randiliana
Well-known member
The special cows that have problems?
Dora, our daughters 4H heifer from last year calved today, the last heifer to calve to boot. We have not had any real big problems calving heifers this year, so really didn't expect anything major with Dora either. In fact, we have had several calves from our heifers out of the Hereford bull (that it turns out bred her) and I don't think we touched any of them. This morning she was finally wandering around with a kink in her tail, checking out all the other calves, and simply acting uncomfortable. Was not the greatest day for her to calve, we had a 1000 things going on around the corral, just to keep her unsettled. Semen Testing and sorting the replacement heifers from the cows. Just too much activity for her to really settle.
Well, about 3:30 pm she finally really went into labour (about the time we were finishing up with sorting). We gave her another hour, and she had absolutely NOTHING showing. I said to DH that maybe we had better check her out. Get her in and examine her, and what a pair of feet these ones are. So we get the chains on and try pulling by hand, no such luck, this one is more of a pull than we can do by hand. So we got the puller on, the first time we have used the puller when we were both around, this year. And for a while, I really wondered if we were going to be able to pull him or if it was going to be a trip to the vet. But finally things started to come. It was a long slow pull, but we got him, alive. She got right up and started mothering him up, a really good mama. But he wasn't so quick to get up. I'm glad we didn't wait to check her out, or we might have lost him. As of 8 pm, he hadn't been on his feet. He will try, but I think his front feet are either sore (very possible) or possibly have contracted tendons. So I milked her out and he sucked down 2 litres of colostrum, if he hadn't sucked I would have been a little more worried about him.
I expect he will weigh over 110 lbs, a little larger than we like to have out of our heifers, on the other hand, I doubt we will ever have to help her have a calf again. This was a rather strange one, cause we own her Mama, 2 sisters and 2 out of her sisters, and I don't think we have ever touched any of them. Proof that stuff happens, even when you know the genetics......
Dora, our daughters 4H heifer from last year calved today, the last heifer to calve to boot. We have not had any real big problems calving heifers this year, so really didn't expect anything major with Dora either. In fact, we have had several calves from our heifers out of the Hereford bull (that it turns out bred her) and I don't think we touched any of them. This morning she was finally wandering around with a kink in her tail, checking out all the other calves, and simply acting uncomfortable. Was not the greatest day for her to calve, we had a 1000 things going on around the corral, just to keep her unsettled. Semen Testing and sorting the replacement heifers from the cows. Just too much activity for her to really settle.
Well, about 3:30 pm she finally really went into labour (about the time we were finishing up with sorting). We gave her another hour, and she had absolutely NOTHING showing. I said to DH that maybe we had better check her out. Get her in and examine her, and what a pair of feet these ones are. So we get the chains on and try pulling by hand, no such luck, this one is more of a pull than we can do by hand. So we got the puller on, the first time we have used the puller when we were both around, this year. And for a while, I really wondered if we were going to be able to pull him or if it was going to be a trip to the vet. But finally things started to come. It was a long slow pull, but we got him, alive. She got right up and started mothering him up, a really good mama. But he wasn't so quick to get up. I'm glad we didn't wait to check her out, or we might have lost him. As of 8 pm, he hadn't been on his feet. He will try, but I think his front feet are either sore (very possible) or possibly have contracted tendons. So I milked her out and he sucked down 2 litres of colostrum, if he hadn't sucked I would have been a little more worried about him.
I expect he will weigh over 110 lbs, a little larger than we like to have out of our heifers, on the other hand, I doubt we will ever have to help her have a calf again. This was a rather strange one, cause we own her Mama, 2 sisters and 2 out of her sisters, and I don't think we have ever touched any of them. Proof that stuff happens, even when you know the genetics......