What a week..

[TheBullLady]

This has sure been a rough week. Gave up on hauling to Houston... and hauled two cows to A & M on Wednesday, for disasterous results.

One of the heifers is a 2 year old, bred 8 1/2 months. (Due first week of April) She had gone off her feed, looked depressed, etc. They determined after a day of examinations that the calf was very large, and apparently pressing on or pinching off something that was causing a blockage. The vets were impressed because apparently they'd had reports of such, but never witnessed it. Of course I wasn't impressed..

Anyway, the only options were to abort the calf and pull it, or do a c-section. I opted for the abortion because I thought it was a better possibility I could get the cow to breed back, and of course the c-section being a surgery, would be harder to recover from.

Here's my question. She was bred to an easy calving bull that's offered by all the semen distributors. Since the calf will be dead and obviously never registered, how can I report the big birth weight so someone else doesn't run into the same thing?

The second heifer was one I bought at Denver.. turns out she's a non breeder. I'm thinking about getting into alpacas... at least then I could knit sweaters! :cry2:

 

[milkmaid]

If the calf isn't dead... it should be able to survive if it's only 3 weeks early.

ECP plus oxytocin, or dexamethasone should induce her and result in a relatively normal birth.

 

[hillsdown]

The non breeder, if you bought her at a replacement heifer sale check your contract as most of them are guaranteed to be breeders.

The first one, it is not always the bull that decides your heifer probably contributed to it as well, also how many calves did the bull have on the ground when you bought the semen how accurate was the calving ease score.

You could call the association that the bull belongs to eg.Angus, Simmi etc. and they could probably direct you or try calling the breeder that sells the bull eg.ABS, Semex etc.

Sorry about your calf that is always a crappy situation no matter what the circumstances but at least you saved the heifer you could have lost them both in that situation.

 

[randiliana]

If the calf isn't dead... it should be able to survive if it's only 3 weeks early.

ECP plus oxytocin, or dexamethasone should induce her and result in a relatively normal birth.

I agree with MM, if the calf is alive, induce her. At least you will get a live calf out of the deal. At 8 1/2 months the calf should be viable. Not the greatest scenario, but by far better than having a dead calf.

 

[bigbull338]

sorry that your facing that problem calving a 2yr old heifer.but heres the thing.the bull you bred her to was easy caving all in his breeding.an they promoted him as to such.now think about this mixing his pedagree with others may result in a super big calf.now that tells mw that he isnt a CE bull on your heifer.or he may throw big calves.id report that to the company you got semen from.