Retained Placenta

[Donnybrook]

Again looking for some advice.... Have an Angus cow calved Sat morn, found her about 11:00 & I would say the calf was about an hour old & a 90# bull calf. She had obviously had a real hard time & has not dropped her afterbirth yet. Gave her a shot last night to make her clean but as this eve she has still not got it done. She's starting to act like she does not feel very good. Also at the vets advice we gave her 45 cc of LA200. Got any good advice for me??? Thanks

 

[Matt Schiel]

Leave her alone! You can do more harn trying to tear the placenta out than letting mother nature take care of it. Keep her on the LA 200 for the fever and see what she does in the next few days.

Matt

 

[Caustic Burno]

Leave her alone! You can do more harn trying to tear the placenta out than letting mother nature take care of it. Keep her on the LA 200 for the fever and see what she does in the next few days.

Matt

You got good advice in this post.

 

[angie1]

That she has not cleaned yet is not unusual, can take much longer, that is normal. That she is starting to act like she doesn;t feel well is concerning. There is a thread on this from not too long ago. Let me see if I can find it. I will be back.

Does she have a fever? I she eating yet? Whatis she doing that concerns you aside from not having cleaned.

be right back with thread if I can find

Matt is right ~ DO NOT pull it out!

OK ~ I have found it. I do not know how to post link but it is on page 2 of the Calving board. Is the 7th thread down titled "New calve". Follow advice given by dun. It was from Jan 24th.

Hope this helps

 

[Donnybrook]

Thanks! I will look that up. What concerns me is she was fed this morning early & did not want any of the hay I gave her tonight but she is standing in the stack yard with a fair amount of loose hay laying around from recent feedings but it does not look like she has really cleaned up much of that in a night & one day?? She does not look good in the eyes & kind of slow moving, noticed tonight that the hips don't move quite normal but I am sure that is due to the size of the calf, his chest depth was 16". I will pull a temp in the morning.She is drinking plenty of water. I had an old time cow man tell me today that I can go in & follow the placenta & it is held by a sort of hook that is supposed to soften & release & you can pop it off of there??? Sound familiar to anyone??

 

[angie1]

I had an old time cow man tell me today that I can go in & follow the placenta & it is held by a sort of hook that is supposed to soften & release & you can pop it off of there??? Sound familiar to anyone??

Don't do that. Seriously. Is a bad idea.

 

[Hippie Rancher]

If she is drinking a lot she is likely feverish - keep going with antibiotics and you probably ought to have the vet out to look at her. DO NOT attempt to take the placenta out yourself. Is the calf alive? Getting milk?

here is the link to the thread Angie was talking about:

http://www.cattletoday.com/forum/viewto ... 19&t=43899

Angie, to post a link just highlight the url in the box (at the top of your browser - where you would normally type in a web address) and right click to copy, not sure about other browsers but with Firefox one left click will highlight it, otherwise left click and hold it down while moving to highlight the whole address and then right click to get a little menu for cut, copy, delete, etc then come back to your post and right click again, click copy.

 

[milkmaid]

If she has a uterine infection it is a serious matter regardless of what the others may tell you. Beef cows don't generally have problems with retained placentas, but it's a relatively common occurance on dairies, and I've seen cows die when the infection goes from localized to systemic.

My personal preference for uterine infections is 30-60cc's of pencillin daily (prefer Twin Penn) and estrogen + oxytocin therapy. (Note oxytocin won't work without administration of a long-acting estrogen first this far out from calving.) Lutalyse shots every 12 hours for 2-3 days will also work if you can't get your hands on estrogen/oxytocin. As far as antibiotics go, use pennicillin. I haven't been too happy with LA200's success rate on uterine infections. JMO.

 

[dun]

If she has a fever I would check with the vet about using a real antibiotic.

 

[dun]

You might want to also ask the vet about infusing her uterus with something. Years ago we used nitrofurazone but I don;t think that's legal anymore. Iodine and sterile water might also be a good choice.

 

[randiliana]

Just another suggestion, but are you sure she doesn't have another calf in there?? It doesn't happen very often where a cow will have twins, and not show signs of having another in her, but we did have one do that last year. Ours never cleaned, but showed no other signs that she wasn't done calving. 3 days later we found a rotten dead calf, and she had cleaned. We were fortunate she didn't get sick. Sure won't hurt to check her out for it. If it is a mature cow, 90 lbs really isn't that huge, and she shouldn't have had that much trouble calving. On a first calver 90 lbs could certainly cause some problems.

Whenever we have a cow that doesn't clean we will usually put some uterine boluses (I believe they are sulfa) in and give her a shot of selenium and Vit ADE. Then leave them alone. If they start acting 'off' we usually give penicillin. But, we have never had one get really sick from it.

 

[dun]

Just another suggestion, but are you sure she doesn't have another calf in there?? It doesn't happen very often where a cow will have twins, and not show signs of having another in her, but we did have one do that last year. Ours never cleaned, but showed no other signs that she wasn't done calving. 3 days later we found a rotten dead calf, and she had cleaned. We were fortunate she didn't get sick. Sure won't hurt to check her out for it. If it is a mature cow, 90 lbs really isn't that huge, and she shouldn't have had that much trouble calving. On a first calver 90 lbs could certainly cause some problems.

Whenever we have a cow that doesn't clean we will usually put some uterine boluses (I believe they are sulfa) in and give her a shot of selenium and Vit ADE. Then leave them alone. If they start acting 'off' we usually give penicillin. But, we have never had one get really sick from it.

I had thought maybe anotherr calf but with a 90 lb calf the odds of there being another in there are pretty slim. Just a slight malpresentation can cause a long hard delivery. Had a 3rd calver last year that had a calf with the right leg over the top of it's head, but she had it. Took too long and it was dead, but she got it out on her own. It was one of those "she's starting to get close but not really ready looking cows". Had it in the middle of the night.

 

[ALACOWMAN]

a few years ago i had a first calver had nice little heifer calf. with retained placenta. let her go a couple day's . still no change, got her up too lute her.. palpated her there was another with its leg turned back a big bull calf dead . when they line up in the birth canal and the sides sunk in ,,,,,,you think there can't possillbly be another calf.

 

[Victoria]

Like randiliana we give boluses and penicillin. If she is not walking well you may want to have a vet out to check her. I don't know how badly off she is but her problem may not be from infection, it may be from pain - pinched nerve, cracked pelvis. I'd have the vet out to look at her.

 

[dun]

Like randiliana we give boluses and penicillin. If she is not walking well you may want to have a vet out to check her. I don't know how badly off she is but her problem may not be from infection, it may be from pain - pinched nerve, cracked pelvis. I'd have the vet out to look at her.

Glad you mentioned the cracked pelvis! The hip lifters can finish breaking the pelvis when you lift them if it's cracked. Seen that one too many times.

 

[Texas Gal]

Have your vet check her out; could be long list of issues.

 

[randiliana]

I had thought maybe anotherr calf but with a 90 lb calf the odds of there being another in there are pretty slim. Just a slight malpresentation can cause a long hard delivery. Had a 3rd calver last year that had a calf with the right leg over the top of it's head, but she had it. Took too long and it was dead, but she got it out on her own. It was one of those "she's starting to get close but not really ready looking cows". Had it in the middle of the night.

Oh, I agree, with a 90 lb calf the chances are slim, but I also know that guesstimating weights i tricky business. We have had big sets of twins before too. 88 and 85 lbs. It is worth checking.

I agree with you on the malpresentation.

 

[Hippie Rancher]

Last step right click paste. Hippie was right with everything just missed a word. No offense hippie i have to screen mine many times over for typos!

OOps - yep, thanks for catching that. I'm sure better at following directions than giving them. (Why can't people read my mind? I know what I'm talking about, it just doesn't come out in words right :lol2: :lol2: :lol2: )

 

[kerley]

Follow Duns advise, He was right on the money, alls well.

 

[GMN]

Most vets won't ceck them until about 5-7 days after for a retained placenta. I would try the Lutalyze, 5 cc's only twice, about 4 days apart, if that doesn't work, I would have the Vet check her. She could have a twisted stomach, I know I have had a few of these, I think its they eat grain but not hay or vice versa, can't remember. Does she walk around with her tail in the air, or is there gunk on her tail?

I would be concerned with the off feed, may be worse than a RP.

GMN