Twins and Stuff

[Randi]

Tuesday morning we had 2 sets of twins. @ 4am, I noticed an uncared for calf on the camera. So, pretty good bet it was an extra. Went out to pick him up, and found another set of twins. At least this mama had cared for both of hers. But as soon as we got out there, messing with the unwanted calf, she got one up and took off with it. So we picked them both up. 2 nice bull calves, the unwanted one was a little cold, but seemed strong. Ended up tubing the unwanted one, but later in the day he sucked another bottle down. Got up and seemed to be quite healthy. In the meantime we had a heifer calve. No problems, except the sac was over the calf's face and of course we lost it... Nice quiet heifer, but we were not sure if she had much milk. Decided we'd give her the unwanted calf, and she took right to him. Got him sucking her, and all looked to be good. Penned them for the night. DH went out this morning, saw him get up and looked good. But then he went downhill. Ended up bringing him back inside to warm up, tubed him again, but by noon he was dead :???: . Not really sure what happened to him. Wasn't enough time for it to be starvation, and we were watching for that anyways, maybe she stepped on him... maybe he was just too stressed from being cold (really wasn't that cold, or cold for that long) Turns out that the heifer really doesn't have any milk either, so she's a loss too...Meanwhile the other twin found a new mama, so that is good too. Sucks to have lost these 2 calves, but in reality, we have an extra on our nurse cow, and another set of twins is still hanging together on their mama. I believe that still has us up by one calf.

 

[Nesikep]

Always sucks losing one.. perhaps it was stepped on. That heifer tried to buy herself a get-out-of-jail-free card but it didn't seem to work out for her. Some of them just will never have an ounce of luck in their entire life.. My experience is there's nothing you can do, they just have a black cloud over them.

 

[cowgirl8]

Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesnt...
We've had 2 sets of twins so far too, and so has my daughter.
The first set i nabbed one, a freemartin heifer.. Cow only wanted one anyway and since it was early in the season, i wanted a graft calf. Had a heifer lose a calf, so, i was really glad i had a strong graft calf in waiting. Second never found the twin. I could tell the cow had twins, but only ever saw one.....suspect the other was born dead.. My daughter had a twins, then the cow prolapsed and died at the vet. She has two graft calves in waiting. The second set one was dead and the other kind of handicapped but is now nursing fine...
My season is still early.. Unless the cow takes the twins easily and has a big udder, i take one for a graft.