difficult birth

genebo · #1 12/11/04, 11:38 PM

My neighbor called me tonight. He needed help with his cow.

He'd bought an Angus cow at a high dollar sale. She was bred to an expensive "calving ease" bull. She was a good looking cow and friendly, too.

However, she was having trouble with the calf. It wouldn't come. Only a foot was out.

He reached in and got the other foot turned out and we pulled, but it wouldn't come. He reached in and got the calf's head turned forward. With some strong pulls, the knees and nose showed, but no more. It was obvious the calf was dead.

We tied the calf's legs and attached the rope to my utility vehicle. With a steady strain and some help from her, the calf finally came. It took 45 minutes from the time we started. She'd been in labor for 12 hours.

Here's the hard part: the calf weighed 80 lb.! It looked like a month old calf. So much for "calving ease". The calf's head was enormous.

I told him that the next heifers he wants bred he should borrow a Dexter bull. My last Dexter calf weighed 26 lb.

We gave the cow penicillin and left her to rest.

Now how do we prevent mastitis since there is no calf to nurse? Is that ever a problem in Angus like it is in dairy cattle?

Genebo
Paradise Farm

julielou · #2 12/12/04, 02:25 AM

If she's tamed, you could milk her. My cow's 3/4 Guernsey X Angus and gives super milk. Many in these parts milk Anguses. Good luck!

angus_guy · #3 12/12/04, 05:32 AM

Could you get a calf to put on her so she could nurse it

Jena · #4 12/12/04, 08:48 AM

Mastitis should not be a problem and the antibiotics you gave her should help. I would give her something more like LA 200 though. We never milk out a cow or do anything else if we lose a calf and have never had a problem. We have angus and simmis.

One thing about using a calving ease bull....people think that the bull will solve the problem. They can help, but if that cow had EPD's for high birth weights, that will also affect the size of the calf. I just pulled a calf from my South Devon heifer. The calf had a leg back, but was also huge. She was bred by the same bull that everyone else was bred too and this was the only monster calf. I can't blame the bull, I think it was the cow. Mom and baby were both fine in this instance.

Jena