Calving Backwards

Bitten & Hisses

Guys, I'm after an incredibly frustrating period in the last couple weeks. I had 7 cows calve in this time, but in 3 of the cases, the calves were coming out arseways. The first managed to get the legs out herself and I assisted her and managed to get the calf out alive. The second, I could only find an arse and no legs, so had to send for the vet. After much digging around inside in her, we brought out a dead calf. Again yesterday evening, I noticed a cow calving who was forcing but unable to push out her calf. I put on the gloves and brought out the legs, but again the calf was dead.
With the exception of one occurrence last year, where a cow had twins (The second calf came out backwards), I hadn't seen this happen since the late 1980's when I was a kid. Does anyone know, is there a cause or contributory factor in this? I'm at my wits end now and where I would generally be quite relaxed about cows calving, I'm starting to get bloody paranoid!

vanderbadger

sounds like just a bad run of luck, remember reading that when a calf is coming backwards that when the legs are mostly out or effectively the hind end is out you have about 40 secs to clear the rest of the calf as the naval cord is trapped at this point, the cord will rupture and the calf will take in fluid

pakalasa

B&H,
Sorry to hear all this, the joys of farming, eh!

Just a thought but did you change the bull in the last year?
The reason I ask is maybe the genetics of the bull have some effect. When you think about it how else does the gestation length vary from bull to bull and across breeds. The diff between say BB and limousin can be 7 days. It's as though the calf tells the cow when it is time to be born not the other way around.

Could also be diet, minerals....the list goes on.

Bitten & Hisses

The joys of farming indeed! It's the same bull since 2006 and all of the cows in question had calved to him previously, some of them would have calved unattended last year or the year before; hence the head-scratching on my part. My vet has put it down to a run of bad luck, but we'll see what happens in the future I guess.

reilig

Bitten & Hisses wrote: »

The joys of farming indeed! It's the same bull since 2006 and all of the cows in question had calved to him previously, some of them would have calved unattended last year or the year before; hence the head-scratching on my part. My vet has put it down to a run of bad luck, but we'll see what happens in the future I guess.

I'd say it is just bad luck. It can happen with any bull or breed. I've seen it happen often with twins. Hopefully you'll have no more problems.

yessam

A bad run of luck I hope. Did the cows cows get any roughh handling maybe 6-7 months ago which may hav caused the calves to turn. I often blame lambs being turned when handling sheep earlier in the season. I know you dont turn cows upside down.

iano93

We had one backways there a few weeks ago!!:( It died to unfortunately we just arrived wen the calf had been dropped and tried our best to save him but it was too late!! Find if der comin backways once you go to take him(or the cow pushes him) u must be ther to get him out straight away and even at that its tough! We had one last year too and we saved him!:) We jacked him but he was barely alive dad thought he was gone but luckily he came round!!:)

Very interesting wat "vanderbadger" said about having only 40 seconds i'd say its true too!

blue5000

Have you changed the layout of your shed, or are they all calving outside. The reason I ask is that if pregnant cows are going up steps or twisting going in or out a doorway etc. the calves get twisted around inside, might be the cause of your problems.