What a crappy day and /info on inbreeding.

[hillsdown]

Got up this morning to 3 feet of snow and two of my heifers had calved and not in the calving barn either.The first one was laying on her side and had yet to be cleaned but at least 2 hours old (placenta was already off on the dam)So it was minus 13 I hauled her in the skid steer and in the house she went.Calf Temp 35.3cc.#2 was just born so I got fresh straw and put it in the little shelter they were in and because the dam was being attentive and aggresively cleaning the calf I went back in to help calf # 1. 30-45 minutes later check on # 2 and mom had decided to stop cleaning right after I left and have a nap.I moved calf to the barn and bundled him up good with blankets and hot water bottles he also had 2 pints of colostrum.Still not able to stand(not worried about that yet).

Now calf #1 can sit on her belly if propped up but cannot stand after much work with heaters and the good old ceramic blowdryer her temp is 39.3c but now she acts like she is retarded.Eyes rolled back and bloodshot.just not normal ;yet when I try to tube her the legs work fine and I have the bruises to prove it.Got some groceries down her and checked on calf #2.
His temp is only 36.4 so now he is in the house also but he is all bright eyed and makes alot of noise when being carried and is always trying to stand.So I think once I get him warmed and the circulation working he should be O.K.

Back to number one I pay closer attention to her and she has one small ear about an inch and a half long and one normal ear 3 and a half inches long.But the way the heifer was way past her due date so the AI must not have taken and she got bred back by her own sire 2 months later.We hade her checked at 35 days and she was pregnant so she must have absorbed it.
Now here is my question is she retarded and if so what deformaties exist inside that we cannot see like the ear thing and not standing?

Now before you reply. Yes I have talked to my Vet and yes they had one feeding of colostrum already and yes they have been given the full med cocktail(selenium/nuflor/B12 and Predef)SO they do not need any more meds today.ALso #2 is done napping and wants to walk around or try to it is hard to stand on laminate so once he has one more feeding and his temp gets up to 39c he will be riding in the skid steer back to the straw filled calving bar to his mom..

I am used to line breeding with Holsteins it is a crap shoot and you never see dad to daughter breeding.SO there are two more heifers that he got.Am I totally up the creek without a paddle?

 

[Beefy]

um. ok here goes.

you are not necessarily up the creek. the other two may or may not have problematic calves. they probably will be fine. certainly the potential for a problem is there, if they are also bred to their father and you have already had problems with the daughter/father mating. however, assuming they arent cloned sisters, they should all have varying degrees of genetic makeup. thereby hit or miss depending on which good or bad genes they possess. you now know there are potential problems lurking in the gene pool though and to avoid inbreeding/linebreeding this bloodline (at least!) from here on out.

as far as the calf goes if you can get him (EDIT: i see that it is a "she" now- just pretend like the he's say she) to eat and he is capable of standing he should be raisable. i had a retarded one one time and his head was really big and he was pointy nosed and had very small ears and just had a clearly retarded look. he reminded me of the retarded guy on The Goonies. he never could figure out how to stand with his front feet and i couldnt really feed him either b/c his mouth wouldnt open enough. i was actually pretty amazed the heifer was able to have him considering the size of his head (and it wasnt swollen from calving difficulty either).