cow going down awkward at calving

ellewood

hey, i had the last cow calve over the weekend the calf was biggish probobly my own fault as she was the last she was in on her own and wasnt being restricted and even tho she is a small cow she eats more than the biggest i have, anyway she went to calve and the legs were big so put her in calving gate and got the jack - all going fine until she went down but she didnt luy down she sat down on her arse with her 2 front legs + head still up so couldnt use the jack the calf was out past the shoulders at this stage so i had to take off the jack try turn over cow and put jack back on under the calf to use jack again, got calf after a while but was fairly near dead but after a few days minding him he seem to be getting ok now i know if she had to have stayed standing id have got the calf out in a few mins and hed have been fine.

the question i have is - is there any way to stop a cow going down awkwardly while calving so as to ensure you can still use a calving jack - putting something under them or fixing some sort of a frame on the wall which some sort of a sling could be put under a cow or how does anybody else overcome this problem..

charliecon

Exactly the same happened to me a few years ago but unfortunately the calf didn't survive :mad: Now I always put a halter on the cow and tie her head down as low as possible so she cannot sit down like that and she won't choke if she falls

ellewood

good idea tks

Rovi

In 50 odd years of looking at cattle, I've only ever seen a cow 'sit like a dog' (back end down, front end up) 3 or 4 times.

Voluntarily, anyway.

I've seen a few end up that way when caught in an old-fashioned headstock where the beast physically can't get their head to the ground.

In the vast majority of situations that I've encountered, a cow will calve in one of three positions: standing, lying down upright, lying down flat on her side.
Assistance can be rendered in all three positions, with 'lying down upright' being the most awkward when using a jack.
The thing is though, if you're at the 'jack' stage, she'll usually end up flat on her side anyway.

It's essential that the cow can get into whichever position she wants, so whatever way she's restrained need to allow her to do so.
As said above, a halter rope tied off as low as possible is probably best.
Even with a modern full height headstock, starting in with the jack on a standing cow can lead to disaster pretty quickly if she goes down suddenly; you'll then have a cow hanging by the head and the headstock jammed shut by her weight.