When does a cow start to "show"

[Hovey Hollow]

I bought a Dexter heifer at auction in late June and we were looking at her this weekend and decided that we think she's pregnant. She's decidedly rounder than she was when we got her and she was pretty round then. In fact she may be wider than she is tall now. (Not hard at 36 inches)
She's not very friendly and we don't have a squeeze chute. Any way to tell how far along she is? When do cows start to show? She doesn't have any udder development at this point. We are going to get the paddock and a stall set up for her next weekend, so we can keep a better eye on her. We don't know what she's bred to. I'm really, really, really hoping another Dexter. The auctioneer said they were selling because they were keeping her brother as a breeding bull. So, I'm guessing she's bred to him. I'm not going to get my hopes up for a live calf, because she is a dwarf and if she's bred to another dwarf then we have a 25% chance for a bulldog calf. If we do get a live calf that will be great, but at this point I'm just worried for her safety.

[ksfarmer]

How old is your heiffer? I'm assuming her brother wasn't a twin. I'm no expert on Dexters, but most breeds a heiffer doesn't "show" untill very close to calving. The only way to be sure is to have a vet or other trained person do a preg check. The big belly could be an indication, but maybe she just eats well.

[Hovey Hollow]

She's 24 months old. I'll post pictures in a few minutes. I've got to hunt down more batteries.

[Hovey Hollow]

When we got her in June:


Tonight (excuse the bad photos--it's very humid and the lens kept fogging):

[ksfarmer]

Backside pic is too dark to tell much,,but judging from the rest of her, I'd say you should watch her. Pretty hard to give you much advice from the pictures tho. If she starts to bag up she is getting close.

[georgiarebel]

We're experts by no means, but from our experiences your cows seem to be in the stage where the calf is actually turning inside the cow. She should have another month or two to deliver. As she gets closer her bag will get full and her birthing area will protrude. Her sides will actually look smaller than the do now.

Keep an eye on her and watch when she starts to separate herself from the rest of the herd.

I'm sure some other Dexter members here could offer additional advice.

GR

P.S. You might want to keep the vet on speed dial not knowing what she bred too.

Keep us updated!

[jerzeygurl]

she does not seem to be "springing" yet

I'm not an expert on dexter udders, but it doesn't look close there.

her belly is good and big so she is prob end p2 begining p3

like stated previous post, calf will drop lower and her belly will look smaller suddenly ahead of time bag will swell and birthing area will swell(spring)

she may also start showing a clear mucus discharge about a month ahead of time

[Hovey Hollow]

Thanks for the responses. I'm still worried about what she's bred to, but looks like I've got a little while to worry yet. I'm gonna call the vet tomorrow about dealing with a dystocia if needed. We don't have a trailer, so I need to see how much he charges for house calls, etc.

[Hovey Hollow]

Thought I'd give an update.
I took her in to be palpated cause not knowing was driving me crazy and we are going on vacation in a couple of weeks and didn't want to leave a possible big problem for the person keeping an eye on things for us.
Anyway, she's not bred. She's just fat. So, now if I am going to have her bred I probably need to get some weight off her, right?
We've put her in a stall with a small grassy paddock so we can control her food intake and hopefully I can get some weight off of her. I've also got to get her tamed down because if she doesn't take then I'm going to sell her has a pet "miniature cow"

[tinknal]

She's not overly fat. Most of what you are seeing is grass belly. Just an extended rumen from gorging on the goodies. She could be bloating a little too.