cow aborted

[petefarms]

2nd calf heifer was fine last night, this morning went to the barn and two little calves were in the gutter, she had aborted twins. first time I've ever seen this, she was ai'd in june. any thoughts on this, will probably ai her again when she comes in heat again?

[Up North]

I've had my share of abortions. If she was outside yesterday she could of slipped and fell or if she is with other cattle somebody could of rammed her in the stomach. I've had bad dogs run my heifers and have had one abort because of the stress. It could be a bacterial thing too. If her feed got infected with dog or cat manure. Can't think of the specific name right now. Could be a nutrition problem. Since it was twins my guess is there was probably just something wrong with the twins that no amount of intervention would prevent. If you can afford to keep her around I would try breeding her back in a couple of months. Most of my cows have gone on and have been fine after an abortion. I have had one or two that I had to ship because they just couldn't carry a calf for some reason.

[woodspirit]

Sorry about the bad news. I can't say for sure about cows but speaking about twin births with humans, the risk of twins being born premature is very high. The risk of twins being aborted is higher with multiples than a single birth. There are so many things that can go wrong with a multiple pregnancy. I'm sure that there is some corelation, but I'm not an MD or DVM. Her water could have broken, there may not have been much amniotic fluid. The placenta could have started to separate from the womb. The blood vessels feeding the calves could have been small or blocked off. Given the possible scenarios of things that can go wrong with any birth it is easy to understand why it is called a miracle. There is a risk of the calves being born sterile too, if they are twins.
We have twin children and wife was in the hospital for the last three months. I was allowed in the neo-natal unit once a week to see premature babies that were in the same stage of development as my own. I learned alot from the doctors and reading the PDR there. Ibecame very good at reading the ultrasounds too. So good that I already knew the sex of them. That and reading the daily charts and listening to the heartbeats. When the nurses couldn't find the heartbeats they would ask me where I thought they were and I'd just point to the spot and there it was. I could usually tell which direction they were facing and what position they were in. Daughter is still a little wiggler. Can't sit still.

[travlnusa]

Make sure your mineral program is what you need it to be.

[warrior]

Beef or dairy? Twins are rare in cattle more so in beef. It could be that alone that caused her to abort. The first thing that comes to mind when I hear abortion in cattle is Brucelossis (Bang's disease). We dealt with this back in the seventies in Florida and one of the effects is spontaneous abortion. I doubt this is the cause though as most states have been very proactive in the eradication of this disease. Alabama at one time had mandatory testing of every cow in the state. Most states now require some sort of testing done at the sale barns to moniter the situation.