two cow deaths

[Anonymous]

I am fairly new to the cattle business. I own around 115 acres of land that is divided into a 43 acre plot and a 72 acre plot. They do not touch there is about a mile seperating the two pieces. On February 7, 2003 my husband discovered a cow down on the 72acres. He got her up, called a vet--he said to keep her warm and dry and see if she makes it--did that she lived two days and died on feb. 9,2003 with calf still inside her. Today Feb. 18, 2003 as we were going over the 43 acres we discovered two cows down. One dead with calfhoves hanging out about 2 inches and the other about dead had given birth last week sometime inbetween the 10th and the 14th. We got her up after 7 hours of trying and she is now in the barn eating, but not paying much attention to her calf who is in the stall next to her. Could there be any connection in the deaths? Both were about to give birth with one trying, they had not eaten hay cut from the same fields and were not of the same breed. Just call me worried but I don't like losing any of my cows especially (you could say) 4 within 10 days of eachother.

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[Anonymous]

> I am fairly new to the cattle
> business. I own around 115 acres
> of land that is divided into a 43
> acre plot and a 72 acre plot. They
> do not touch there is about a mile
> seperating the two pieces. On
> February 7, 2003 my husband
> discovered a cow down on the
> 72acres. He got her up, called a
> vet--he said to keep her warm and
> dry and see if she makes it--did
> that she lived two days and died
> on feb. 9,2003 with calf still
> inside her. Today Feb. 18, 2003 as
> we were going over the 43 acres we
> discovered two cows down. One dead
> with calfhoves hanging out about 2
> inches and the other about dead
> had given birth last week sometime
> inbetween the 10th and the 14th.
> We got her up after 7 hours of
> trying and she is now in the barn
> eating, but not paying much
> attention to her calf who is in
> the stall next to her. Could there
> be any connection in the deaths?
> Both were about to give birth with
> one trying, they had not eaten hay
> cut from the same fields and were
> not of the same breed. Just call
> me worried but I don't like losing
> any of my cows especially (you
> could say) 4 within 10 days of
> eachother.

Do the cows just need help calving? Do you have your cows close and easily accessable to a shoot to pull the calves if the need be. We check our cows that look close every 4 hours and keep them sorted seperate next to our calving shead. This year we have pulled several. In other years just a few. Do they act sick or are they just suffering from the pain in labor? It is completely normal to be worried. Calving is a delicate process that needs to be monitored several times a day. How is the calf in your barn doing? Is he sucking or are you bottling it to him? Is the cow making good milk, have you milked her out yet?

 

[Anonymous]

You don't say where you are from, but if you are feeding hay from fast growing fields, it can be high in potassium, tying up the magnesium in the cow. Stress (like calving) can bring on tetany. This usually occurs in the spring when the grass is rapidly growing, but winter tetany is becoming more common.

A simple blood test should show blood magnesium levels, and confirm or rule out this. Feeding a magnesium suppliment to the rest will prevent further losses if this is the problem.

Jason Trowbridge Southern Angus Farms Alberta Canada

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[Anonymous]

I agree that calving complications could have caused at least one of those deaths. Hopefully you are checking the cows often enough to see when they need help. If I lose one cow for no apparent reason, I worry. If I lose two, I panic. Get a vet out there now to find out what's going on. It could be something wrong with your cows, or it could be something in your management (no offense, but being new, it's possible). If the vet comes out and looks around, they might see an obvious problem that you are overlooking.