El_Putzo
Well-known member
Just wanted to check with you folks to see if anyone has experienced something similar: One of my brother's first calvers had started loosing some weight about 3 weeks ago, we didn't think a whole lot of it since she has a really nice calf pulling on her and the forage quality is going down the drain in a hurry from lack of rain. Anywho, we got her into a smaller pasture where we could monitor her and supplement her. Well, after a few days, we could tell she was still on the downhill slide. So we get the vet out to have a look. He determined that she has nerve damage in her rearend, probably due to calving difficulty. He said she's not completely evacuating her bowels and bladder when she goes, which is resulting in the weight loss. He also noted that she never switches her tail, which we hadn't noticed until then. The calf was fairly big, 102 lbs according to the weigh tape, but she had it unassisted, so we didn't think much of it (this was as a result of her getting out into the pasture with the other cows and the wrong bull during breeding season).
The calf was born April 2nd and has pretty much weaned itself now, as the cow isn't producing much milk anymore. It eats from the creep feeder, and as I said is a really nice calf, so that is of no concern. We're just curious what will happen with this cow in the off season. Will her nerves regenerate over time? Another dillemma is that she is AI bred and we'd like to have the calf that is inside her, but it is highly likely that if she is able to have the calf next spring, she won't milk and we'll have to get rid of her anyway.
The way I see it now, we have 2 options:
1) Pull the calf now and put the cow in with the butcher steers to put a little weight back on her before sending her for slaughter.
2) Continue supplementing her and see if she comes out of it completely, or at least long enough to get the calf inside her.
If anybody has any ideas or similar experiences, I'd love to hear them.
The calf was born April 2nd and has pretty much weaned itself now, as the cow isn't producing much milk anymore. It eats from the creep feeder, and as I said is a really nice calf, so that is of no concern. We're just curious what will happen with this cow in the off season. Will her nerves regenerate over time? Another dillemma is that she is AI bred and we'd like to have the calf that is inside her, but it is highly likely that if she is able to have the calf next spring, she won't milk and we'll have to get rid of her anyway.
The way I see it now, we have 2 options:
1) Pull the calf now and put the cow in with the butcher steers to put a little weight back on her before sending her for slaughter.
2) Continue supplementing her and see if she comes out of it completely, or at least long enough to get the calf inside her.
If anybody has any ideas or similar experiences, I'd love to hear them.
