265 days and going crazy :)

DroppedAtBirth · #1 05/09/12, 10:03 AM

So today Mama J. is 265 days and she's looked like this for a week! I can't find the ligaments between her tail and pins (but honestly, I'm not sure I know where to look), she's still got the plugs in 3 of her teats, the 4th I was checking this morning and she oozed a bit of colostrum at me, she has been very loose in the back end since at least Friday, and she's been gooey since Friday. Some of the poking around online that I have done said that jerseys calve from 260-270 days but it was only one article and I am unsure how credible the author is. Her calving history is unknown to me and I got her in Feb. She was A.I.d on August 18th from a red angus named HoHo and the company said she should calve easy. I worry about her calving history being an unknown and am afraid to go anywhere with her looking like this (round trip to town is more than an hour with no stops). I think she's secretly trying to drive me crazy

Just looking for any and all feedback I can get

DroppedAtBirth · #2 05/09/12, 10:08 AM

These pics are yesterday or the day before....her tail is looking a bit more, um, like someone stood at her head, grabbed her tail and pulled it up over her back toward her nose type dislocated

If she were one of my goats, I'd say we'd have a kid on the ground by this time tomorrow (but I really know where to feel for their ligaments well, didn't think of checking the cow for the same until just yesterday

).

dosthouhavemilk · #3 05/09/12, 10:11 AM

The rule of thumb we go by is subtract 3 months and add 10 days for our Jerseys. Which puts her due the 28th.
Her udder should have quite a ways to go yet before she calves, but an older cow will sack up quickly.

myersfarm · #4 05/09/12, 11:24 AM

that dislocated tail look is what your looking for in the picture from rear...

IT is really not so much the tail coming up as the ligaments going down as in relaxed....from the pin bone ( the bones under the skin closes to the camera on each side of tail ) to the tail...you can see the kind of U on each side there if you have another cow or a friend with one go look at them

DroppedAtBirth · #5 05/09/12, 09:25 PM

Have lots of friends with cows, tame ones that I can scratch their butts for em are a bit harder to come by though

even tried with the hand raised heifer we have out there...yeah...she thinks I'm stark raving mad now..."you wanna touch me WHERE Mom!?" haven't convinced her yet that those are scratches just like her belly scratches that she loves, me thinks she mighta heard a few stories from the steer

Not quite so worried about when she started bagging up, seems we used to have a couple of goats wouldn't bag up at all til after the kid was on the ground and a couple that you woulda just about swore they started bagging up the day after they were bred. I just worry about how ready she's been looking as a whole considering we're not at the 270 day mark. How many "preemie" problems would we be able to expect with us being that close? Neighbor came over and looked her over and told me it's possible that she's carrying twins. I'm just not sure she'll make it another 5 days and I'm driving myself crazy with checking on her. She's loose enough when lying down hubby says one good cough ought to not only deliver that calf but do it with enough force to bounce the poor critter off the nearest fence

DroppedAtBirth · #6 05/09/12, 09:45 PM

Oh, and the neighbor had me double check the AI date against the due date we had for her just to make sure it wasn't off after she saw her. I know she'll have the critter when she has it lol but I feel like a little kid waiting for Christmas and I just know Santa's bringin me the coolest present EVER

dosthouhavemilk · #7 05/10/12, 09:07 AM

I still think you have a ways to go on her. I just don't get a sense of imminent parturition when looking at her. Then again, cows do what they are going to do. I am used to heavy producers, so if she isn't a heavy producer she could be ready to calve. With that AI date, I wouldn't get too anxious if she doesn't calve right away.
How old is she? An older cow who has freshened multiple times is going to be looser overall simply due to the stretching she's done delivering calves in the past.

DroppedAtBirth · #8 05/10/12, 03:33 PM

I was told last July she was 4 1/2 so 5 1/2 ish which makes this probably her 4th calf. I'm not really sure on her production. We bought her in Feb and she was drying off at the time and we were getting 1 1/2 to 2 gallons per day then and we only knew she was due in May so dried her off by the first part of March.

randiliana · #9 05/10/12, 10:03 PM

I usually figure on about 283 days.