managing a cow pregnant with twins

awaywithyou

hi,

have a cow due to calve around 15th february... shes pregnant with twins... cow is old enough... 10years+.. she is dried off.. and i am noticing she can be slow to get up off the cubicles....

thinking of taking her out of cubicle house and putting her on a straw bed for a while before calving...

what do ye guys think?

mf240

awaywithyou wrote: »

hi,

have a cow due to calve around 15th february... shes pregnant with twins... cow is old enough... 10years+.. she is dried off.. and i am noticing she can be slow to get up off the cubicles....

thinking of taking her out of cubicle house and putting her on a straw bed for a while before calving...

what do ye guys think?

Straw shed immediately

give her meal and the best silage you have and plenty of pre calver mineral.

slippy wicket

If it were me, i'd give her a mineral bolus, get her on a deep straw bed , a small amount of meal and good silage.

micky mouse

And if was me i would think about inducing her when her time up.Old cow calving twins and if she brings any length of extra time ,that extra weight might be the difference between her getting up after or not

PMU

out to the field with her. if she is stiff now she needs exercise as well as a soft bed. I have one as well, calving april so he will def calve outside

micky mouse

+ one.If she stiff now will only get worse with the weight of the calves growing in her.She needs exercise and she wont get it in a house.Wont do her a bit of harm letting her out

hugo29

micky mouse wrote: »

And if was me i would think about inducing her when her time up.Old cow calving twins and if she brings any length of extra time ,that extra weight might be the difference between her getting up after or not

She won't bring any time, I'd say she will calf two weeks early, best place is sheltered garden, had 6 year old cow calved twins in slatted house last year, she was scanned and did not know she was carrying twins and no problems, year before that had 11 year old cow carrying twins and she was outdoors and went down week before calving, c section and she never got up so its hard to know, both cases they went two weeks early, have 10 year old carrying twins this year and she will stay in shed until feb and go out month before calving

Farmer Pudsey

As MaggieThatcher would sau OUT, OUT, OUT. But do not panic if you have an ould hay shed she can lye in and go out from it during the day. However if she is in a hot shed at present without hair on her at present I would not let her out nless I had a frosty week or two. When you get her out a couple kgs ration make sure she has the right minerals and silage or grass. Make sure she has shelter especially as she is to calve in mid February, may be late January.

The most important thing is not to panic, if you have an over hang on the shed she will lye on top of the silage in front of the shrd when you let her out around the yard. Best of luck

freedominacup

awaywithyou wrote: »

hi,

have a cow due to calve around 15th february... shes pregnant with twins... cow is old enough... 10years+.. she is dried off.. and i am noticing she can be slow to get up off the cubicles....

thinking of taking her out of cubicle house and putting her on a straw bed for a while before calving...

what do ye guys think?

We treat cows with twins as if they were fresh calved milkers. You can't over feed her. The calves never get too big and she needs all of the energy she can get. As with everyone else get her off slats and into somewhere comfortable. The reason for restricting dry cow intakes is to prevent calves from getting too big you don't have that problem.

49801

awaywithyou wrote: »

hi,

have a cow due to calve around 15th february... shes pregnant with twins... cow is old enough... 10years+.. she is dried off.. and i am noticing she can be slow to get up off the cubicles....

thinking of taking her out of cubicle house and putting her on a straw bed for a while before calving...

what do ye guys think?

+1 on what others have said
Plan on taking 1 calf away from her within a day or two and put under a strong milky cow that calves soon after via wet adoption

whelan1

micky mouse wrote: »

And if was me i would think about inducing her when her time up.Old cow calving twins and if she brings any length of extra time ,that extra weight might be the difference between her getting up after or not

when the apple is ripe it will fall, i dont lke inducing cows as the calves lungs mightnt be properly developed

yellow50HX

whelan1 wrote: »

when the apple is ripe it will fall, i dont lke inducing cows as the calves lungs mightnt be properly developed

We haven't had twins in a while now but we used to have at least 1 set every year if not more. We always have the cows out during the day as he lads above they get a bit of exerise and seem to pefer it too. What we noticed with ones with twins was that they weren't able to get into the cubicles so would end up lying in the passage so we would move them to the straw bed. As for inducing, should be no reason with twins as long as the cow is fit and healthy she will pop them out as the calves are smaller so there tends to be less pressure on her. Had to induce a couple of cows a few years back, BBX with a lim calf. Should have done it with the rest of the blues, lesson learned.

rs8

agree with farmer pudsey if she could go out during the day and come in at nite to straw bedded shed would be best! i wouldnt give her any meal pre calver is what she wants

mf240

rs8 wrote: »

agree with farmer pudsey if she could go out during the day and come in at nite to straw bedded shed would be best! i wouldnt give her any meal pre calver is what she wants

Agree with the out by day if possible (if not a big straw shed be grand)
also precalver is a must.

But she needs meal she is a 10 year old cow growing two calves and keeping a 6/700 kg body alive, as others have said the calves wont get too big as there twins.

If you dont feed meal you will find it very hard to get her going after calving.

Figerty

Take her out, give her a good straw bed, put her on meal but not too much,
Leave here with sight of the other cattle. Cows don't like being away from the herd it stresses them. Stress not a good thing for a cow in calf!

greysides

Make sure she's well dosed.

Bodacious

Had scanner today and 3rd calver (twin herself) bulled 8 weeks ago and he didn't like the look of her and wants to re scan reckons its like twins but a lot of fluid around the pregnancy so she could be losing /lost one of the foetuses or she could well loose the lot... Anyone get this crack before?

I just gave her animal thriver, fresh grass and isolated her to give her meal/TLC in the hope she holds on to at least one live pregnancy.. She well dosed ... Calf weaned and in good body condition ... Any other advice ?

shamnspace

have exactly the same senario as bodacious goin to scan my 4th calver in a week or so I Know its a while but wonder how you got on with yours bodacious

Nettleman

Anybody ever use kexxtone on cows with twins?

farmersfriend

Usually it's after calving twins that the problem arises,more likely not to clean and to get infections. If they get sick they fail a lot quicker than after a single calf. we would usually leave the calves on her for a couple of weeks and keep her in a straw shed with good feeding, they are just under pressure after doing twice the job of the other cows and need a bit of tlc.

Bodacious

Bodacious wrote: »

Had scanner today and 3rd calver (twin herself) bulled 8 weeks ago and he didn't like the look of her and wants to re scan reckons its like twins but a lot of fluid around the pregnancy so she could be losing /lost one of the foetuses or she could well loose the lot... Anyone get this crack before?

I just gave her animal thriver, fresh grass and isolated her to give her meal/TLC in the hope she holds on to at least one live pregnancy.. She well dosed ... Calf weaned and in good body condition ... Any other advice ?

mine threw the two calves.. scanner felt she would and she did!

whelan2

had 2 sets of twins in the last few days, didnt know either where expecting twins so they got no tlc precalving, both sets are doing well and both cows dropped their cleanings, calves still on them for the time being

solerina

mf240 wrote: »

Agree with the out by day if possible (if not a big straw shed be grand)
also precalver is a must.

But she needs meal she is a 10 year old cow growing two calves and keeping a 6/700 kg body alive, as others have said the calves wont get too big as there twins.

If you dont feed meal you will find it very hard to get her going after calving.

Not always the case, our last set of twins were both enormous, definitely no smaller than singles !!