Uterus Prolapse Questions

[highgrit]

A heifer of ours had a uterus prolapse while calving. I have a few questions about this. Does this happen with females only?? And is it associated with giving birth?? When I skinned and gutted her I noticed a lot of polyps-fibroids on her uterus. She had at least a dozen or more and I have never seen this before. Is this a one time thing or what? Everything else on and in her looked normal to me.

 

[Bigfoot]

I think the uterus is covered in some knarly looking knots. Everyone I've seen was. Looked like cancer sord of.

 

[greybeard]

Did it look like this?
http://www.cfsph.iastate.edu/DiseaseInf ... RU_006.jpg
It's an example of hemorrhagic cotyledons associated with Brucella abortis according to Merk manual.

Take your pick:
http://www.merckmanuals.com/vet/reprodu ... attle.html

 

[highgrit]

GB, they didn't look like that. Kind of looked like brownish red mushrooms and half mushrooms without the stem.

 

[greybeard]

Go to Google Images. http://www.google.com/imghp?hl=en&tab=wi
Copy and paste the following line exactly as it appears in to the search window.
"Bovine uterus"

 

[Hook]

cotyledons

 

[greybeard]

He already said no to cotyledons hook.

 

[Hook]

He already said no to cotyledons hook.

Remember the plasentomes are 2 parts. The calf was born so the the buttons had separated. What does a cotyledon look like after birth? I would think they would leave a little stem like structure. Especially when looked at inside out like a prolapsed uterus

 

[wbvs58]

Some of your questions you have answered yourself Highgrit.
Yes only in females because only females have uteri.
Yes, as you stated it happened while calving. Vaginal prolapse will occur in late pregnancy but the uterus won't come out. If it did it would be considered to have calved as the calf will be on the ground.
It certainly sounds like cotyledons/caruncles on the uterus to me.
Skinning and gutting her sounds like you shot her. Couldn't you get the uterus back in?
Ken

 

[cow pollinater]

A heifer of ours had a uterus prolapse while calving. I have a few questions about this. Does this happen with females only?? And is it associated with giving birth?? When I skinned and gutted her I noticed a lot of polyps-fibroids on her uterus. She had at least a dozen or more and I have never seen this before. Is this a one time thing or what? Everything else on and in her looked normal to me.

Did they look like in shell peanuts enlarged to the size of pecan? If so it's the parts that attache the placenta to the cow and is perfectly normal.

 

[bmoore87]

High grit those mushroom looking things are normal at least based on the uterine prolapses I have seen.

I've been told that uterine prolapses don't need to be culled if you can prevent infection. Don't really know if I'd agree with that we cull them, but we will retain some cows with vaginal or rectal prolapses.

 

[highgrit]

Yes CP, that's what they kind of looked like. I was afraid to eat her if it wasn't normal. A friend of mine that's a old-timer never seen anything like it either. But he had never seen a prolapse either.

 

[Dega Moo]

Never been easy but you can push the uterus back in. There's pressure on the uterus, pushing it out when the cow is laying down so you want the cow standing if at all possible before trying to push the uterus back. It's a two handed operation and best handled in chute with her rear legs hobbled. Once the uterus is in fact back inside, use a leather lace or rubber surgical hose to 'loosely lace' the labia partially closed. Remove the 'lace' after a few days. You can do the same with a vaginal prolapse with a bred cow/heifer.

Our luck saving cows after a full uterine prolapse isn't great but with market prices what they are today if you can save one to go to the barn the effort can be worthwhile.

 

[fitz]

Never been easy but you can push the uterus back in. There's pressure on the uterus, pushing it out when the cow is laying down so you want the cow standing if at all possible before trying to push the uterus back. It's a two handed operation and best handled in chute with her rear legs hobbled. Once the uterus is in fact back inside, use a leather lace or rubber surgical hose to 'loosely lace' the labia partially closed. Remove the 'lace' after a few days. You can do the same with a vaginal prolapse with a bred cow/heifer.

Our luck saving cows after a full uterine prolapse isn't great but with market prices what they are today if you can save one to go to the barn the effort can be worthwhile.

If she's still looking at you after the first 2-3 hours you got a chance.

fitz

 

[Dega Moo]

Never been easy but you can push the uterus back in. There's pressure on the uterus, pushing it out when the cow is laying down so you want the cow standing if at all possible before trying to push the uterus back. It's a two handed operation and best handled in chute with her rear legs hobbled. Once the uterus is in fact back inside, use a leather lace or rubber surgical hose to 'loosely lace' the labia partially closed. Remove the 'lace' after a few days. You can do the same with a vaginal prolapse with a bred cow/heifer.

Our luck saving cows after a full uterine prolapse isn't great but with market prices what they are today if you can save one to go to the barn the effort can be worthwhile.

If she's still looking at you after the first 2-3 hours you got a chance.

fitz

It helps to have hands the size of good feed buckets otherwise your fingers can do a lot of damage to the uterus. I'm not sure if a vet would be more successful or if there's some form of utensil that would help.

Forgot to mention in my original post - if you lace up a bred one, you have to remove the lace before she can calve. Be vigilant or she'll damage herself having the calf.

 

[jerry27150]

if you have a loader tractor I hook both hind legs & lift up far enough to push everything back in & sew with baler twine.

 

[Lucky_P]

Caruncles, as Ken said; totally normal, they're the maternal side of the placentome.

The vast majority of them that I replaced were in cows that were down; I'd just get 'em sternal and pull their legs out behind 'em. Most recovered uneventfully and bred back just fine. Only one I can specifically remember that was standing was a big Limousin heifer, and hers was hanging almost to the ground; got it back in, stitched her, and left - the owners said I wasn't out of sight before she dropped over dead - with it hanging that far down, I suspect she must have ruptured one or both uterine arteries and bled out internally.

The sooner you get to them, the better - the longer they're 'out', the more swollen they become. I'd always keep a shower curtain to put under it after cleaning and 10 lbs of sugar on the practice truck to slather over them to help pull out the edema fluid so that they were easier to push back in. An epidural is really helpful to keep the cow from pushing it back out faster than you push in, but I've done some without an epidural, and some that went back in so easily that, in retrospect, the epidural wasn't needed.

Uterine prolapse is an accident; no specific need to cull those animals. Vaginal prolapse, however, tends to get worse with each subsequent pregnancy, and is considered to be a heritable trait.

 

[Bigfoot]

I can't remember who it was, and they may still post here, but I remember a newbie put one in by himself one time. Pretty impressive I thought.

 

[Tim/South]

It has been several years since we had to put one back in. We always washed the parts off with warm water and disinfectant. Then began putting things back inside. Better with two people. One lifting the mass and the other putting it back in the pot.

 

[Lucky_P]

First one can be a daunting undertaking. Not sure I remember my first one fresh out of vet school, but I'll guarantee you I was sweating it. Sure, they TOLD us how to proceed, but actually doing it yourself, without someone there to advise you...
Had more than one where I was thinking, "Man, I'm making some headway now!" - only to have the ol' heifer give a push and shove it all right back out at me. You just have to keep plugging away at it, working it back in a little at a time.
Some were quick & easy, but a lot of times, I'd be 'give out' when I got through - and covered in a sticky, gooey mixture of blood, sugar, fluid, and feces. And, it seemed like they were almost always at night, and often in cold, muddy conditions. Hmmm. Not sure I ever remember one on a nice sunny Spring day...

Had a cow that got a uterine tear one time during a really hard pull. I reached in, got a grip and prolapsed the uterus so that I could sew it up. Liked to have never gotten it back in, because of all the air that had rushed into her abdomen through the tear when I prolapsed it.