Spayed Heifers?

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kjerckie

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I am new to the wonderful life of cattle. I came across a cattle auction on an AG channel this morning, and they ran 96 spayed heifers thru. Why would you spay a heifer? Do they finish better? Or did I misunderstand?
 
kjerckie":2cvxsrpy said:
I am new to the wonderful life of cattle. I came across a cattle auction on an AG channel this morning, and they ran 96 spayed heifers thru. Why would you spay a heifer? Do they finish better? Or did I misunderstand?

they put on weight easier & are easier to manage.....without cycling, they will spend less time riding each other & more time eating :)
 
Thanks for asking that question! I always wondered too. Now, next question... do you have a vet come out and do this spaying? Is a fairly major procedure, or expensive?
 
not to mention it keeps from having any little surprises walk up to the feed trough ...
 
o.k., please let me in on this.. what procedure do they use? I have been told by vets that it is very risky to spay a heifer or cow.

Thanks!
 
You have a have a vet with a lot of experience spaying heifers. I think most go in vaginally and sever the ovaries and remove them. costs about $4-$6 per heifer.
 
Wow, thanks for the spay info. Has anyone microchipped their cattle? My bull calf has the ear tatoo, but I've been thinking on the chip when he gets his updates next year.
 
Not many people microchip cattle, and as with small animal recovery, if you do not have a reader or don't know that there could be a chip, to even try and scan one, they won't so once you have cut the head off it is a little late to care wether they were chipped or not, but yes i think chiping a calf, cow etc. is a great method of ID, and would love to push forward a movement to get all cattle in this country chipped with a chip like AVID makes, they just need to get right on the price
 
I spoke with my vet and he said that they are doing that to young feedlot type heifers and bacially it is a "blind surgery".

He also said that it cannot be done to an cow as once they have a mature reproductive tract, it is too risky and they can bleed to death....

It is interesting though....
 
Kat":i4re1ow9 said:
He also said that it cannot be done to an cow as once they have a mature reproductive tract, it is too risky and they can bleed to death....
..

That's strange. I know at least one of the vets on the large animal side of the clinic we use spays a lot of heifers every fall. That's why it's so hard to schedule him for preg checks, so we use a different one. Anyway, I don't see why would it be any different for a mature cow to be spayed than say a mature dog, cat or even human. If I can remember when we get our girls worked in late sept early oct I'll ask and report back.
 
goatlady":2mvvnr6c said:
Anyway, I don't see why would it be any different for a mature cow to be spayed than say a mature dog, cat or even human. If I can remember when we get our girls worked in late sept early oct I'll ask and report back.

spaying a heifer/cow is not the same as a small animal. it's not a major surgery. you're not going in & removing the uterus.
 
txag" spaying a heifer/cow is not the same as a small animal. it's not a major surgery. you're not going in & removing the uterus.[/quote said:
If all they are removing is the ovaries, bleeding would be even less of an issue, because the incision would be small. I'll have to remember to ask the vet this fall and get the full scoop.
 
Spaying heifers is common practice for all female cattle comming from Mexico to go into feed lots

There are several reason, one prevent reproduction, reduce behavior trouble from estrous, and eliminate calve on young heifers, with bulls and heifers in same trap

It is usually done through the vaginal tract, and the ovaries drop into the body and are absorbed, usualy done on females who have not reached sexual maturity, thus minimal bleeding, and ovaries are the size of raisins
 
It would seem to me that if the ovaries were not removed from the body it would be the same giving a bull a vasectomy. Does anybody have a link to one of the federal vet sites that regulate this procedure?
 
goatlady":hoapjmrj said:
It would seem to me that if the ovaries were not removed from the body it would be the same giving a bull a vasectomy. Does anybody have a link to one of the federal vet sites that regulate this procedure?

the procedure is not 100% effective
 
Spaying a ( young) heifer is fine, but even our state vet school frowns upon spaying cows because of their risk of bleeding out... They have had it happen before and do not reccomend the surgery......

I am sure others do it, but after two seperate opinions I do not think it is worth the risk of losing the animal...
 

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