What went wrong???

[IowaKid]

Please excuse the long post, but I'm still trying to grasp what could've gone wrong. That being said, we have about 25 head of Reg. black Angus in our operation. This past December we bought 3 bred females at a private treaty sale (2 heifers and 1 three year old.) All preg checked to calve mid march to mid april. We have them separate from the rest of the herd (in with our 2 replacement heifers) as it was too snowy to get the trailer to that location.

One heifer had a large calf (60+ lbs) early in feb. that was either stillborn or did not make it through the night (was not expecting them to calve yet so had last checked them while doing chores around 4:30 p.m. found calf next morning.) We had to pull a 110 lb calf from the 2nd heifer the 27th of march that didn't live but a few hours (birthing stress I assume, as he was having trouble breathing and very lethargic after pulling, we could not get him up to nurse or anything) The last one was still born fully developed at 35 lbs Sunday Mar 30th. The heifers were bred to a negative BW bull while the 3 yr old was bred to a slightly higher bull. None of the cattle show any outward signs of illness or otherwise. But have no real baseline as there are no other pregnant/calving cows at this location. All the rest of our heard are calving on schedule with no complications to speak of.

The only differences are location and a small grain ration that the problem cows are recieving that the others are not.

Any insights would be helpful. Is this simply terrible luck, or should I be looking for some other environmental/breeding factor with these animals.

Thanks
Dave

 

[dun]

What is their vaccination hisotry?

 

[IowaKid]

I don't have the paperwork in front of me, I'll have to double check the particulars when i get back to the house. I know they were s'posed to be up to date at time of sale, but don't remember exactly which brands...

 

[rockridgecattle]

With that many losses in the one area I would call the vet and get the calves posted and the cows tested for BVD and such.

the calf that had trouble breathing...if it were my calf this is what i would do
epinephrine 2cc if the heart was weak or eratic
dophram 2cc under the tounge squirted not injected
tube with colostrum asap to replace the lost energy from the stress ful birth

Mom oxytocin 5cc asap after birth

I'm thinking a vet needs to visit.

RR

 

[ALX.]

I am guessing you already have decided they are not going into your main herd until you have this figured out.

Two swear words come to mind - Trich , Johnes

 

[IowaKid]

Just got off the phone with the breeder, "vac 2x per year for BVD, ibv, lepto etc" Said he has had some of the same problems this year but neither of their Vets could pinpoint a cause other than the nasty winter we've all had. I know a lot of other farmers having issues this spring with oversize calves etc. Just trying to figure out why all 3 @ this location were the "bad ones..." Our vet was out for the one sunday and said it looked like more of a string of bad luck than anything. Testing on small calf was "inconclusive."

I would've liked to "dope" the heavy one, but we haven't generally kept supplies like this on hand as most of our herd throw 60-70 lb calves w/ ease and we weren't expecting anything that large from this heifer... (Believe me, I'll have a bottle of each close just incase!!! Call it insurance.)