she's dead

scholtefamily · #1 02/16/11, 10:53 PM

My husband went out to check on the cows like he does every night and found one of them dead in the doorway of the barn. The last time I saw her was this morning around 10am. She was fine, not acting strange. Laying in the grass chewing her cud.

What do you think happened? This is a very healthy cow that has never had any problems. When we found her her back left leg was completely straight out behind her. Her front left leg was flat(straight) under her. Her right legs were normal like she would be if lying down. Her head was cocked to her left side, but not touching it. The only thing I can think is she fell and broke her neck or something.

In light of previous posts in the past days. I'm a little nervous if this doesn't sound like a random fall or something. Any thoughts?

Thanks

myersfarm · #2 02/16/11, 11:02 PM

sounds like a STROKE to me....one side stopped working...

springvalley · #3 02/16/11, 11:03 PM

WOW, I have no idea, could be any number of things. She could have had a heart attack, it does happen. So very sorry. > Marc

willow_girl · #4 02/16/11, 11:23 PM

Weird things happen sometimes.

Last month we had a cow who made 126 lbs. of milk on test @ 60 DIM; two days later, I found her lying in the alley. She wasn't split but I couldn't get her up. We used the hip lifter and put her in a box stall, gave her calcium, selenium, dextrose, everything we could think of, but she wouldn't stand up; wouldn't even hold her weight up when we picked her up. Two days later, she died. We still have no clue ...

tinknal · #5 02/17/11, 06:16 AM

Was she vaccinated for blackleg?

linn · #6 02/17/11, 07:26 AM

Sorry to hear about your cow. It sounds like a stroke or heat attack to me. I suppose it could have been calcium defeciency, how long ago did she calve? With blackleg, the shoulder puffs up because of the gases that form under the skin, and they don't die that suddenly. We lost some calves years ago to blackleg.

Madsaw · #7 02/17/11, 07:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by linn

Sorry to hear about your cow. It sounds like a stroke or heat attack to me. I suppose it could have been calcium defeciency, how long ago did she calve? With blackleg, the shoulder puffs up because of the gases that form under the skin, and they don't die that suddenly. I know because we lost some calves years ago to blackleg.

Linn,
There is many strains of the clostridail bacteria in the blackleg family. Some can be very fast killers. I lost a cow one day. Left teh barn at 11 and went back at 1. The cow was dead and bloated. Usally when they die fast with it they stink real bad and bloat fast.
Bob

linn · #8 02/17/11, 07:50 AM

Wow, thanks for the info. I guess it could have been blackleg then. Guess I will have to edit my former post, because apparently I didn't know. LOL

scholtefamily · #9 02/17/11, 09:43 AM

She was not vaccinated for blackleg. She was 3 years old and calved in June 2010. She was not pregnant.

bigbluegrass · #10 02/17/11, 10:17 AM

Why wasn't she pregnant? Just not exposed to a bull or did you have a hard time getting her bred?

scholtefamily · #11 02/17/11, 11:00 AM

the few times we had her AI'ed she didn't take.

bigbluegrass · #12 02/17/11, 02:57 PM

Not breeding back can be a sign that the cow was indeed sick, even if you don't notice anything else. Of course it could also be a problem with the AI tech or many other things. But if you tried to AI her several times, it makes me wonder if there was some underlying problem. A cow that has a hard time breeding back is generally not healthy. From June of 2010 to today is around 8 months, should have been about 7 or at least 6 cycles in there. Makes me wonder.

myersfarm · #13 02/17/11, 03:04 PM

will never know

scholtefamily · #14 02/17/11, 03:16 PM

My cow was not a high producer. She was giving us just under 2 gallons of milk a day on once a day milking. This is not our livelihood. I believe she was only AI'ed up to 3 times in the last several months. Our timing could have been off, our AI guy could have been off. Most likely it was a combination of the two. We are not pushing her to her limits and if and when she gets bred wasn't a huge deal to us. She was a family cow.

thanks for your condolensces.

prairiegirl · #15 02/17/11, 03:38 PM

So sorry this happened to your cow.

Karen in Alabam · #16 02/17/11, 09:40 PM

Sorry to hear about your cow. Didn't catch in the beginning it was a milk cow. I think that would be harder to take than just a beef cow, at least for me, you just spend a lot of time with the milk cow.