Cow prolapse

[Laurie J]

When our two year old Hereford cow calved in August, she had some prolapse, but it went away within a couple of weeks of giving birth. Our vet said it wasn't very good, but perhaps it was due to his being a very large calf. She said we could try again, and hopefully she wouldn't have problems in the future. Well, she is bred again, and supposed to calve in July. (Not intended...the neighbor's bull crashed through the fence to come visit). This morning she was prolapsed very bad. Worse than this summer. My husband pushed the bloody mess all back in, but we are afraid we are going to have to ship her. It will likely keep happening and could get to the point where it isn't able to be repositioned. It is extremely unlikely that she could carry this calf to term, as she is already having major problems. The calf is almost 4 months old and eating hay and grain well, but he is going to be lost without Mama. As this is our daughter's prized and very loved cow, she is going to be absolutely devastated. Has anyone got any suggestions for me. We are really upset about this, and don't think we have a lot of choices here.

[Jennifer L.]

You either sell her or she keeps doing this and you lose the cow anyway plus the money she's worth. I'm sure you know that already but just wanted others to confirm it for you.

You don't say how old your DD is, but this is just one of those things that people have to go through every once in awhile. It's not fun for someone to lose an animal, but it's going to happen on occasion. Just prepare her and then sell it.

Jennifer

[milkinpigs]

I'm a dairy farmer and I don't understand why your vet failed to put stiches in when your cow first prolapsed. It should be stiched and left for 2 weeks and the cow put on antibiotics.I've got 4 or 5 cows in my herd that prolapsed once but have never done it since. The only problem is possible problems getting them bred.

[Ken Scharabok]

I agree with the above. I believe basically sewing the virgina opening loosely closed is pretty well standard procedure for prolapse. I would just stitch her closed enough to hold it in and take her to market. They will sell her as a kill animal. If she is in good form, may not take much of a hit over a regular cull cow.

The calf is big enough to short wean. If you want to temper it some, put him across a good fence from her for three days before you ship her out. However, others might recommend the cold turkey method also. One day momma just isn't there anymore. Your daughter might compensate some by babying the calf for a while with sweet feed or such.

[JeffNY]

A proplapsed uterus is not uncommon in herefords, it is in there genetics. We had it happen with ours, and you can't sew it, can't do much of anything, it flares up, and over time it will get bigger. We had a hereford cow, and decided to sell her because she prolapsed, and yes it went down. But taking the chance of having her here and dealing with it, not exactly something we wanted to do! So the prolapse will get worse with time, and you will likely have to ship her. Sorry but that is with the breed, some do it, some don't.



Jeff

[Ken Scharabok]

For some reason Herefords also seem to be far more susceptible to cancer eye than other breeds.

[agmantoo]

IMO, the cacer eye is due to lack of pigmentation. I only want cattle with dark pigmentation around their eyes.

[Laurie J]

Thanks for the responses. We just told our daughter (she is 14) about an hour ago. She hadn't been home until now. She is absolutely devestated and sobbing her eyes out. This is her second cow. Her first (also a Hereford) didn't calve after two breeding attempts (ran with the bull for months), and we had to ship her. She is having the worst luck. We are considering switching to an Angus. She shows in 4-H at the fair. I don't know if she'll go for the Angus idea, as she loves Herefords. I don't know if it is worth the pain and heartache of trying again, though. Also, the calf is a beautiful, tame, sweet steer, so she'll only get to keep him a year or so before he goes to market. My poor little girl! She just sent out wonderful Christmas cards two days ago with a picture of her and "Maisy" on them, with a wreath around Maisy's neck. Pretty sad at our house. Thanks for all the advice!

[Whip Hussmann]

Possibly three times a charm. If you quit you already lost something.

[Oxankle]

Do nothing until you talk to a vet. My guess is that you can put in the stitches, leave them there until the calf is all but due, take them out for the calving. You may have to push the prolapse back into place but you can stitch the cow again and not breed her, send her to market in six more months as a dry cow and keep the calf.

Fact is though that you do not want a heifer from this cow. You want a cow without the prolapse genetics. Buy the daughter a pretty polled Hereford heifer.
Ox

[Laurie J]

Just a question regarding the last post. I don't know if you know how much prolapse there was. She was sticking out a couple of feet. It was also bloody (infact, her calf had blood all over his head). Do you still think that your idea would work? I know there are different degrees of prolapse. It would certainly be nice to get the new calf and put this off for several months! I will see what our vet has to say about this new dilema...we haven't talked to her about it since the original prolapse last summer.

Thank you once again for all the advice and comments! You guys are the greatest!

~Laurie

[warrior]

Cut your losses now. As a matter of fact each day you feed her is money out the door. I know this sounds cold hearted but as one who has dealt with prolapse, brucelossis, wild dogs, abandoned calves, no milk, you name it even screw worms. Prolapse WILL reoccur less in some worse in most. As a child I watched my dad struggle to just break even on a 60 head cow herd (at a time when Florida cattle were under quarantine due to brucelossis (Bang's disease). As a result of that and continuing to watch dad hang on to unproductive cows way longer than he should have I have a hard and fast policy when it comes to any critter on the place. Number one it MUST earn it's keep, second any problem or condition that interferes with number one is cause for immediate culling.
I'm sorry for your daughter, it is always tough to lose one that you've grown attached to. My heart goes out to her. At least she is older than I was when I learned that lesson and she has parents that are concerned for her feelings in this. My lesson was "you just ate her". As a 4-H project she would have had to deal with this loss later rather than sooner. It will be a rough patch for her but she'll come out stronger in the end.

[JeffNY]

Here is my advice. Take care of the cow, fix it up so it isn't dragging its vagina around. Christmas is coming, don't get your daughter anything then. Surprise her in 4 weeks. But you first have to send that cow off, it has to get out of her mind, she will need to be back in school so she can get her mind of it. Cry the dickens out of her, it will only help. More or less the anguish needs to go away. If in 4 weeks it doesn't look good, wait another 2 weeks. Talk to her once the cow is gone about it, use examples of any animal you lost that you were close to. Then in 4-6 weeks or so, look for a registered hereford heifer (do some deep research on it). More or less look into what it is, genetics wise. Fertility etc. It is very easy to give up, but you cant. What I have been through this fall has been tough as well. I was getting discouraged when my red holstein fractured her leg. Here is a heifer that was shown, I brought her around from being a so so animal to something good, she is friendly. She is super sweet, and there was that possibility she was not fixable. That made me think "this is really getting discouraging". I had a cow die on my birthday, that sucked! I understand the feeling, as we all do, because we have all lost something or been slapped with something that was tough. Just this past Saturday, I had another heifer twist her leg, I managed to pop that back into place, and she appears to be doing fine. So when dealt with a slap again, things seem to be working out. Life can truely suck, it can be really hard on you. But the fact she was taken with that cow, for a christmas card geeeeze. So wait, 4-6 weeks, see how she is doing. Let that cow fade some out of her mind. Some people replace their favorite dog with another animal right away. This cow thing, nope, wait. Then say "can you go down and get my gloves". She would go down to the barn, or whatever you have setup and see the new addition. Heck put a turn out halter on the animal, in her own pen. Tie a tiny ribbon on the halter (make sure its on there good and strong). You would have one happy kid back in the house .


Jeff

[unioncreek]

Not all Herefords are due to prolaspsed uterus's. We ran Herefords for 20 years and never had one in them, but did from time to time in our black baldies. Genetics does contribute a lot to it, but large calves are as much a part of it. If she wants to stick with a Hereford look around and find a good breeder. I wouldn't necessarily go with a registered or purebred though.

Bobg

[warrior]

Yep, I've heard all my life that the hereford breed was more prone to prolapse (as well as cancer eye) but haven't seen that borne out in the pasture. I've seen more prolapse in mixed bred cattle than any purebred, but then again it was rare for us to have anything purebred on the place. Just in my experience the size of the calf and the level of difficulty in calving had more to do with whether or not a cow prolapsed. It seems the harder the cow strains and pushes the more she tears loose inside. Once a cow had prolapsed to any degree she would prolapse every time after that.