°F. We had a layer of dry bedding hay in the shed and a few heat lamps going.

 

[4hfarms]

Did you confirm colostrum intake?
Lack of lowers calf chances considerably.

Was the calf all licked off or still look part wet in the AM?
Temp could have played a roll if it never dried off.

Maybe stepped on....

Hard to say. Sorry to hear about it but it happens.

 

[gcreekrch]

We've likely calved a couple thousand heifers. No progression after second water bag… intervene and check for malpresentation. Feet showing and no progression, intervene no more than 30 minutes later and pull the calf. The sooner you get them out, the stronger they are. If they aren't up and getting colostrum in first hour, intervene and get some into them. Cattle cost money to keep and are worth a lot today, you get paid well for doing just a little extra.
I don't know what your calf died from but events leading up didn't help

 

[Travlr]

Yeah, I agree with @gcreekrch, Once the bag was visible I'd have been checking often and once the hoof showed it needed to be born within half an hour. Of course that doesn't mean it died due to an overlong birth. With a pulled calf I would never leave it until I saw it on it's feet and nursing. If it was up, dried off, and nursing and then was dead the next morning it would be hard to tell what happened.

 

[Ky hills]

Time is the essence when pulling a calf. The longer inside the cow and in the birth canal the harder it is in both cow and calf. I would say if you don't see progress within a half hour to hour, it needs assistance ASAP.
Also after a calf is pulled they may be slower getting up and going, may even need some help standing up. I always give an assisted calf colostrum either by bottle or usually tube fed, it's a good idea to keep some colostrum replacer on hand.
My guess is the calf was stressed and weak, from the length of time being born/difficult birth, was likely unable to stand or nurse.
Sorry about your loss it can happen under the best of conditions.

 

[W.B.]

Hard to say what the calf died from. I usually will let a heifer go an hour once active labor starts. If no progress we will intervene. Active labor starts once they have a water bag.

Every calf and every heifers pelvis is shaped slightly different so what works one time won't always work the next. I have seen calves that should certainly have lived not make it a few hours and have seen calves born without a pulse live so don't beat yourself up too much. Sometimes it doesn't take a whole lot to collapse a lung getting them through the pelvis. Other times I have seen a really hard pull and calf is up in an hour or two.

 

[Stickney94]

The timing of when to pull a calf is is certainly open to reflection. In this case -- the suggestion I'd give is that if you pull a live calf and it isn't up and suckling you need to intervene and either milk colostrum from the heifer or use a colostrum supplement within the first hour (particularly if it's 15F degrees outside). I prefer to tube a calf in this situation because it's almost always faster and doesn't require any suckling reflex or cause confusion later. Calves are pretty tough with a belly full of colostrum.

But, I'm going to hazard a guess that everyone that's responded so far have lost a calf in similar circumstances that was hard to explain.

 

[coachg]

May have stayed in the birth canal too long . Never know when to intervene and when to wait . Getting it up and getting some first milk in it may have helped ? I've had them half dead and survived after pulling and I've had ones I thought were good die in the next 24 hrs . May have aspirated too much fluid .

 

[coachg]

Had a cow last week I saw her alone and in labor about 8 am . Fed feeders and put out hay for the cows ; 2 hours later still no calf . Called my son and he said it would be after lunch before he could get there . So I went back up about 12:30 and she was nursing the calf . You just never know . This was her 3rd calf

May have stayed in the birth canal too long . Never know when to intervene and when to wait . Getting it up and getting some first milk in it may have helped ? I've had them half dead and survived after pulling and I've had ones I thought were good die in the next 24 hrs . May have aspirated too much fluid .

 

[Lucky_P]

Thoughts on a few points that have come up in this discussion:

If heifer was passing 'yellowish fluid' at first notice, the calf may have already been stressed - yellow-to-green discoloration of amnionic fluid often suggests that the calf has defecated in utero, due to hypoxia, premature placental separation, or other stress

If you're going to tube a calf with anything other than colostrum milked from dam or another cow, always, always use a colostrum 'replacer' - not a colostrum 'supplement'. If you're going to go to the trouble of purchasing one, you might as well spend the extra few $$ to get 2-3X the amount of immunoglobulins that are going to give that calf the protection that they need.

Lungs don't get collapsed during a pull - fetal lungs are, essentially, collapsed until the calf is 'out' and takes a breath to inflate them. Hanging a calf over a gate, etc., to 'drain the fluid' -and yes, I used to to this all the time - is counterproductive - it actually makes it harder for a calf to breathe and fully inflate their lungs.

A wet calf with a dam who seems not all that interested about cleaning/drying them off at 15F needs some human intervention to get them dry and warm - and I want a decent volume of warm colostrum in them, ideally within the first hour - and certainly within the first 8-10 hours.

Without a necropsy, to look for internal injuries or congenital cardiac anomalies, all anyone can do is guess. Sometimes, even experienced cows will step on a calf and rupture liver or similar injury. Stupid heifers may be even worse.

 

[Mighty Mouse]

Thank you all for sharing your thoughts and advice. If I had it to do over, I would intervene sooner and give the calf a dose of colostrum replacer. Experience is a harsh teacher.

 

[TexasJerseyMilker]

Be sure to get a good colostrum replacer made with cow colostrum protein, not soy, and don't use those "multi species" colostrum powders.