Saltydawg
Well-known member
Well Saturday night I noticed one of my oldest cows was missing so I put on the hiking boots and go looking for her.
Found her after a couple hours of searching laying back in the thick pine trees near a creek.
She was laying down and had a vaginal prolapse.
I couldn't figure this one out. She showed no signs of carrying a calf and I hadn't stumbled across any new calves yet. I just figured she was open this year and I was gonna let her eat grass through the summer and cull her before I had to start feeding hay. She's 15 years old.
Anyhow I figured there was no way to get her back to the barn without causing further injury so i decided to go get a roap, some warm soapy water, sugar, and a couple big garbage bags for gloves :lol: .
I tied her to a tree and stuffed her back together.
She strained and had another blow out....4 times....before it finally stayed put.
I was hoping for the best.
I kept her on her feet and walked her to the barn and into a stall.
Figured wasn't much else i could do till morning cause i couldn't get hold of a vet.
Sunday rolls around and "momma" had a blow out again so again i tie her up and stuff her back together.
Her udder looked funny though.....back two corners were "normal" sized and her front two were huge. It seemed like something was nursing the back corners and not the front so i set off looking for a calf in the woods.
Well I found one after about an hour of scouring the area i found momma....he was hidden real good. Judging by the looks of him he was less than 24 hours old and his naval was swollen and infected.
Still couldn't find any needles or thread to sew up momma but i cleaned up the calf's naval and gave him some oxytetracycline.
Monday rolls around, momma is prolapsed again, and i finally get hold of a vet.
He comes out and gives her a shot in the spine above the tail to cause a nerveblock for the pain, cleans her up, uses the sugar, and stuffs her back together, then puts 4 sutures in her. She gets a shot of la 200.
Then I asked him to take a look at the calf cause earlier that morning i noticed the calves naval had extra flesh down there and it was inflamed and infected and maggots had gotten to him.
I cleaned out the maggots earlier and doctored the calf up with iodine but this calf had more "stuff" than he should have and i wasn't sure what to do about it.
Vet looked at him and at first thought the calve was deformed but after poking around determined the calf's urinary tract was ok and most of the extra material was just dead flesh.
He used a scalpel and trimmed some of it up. Cut an artery open so had to get the needle and thread back out and sew it closed.
Cleaned it up with iodine and gave the calf a shot of la200.
Calf "seemed" to be a little traumatized by the whole ordeal but he was able to get up and move around.
Momma is worn out and needs to get up and drink more than she has the last day or two but seems "ok" also.
Anyhow this has been a long post but it's been a long couple days for me :lol: .
Only reason i posted this was because this is the first time I've had to deal with a prolapse and maybe my experience will be useful to someone else down the road.
I know I came here looking for information when I found one of my cows in trouble in the woods.
Some of the lessons learned/reinforced by this indicedent with regards to my cattle program are.....
I need to upgrade my emergency care supplies for my cows. Nobody to blame but myself for not having suture material on hand. I will still call a vet for these type of things but in emergency i need to have this stuff on hand.
Never assume a cow isn't pregnant. Especially big old cows. I need to learn to more accurately check for pregnancy in large old cows who sometimes don't make it obvious.
I don't like summer calves. Spring time is much easier for me cause most of the flies and nasty little critters are dormant in the cold up here. Calves always seem much healthier when born in the spring.
I'm tired of wading through 6 ft tall multi flora rose bushes to find my cows lol. I'm declaring war on all these pricker bushes and gonna move my fencline around to give the cows shade and hiding spots that don't eat me alive when i need to find them. :cboy:
edit: Oh a word of warning to those who havent dealt with a prolapse yet. The extra weight and material hanging around out back of the cow will often block her ability to urinate.
So when you lift the pressure to push the stuff back in expect a gusher.....you have been warned :lol:
Found her after a couple hours of searching laying back in the thick pine trees near a creek.
She was laying down and had a vaginal prolapse.
I couldn't figure this one out. She showed no signs of carrying a calf and I hadn't stumbled across any new calves yet. I just figured she was open this year and I was gonna let her eat grass through the summer and cull her before I had to start feeding hay. She's 15 years old.
Anyhow I figured there was no way to get her back to the barn without causing further injury so i decided to go get a roap, some warm soapy water, sugar, and a couple big garbage bags for gloves :lol: .
I tied her to a tree and stuffed her back together.
She strained and had another blow out....4 times....before it finally stayed put.
I was hoping for the best.
I kept her on her feet and walked her to the barn and into a stall.
Figured wasn't much else i could do till morning cause i couldn't get hold of a vet.
Sunday rolls around and "momma" had a blow out again so again i tie her up and stuff her back together.
Her udder looked funny though.....back two corners were "normal" sized and her front two were huge. It seemed like something was nursing the back corners and not the front so i set off looking for a calf in the woods.
Well I found one after about an hour of scouring the area i found momma....he was hidden real good. Judging by the looks of him he was less than 24 hours old and his naval was swollen and infected.
Still couldn't find any needles or thread to sew up momma but i cleaned up the calf's naval and gave him some oxytetracycline.
Monday rolls around, momma is prolapsed again, and i finally get hold of a vet.
He comes out and gives her a shot in the spine above the tail to cause a nerveblock for the pain, cleans her up, uses the sugar, and stuffs her back together, then puts 4 sutures in her. She gets a shot of la 200.
Then I asked him to take a look at the calf cause earlier that morning i noticed the calves naval had extra flesh down there and it was inflamed and infected and maggots had gotten to him.
I cleaned out the maggots earlier and doctored the calf up with iodine but this calf had more "stuff" than he should have and i wasn't sure what to do about it.
Vet looked at him and at first thought the calve was deformed but after poking around determined the calf's urinary tract was ok and most of the extra material was just dead flesh.
He used a scalpel and trimmed some of it up. Cut an artery open so had to get the needle and thread back out and sew it closed.
Cleaned it up with iodine and gave the calf a shot of la200.
Calf "seemed" to be a little traumatized by the whole ordeal but he was able to get up and move around.
Momma is worn out and needs to get up and drink more than she has the last day or two but seems "ok" also.
Anyhow this has been a long post but it's been a long couple days for me :lol: .
Only reason i posted this was because this is the first time I've had to deal with a prolapse and maybe my experience will be useful to someone else down the road.
I know I came here looking for information when I found one of my cows in trouble in the woods.
Some of the lessons learned/reinforced by this indicedent with regards to my cattle program are.....
I need to upgrade my emergency care supplies for my cows. Nobody to blame but myself for not having suture material on hand. I will still call a vet for these type of things but in emergency i need to have this stuff on hand.
Never assume a cow isn't pregnant. Especially big old cows. I need to learn to more accurately check for pregnancy in large old cows who sometimes don't make it obvious.
I don't like summer calves. Spring time is much easier for me cause most of the flies and nasty little critters are dormant in the cold up here. Calves always seem much healthier when born in the spring.
I'm tired of wading through 6 ft tall multi flora rose bushes to find my cows lol. I'm declaring war on all these pricker bushes and gonna move my fencline around to give the cows shade and hiding spots that don't eat me alive when i need to find them. :cboy:
edit: Oh a word of warning to those who havent dealt with a prolapse yet. The extra weight and material hanging around out back of the cow will often block her ability to urinate.
So when you lift the pressure to push the stuff back in expect a gusher.....you have been warned :lol:
