thick placenta suffocating newborns

[damengineer]

Found a dead newborn this morning. Still wet and Mama had tried for a while I could tell. I was watching one have a calf the other evening. She did not have any trouble, and she was one of my older cows, one of the original herd 10 years ago. I watched and when she went to the calf's butt to lick it, I could tell the placenta was still over its nose. I ribbed the placenta off of its nose and it did not seem to want to breathe, so I stuck a grass stem up its nose and made it cough. The one this morning had no obvious problems, just looked like a normal newborn bull calf, just dead on its back at the edge of a ditch.. Would this be a lack of mineral? We are a little short of grass I keep hay out, and all 3 kinds of salt blocks and also loose mineral. I mixed a little garlic powder in the mineral, it seemed to work. This is the most dead calves I have had in a season already.. The first dead one was deformed, its lower jaw was not formed right. It could have been an inbred problem. This cow is probably 12 yrs old. Does she need a trip to the sale barn next load? She is in good condition, probably weigh 1400 lbs...

 

[Cowsout]

If this happens again, be prepared and get the placenta to a vet for testing. It decomposed rapidly after birth and will require icing or refrigeration and quick transport to a lab.

 

[Hpacres440p]

If this happens again, be prepared and get the placenta to a vet for testing. It decomposed rapidly after birth and will require icing or refrigeration and quick transport to a lab.

Placenta is also different from amniotic sac. Placenta attaches the calf to the dam-very thick (like a slab of meat). Amniotic sac covers the calf and sometimes doesn't get cleaned off the calf's face and they suffocate.

 

[Dsth]

I would think it was likely the amniotic sac over the nose and not the placenta. that happens quite often it seems like if the sac does not break open during the calving process.

 

[alacowman1]

I know it happens in mares due to toxins in Endophyte Fescue...

 

[damengineer]

It was a very thin membrane, Amniotic sac is probabl correct.. I had one born yesterday was a tiny thing, but couldn't seem to get his head on a teat to nurse. Cow stepped on him a couple of times. Got her in the chute and milked some colustrum with the Udderly Ez milker. worked great the first time I used it. Got about a cup in the calf and he was like the Energizer bunny...Got mama in a 10 x 18 pen with the calf. some grass grown up in it. She stepped on calf again twice. found him dead this morning, she laid on it against a post. Cutest looking calf I had in a long time.. Looked like a jersey. This one really tears me up..... That cow is always in a fight. If a fight starts between 2 she is one of them. 2 years ago she was having a calf and half the herd started butting her while she was having the calf. I had to get the tractor to separate them. Had a bale on the forks and shoved a few away.. I am going to the sale ring next wednesday. She and another one that lost her calf are going to the sale barn next wednesday.

 

[GoWyo]

I had a cow named Shitheadra that would drop her calf and then pick a fight with whatever cow was handy. She was fine with people, just had to fight with other cows for some reason. She was on the short list and then her last calf she stepped on it right after it was born while picking a fight and displaced the calf's hip. They got penned up by themselves until the calf was old enough to wean and she went to the sale barn. Calf fed out well, but had a rear hoof pointing out sideways all her life.

 

[damengineer]

I had a cow named Shitheadra that would drop her calf and then pick a fight with whatever cow was handy. She was fine with people, just had to fight with other cows for some reason. She was on the short list and then her last calf she stepped on it right after it was born while picking a fight and displaced the calf's hip. They got penned up by themselves until the calf was old enough to wean and she went to the sale barn. Calf fed out well, but had a rear hoof pointing out sideways all her life.

I decided to name this one White Castle. I don't think enough of her to call her Ronnetta McDonald...