And the weirdest calving this season award

ozark_jewels · #1 01/15/10, 06:31 PM

goes to #20. She had a long labour for no apparent reason(fully dialated, calves feet and head were normal sized(#20 is a very big Holstien). Finally we had to get her in a stall and check to see what the problem was. I couldn't find any problems. I went in all the way to my shoulder(tells you how well dialated she was, My arm was in there with the calf out almost up to the shoulders and there was plenty of room), and couldn't find any impediment. But the calf was obviously dead. So we pulled out the OB chains and had four strong people pulling with her every contraction. Nothing, this calf wasn't budging, which made no sense as the shoulders were in plain sight, the hard part should have been over. So we used some more lube and pulled some more. Nothing. I went in to check again and I couldn't swear to it, but it felt...wrong. Kinda bloated, but the head and legs looked fine. Then I noticed the skin at the shoulder had torn a little from the pressure and *water* was dripping out of the tear.......aha! Ok, so I grabbed a pocket knife and cut the skin on top of the shoulder blade. Stand back!! A gush of yellowish water shot into the air about two feet. After about 3 gallons of water drained out of the calf, #20 heaved again and out slithered a huge "water calf". It had some normal looking parts, but most of it was bloated and sloshy. The backbone was separated in the middle. #20 hopped right up and started licking it.
I didn't manage to get a picture until after my brothers hauled it off to the woods, so a lot more water drained out of it between birth and picture, probably another few gallons at least. Here it is, looking rather like a popped balloon. Too bad I was so busy, I would have liked to cut it open and see what it was like inside.

And the weirdest calving this season award - Cattle

And the weirdest calving this season award - Cattle

By the way, #20 got a shot of Banamine, Excenel, Oxytocin, and Selenium and she never looked back. We gave her a calf that had been born during the night on one of those below 0 nights last week and had frostbitten legs and nose. He gets around, but slowly. She just loves him.

francismilker · #2 01/15/10, 06:44 PM

Can honestly say I've never encountered that and hope to never. It's a good thing you went in for inspection. I can see a cow getting tore up pretty bad from continued jacking on a calf with a bottom end like that. It was almost kinda mushroom shaped wasn't it?

springvalley · #3 01/15/10, 08:57 PM

Emily; I can honestly say that all my years have never seen anything like it. Do you live near a nuclear plant? Do you think the calf had been dead awhile and the cord just kept suppying it with fluid? Thanks Marc.

ozark_jewels · #4 01/15/10, 09:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by springvalley

Emily; I can honestly say that all my years have never seen anything like it. Do you live near a nuclear plant? Do you think the calf had been dead awhile and the cord just kept suppying it with fluid? Thanks Marc.

No, we live way out in the middle of nothing. The vet thought that might be what happened(the calf dying but the cow kept feeding the corpse), but even she wasn't sure. I hope to never see it again! #20 has always had normal healthy calves in the past.
I'll tell you what, I am impressed with her. She acts like she had the easiest calving in the world. When we were pulling on that calf, I felt like we were turning her inside out.......

Cheribelle · #5 01/15/10, 09:09 PM

I have never heard of such a thing. Any more information? How did you know what to do?

deineria · #6 01/15/10, 10:00 PM

Oh my. Well, very informative and it is great you knew what to do and was able to actually get it out. Scares the crap out of me - I'd have been clueless.

ozark_jewels · #7 01/15/10, 10:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by deineria

Oh my. Well, very informative and it is great you knew what to do and was able to actually get it out. Scares the crap out of me - I'd have been clueless.

Oh don't worry, I was clueless! But once I saw that water dribbling out of the tear in the skin, in my brain it clicked with the "wrong" feel of the back-end of the calf that I could feel still inside the cow. I had never heard of anything like a "water calf"(for lack of anything better to call it), but I figured the calf was dead, it wasn't going to hurt anything if I cut its hide, so I did, and that just happened to be the right thing to do.
Oh, talked to my vet this evening and she said there is a name for that condition......but she didn't have the info in front of her as she was driving. I'll post it when I get it.

G. Seddon · #8 01/16/10, 07:40 AM

Arthrogryposis?

desertshi · #9 01/16/10, 09:44 AM

wow! It looks fully formed and everything too!? Iwonder if it died just recently....

Up North · #10 01/16/10, 12:42 PM

Well this would be a first for me as well. Didn't even know something like that could happen. Heather

CIW · #11 01/16/10, 01:51 PM

Just a thought.
I wonder if there could have been a twin that grew inside of that calf and you cut into what may have been the other calfs amniotic sac.
I think that they call it a parasitic twin. The second baby usually doesn't fully mature.

MARYDVM · #12 01/16/10, 05:28 PM

The condition is fetal ascites, or "dropsy". You're lucky that the cows intense labor ruptured the calf's diaphragm and allowed the fluid to be pushed into the chest and up under the skin where you saw it leaking out. Usually the fluid is confined to the abdomen and to "pop" the fetus you have to reach in past the last rib and puncture the abdomen. NOT recommended to do this with a knife or scalpel since it's very easy to puncture the uterus instead. Your vet carries a tool made just for this situation that has a blade that sticks out at a right angle(L shaped) to the handle with only the point and inner edge sharpened. This is cupped inside the palm until in position to puncture the calf's belly.

I used to see one or two of these calves a year when in practice.

Lizza · #13 01/16/10, 07:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MARYDVM

The condition is fetal ascites, or "dropsy". You're lucky that the cows intense labor ruptured the calf's diaphragm and allowed the fluid to be pushed into the chest and up under the skin where you saw it leaking out. Usually the fluid is confined to the abdomen and to "pop" the fetus you have to reach in past the last rib and puncture the abdomen. NOT recommended to do this with a knife or scalpel since it's very easy to puncture the uterus instead. Your vet carries a tool made just for this situation that has a blade that sticks out at a right angle(L shaped) to the handle with only the point and inner edge sharpened. This is cupped inside the palm until in position to puncture the calf's belly.

I used to see one or two of these calves a year when in practice.

Thank you very much for explaining it so well Mary, I was really wondering what went wrong with the calf, having our first cow I worry about not being prepared for the worst. Yet one more reason I told my daughter that she'll never be rid of me, I will always be living next door! My oldest daughter just started year 1, taking her only her basics, at our community college, but eventually will be transferring and applying to our vet program here at OSU, she's going to become a large animal vet (eventually!).