twisted uterus?

[milkmaid]

how frequent of an occurance is this? I hadn't ever dealt with it before, but boss had a 2nd or 3rd calver the other day that was acting as if she was in the early stages of labor but was taking waaay too long. We both gloved up and had a feel; calf's hooves were over the pelvic rim, cervix was dialated, weren't sure what was up but something certainly didn't feel right. Turned out the uterus was twisted just on the other side of the cervix. He took her to the vet, they diagnosed a twisted uterus, did a c-section, dead calf, cow died a few hours later.

Anyone else dealt with this? if so, how'd you deal with it and how did you diagnose it? and did the cow survive?

 

[bigbull338]

twisted utereses are very rare.an when they happen the only way to get the calf is a C section.an in all cases the calf is dead.mustve been a ruture to cause the cow to bleed out an die.

 

[bandit80]

Had it happen to first calf heifer when I was in high school, probably 12 years ago. Vet did C-section, cow and calf miraculously both lived. My vet said the few times he has seen it, calf is dead when it comes out.

 

[ALACOWMAN]

there's away too flip the cow to untwist the uterus... gonna go back a look see if i can find it. .... rolling the cow over in the same direction as the twist while stablizing the calf. or rotating the calf in the opposite direction of the torsion sometimes will straiting it out

 

[bigbull338]

i know that calves can be flipped inside the cows.had the vet out with a cow years ago.an he said her calf was upside down.an was going tobe a bugger to pull.well the cow broke out of the dairy.an we chased her till we got her back in the barn.the vet checked an in all that running she had flipped the calf right.so we pulled the calf.

 

[milkmaid]

Alacowman -- yep, you're right. I'm kinda beating myself up about this one since I've been taught how to flip the cow and correct a twisted uterus, and had I recognized what was wrong with that cow we probably could have done it, saved the cow, and boss wouldn't have had a vet bill. I love hands-on learning, but I hate learning at his expense.

 

[fitz]

twisted utereses are very rare.an when they happen the only way to get the calf is a C section.an in all cases the calf is dead.mustve been a ruture to cause the cow to bleed out an die.

We've only had one. Some years back. Way too long in labor, had Vet out, rolled her twice. Pulled the calf (nice Bull) & both lived. Don't know if it had anything to do with it but the cow didn't breed back.

 

[ROB]

my vet had only seen a handfull in the last 20 or so years...this year he dealt with 2 that were both mine. he said i should go to the casino- my luck couldn't get any worse
ROB

 

[rockridgecattle]

we had one. It was our first. We gloved up and couldn't get past the twist. but because we never had one, just thought she was not ready to calve. She was slightly off for about 12 hours. Up and down up and down. Vet came out and performed a miraclous c section. I say miraclous cause we had no mat pen, cow was tied to a pannel, pannel tied to a rail way tie on one end and a hydro pole on the other. Vet said "thanks for the experience get a mat pen".
She was surprised to see the calf alive, it was also real yellow, figured it might go septic. Same with the cow. Calf brought a good price that fall and the cow has another two calves since.
but now we know what to look for

 

[milkmaid]

RR -- on your cow, was any part of the calf through the cervix, or was the entire calf on the other side of the twist?

 

[rockridgecattle]

MM, got to jog my memory
I think the calf was on the other side. I remember not being able to get my hand in. It felt like the cervix had not dialated yet, so we did not want to exasperate the situation cause we figured she just was not ready. What we learned was it was not the cervix but a twist. Our arm wanted to twist as we entered the canal. Now we know that if the arm wants to twist, call the vet.
In all honesty, I never realized such a thing could happen until it did.
Hope that answers the question
RR

 

[milkmaid]

Yep, that answers my question RR. Thanks. On this cow I felt the twist too... strangest feeling. The only time I've gone in vaginally in the past is when pulling a calf and then it's mostly out, so I wasn't certain what was wrong with the cow, only that my gut feeling was that something was definitely not right inside. Don't think I'll mistake it again though.

For this cow, the hooves were through the cervix and only just inside the vulva opening, and that's what really confused me; I could feel the hooves and could feel the cervical rings, but couldn't go all the way in. I'm going to quiz my vet on this one, but I wonder if the uterus twisted after the cow went into labor? can't see how else the hooves could have gotten through the cervix.

 

[rockridgecattle]

That's an odd one too. Keep us posted with what he says.
I remember a woman's cattle seminar and one of the top MB vets saying there was an easy way to untwist a uterus. But you had to go the right way. One person was to sit on a board on the cows gut. Several others were to role the cow. The first person and the board were to keep the calf from shifting while rolling the cow.
But you have to get the cow down or she has to be down and want to stay down. Haven't found too many cows willing to do that when several people come up to her.

What I want to know is how a cow can twist a uterus with a 70-100 pound animal with fluid inside.

 

[bward]

Hi MM. We had our first ever uturine torsion this spring and we have been at this for almost 30 years.

In this case the vagina was not included in the twist which stumped the vet until he did a rectal exam and could feel the twist on the other side of the cervix.

My cow did have some uterine tears due to the force of the contrations, and the calf was dead. The cow had a comfortable recovery and has already been sold for slaughter. She was 7.

That is odd how yours had feet through the cervix. Does make you wonder in what order the events occured. :?