Prolapse

[lisarichards]

I've got an American Milking Devon who we had AIed in mid-November. She presented today with a prolapse.



We've got some hard decisions to make. She's only half way through her pregnancy. This could be either nutritional or genetic. She's going to need to be sewn up because it's only going to get worse. Some are telling us to cull her immediately. Others say sew her up, then cull, but don't keep a heifer.

Hard. She is the friendly cow ever, of course.

[Cotton Picker]

Hi Lisa...

Best case scenario would be to have her sewn up now and have the calf delivered by C-section at full term... Costly and risky....

My suggestion would be to cut your losses now before she gets any worse.... Possible strangulation of the prolapse could cost you the cow.... I have been around stockmen who kept cows after severe calving problems only to lose both the cow and calf next go-round.....

You could get her sewn up and butcher her after any med witholding time... Or send her to town... Conscience would dictate that her uterine problem be disclosed at the time of sale..... Slaughter cow buyers will probably end up with her... If there is a aged cow/bull slaughtering plant anywhere close, they usually pay on dressed hanging weight..

Tough break.... Problems like she is presenting, are usually not worth the cost and aggravation....

..

[wr]

I wouldn't keep her because in the end, you have substantial cost and no guarantees of success. In order to be profitable in cattle, you have to keep your pencil pretty sharp and this just seems like it's not financially wise. How long have you had the cow and did she come to you open?

[MARYDVM]

That's actually not too bad of a prolapse. Have dealt with much worse in big old stretched out Holsteins. The condition is a lot easier to manage with a dairy setup than for a ranging beef herd. If you have her sewn up with a Buhner needle, the heavy nylon tape is tied off under the vulva, untied at freshening, then retied after calving. This way you don't need a C-section, but you do need to watch your cow closely. If she tries to calve while still sewn up, she will tear herself to pieces back there.

[Ronney]

Lisa, have you had a vet to look at this cow?

A few years ago I had a cow present a prolapse like your girls. This was the second pregnancy that it had happened with. I posted on a homegrown web site about it and a fellow member, who is also a vet, said there are two types of prolapses and for the life of me I cannot now remember the finer points of what she said except I think the name of the second type of prolapse began with a B - most helpful

Like you, because this was the second time with Honey (a Friesian/Hereford) I had visions of having to make unpleasant decisions and ultimately having to send her off. In both cases Honey had been at about the same stage of pregnancy, maybe a little further along, as your cow and on the strength of what this vet said I took the punt. She calved without any problems and has gone on to have several more calves since. She is now R13. I kept her daughter and granddaughter and neither have shown any sign of it. Does that prolapse disappear when she stands up?

I would get a more informed opinion before making any decisions.

Cheers,
Ronnie

[agmantoo]

I had to answer door and managed to get a double post

[agmantoo]

let me check on something that may help.

[agmantoo]

I have never tried this on a cow . Not that this will help anything but it surely will not hurt. I have had hogs to recover by doing the following. Get a squeeze bottle and fill it with vegetable oil. Liberally apply the vegetable oil to the prolapse a couple of times per day. Within a week, the prolapse will withdraw on the hogs. I do not see why this will not work with the cow. The prolapse your cow has is a rather minor one and should respond to this treatment.

[animalfarmer]

Hi,I sent you a P.M. It may be of intrest.Best of luck.

[ksfarmer]

Originally Posted by MARYDVM

That's actually not too bad of a prolapse. Have dealt with much worse in big old stretched out Holsteins. The condition is a lot easier to manage with a dairy setup than for a ranging beef herd. If you have her sewn up with a Buhner needle, the heavy nylon tape is tied off under the vulva, untied at freshening, then retied after calving. This way you don't need a C-section, but you do need to watch your cow closely. If she tries to calve while still sewn up, she will tear herself to pieces back there.

I've had this done too. it works but you have to watch her carefully to when she starts to calve.,,,,,,like Mary says.

[lisarichards]

I thought I'd give an update in case it helps other people with a similar problem.

After that photo was taken, I did have my vet out to look at her. He, like almost everyone else, suggested we cull her or return her or something. The next weekend the American Milking Devon Association held their annual meeting about two hours from me, so I went up to talk to people who owned other AMDs, including the guy I bought her from. All of their advice was that the prolapse was vulva only, and she'd be fine. We decided that we would just watch and wait, see if it got worse.

It never did. I saw the minor prolapse about weekly all through her pregnancy, when she was down in that particular position. There were other positions when she was down that it didn't show. It always went completely back in. I actually saw it less and less as she got closer to full term, which I thought was odd, but I was paying a lot of attention to her backside, looking for signs of labor.

She went five days past her due date, and since we did it AI we knew when she was bred. She didn't have any problems at all delivering her calf, and on Saturday morning as TS Danny poured down heavy rain, she delivered a boy, who of course named Danny.

[Callieslamb]

congratulations! Glad it worked out. How is your cow?

[gone-a-milkin]

Aw, Danny Boy. Congratulations, and thanks for updating the story.