Heifer after c-section gone off grub

cattle man

Hi there

i have a heifer which had a c section 6 days ago. since then she hasnt eatin much and has hardly any milk even tho at calving she had milk.

any advice would be grateful or has this happened to anyone else?

biddy2013

What injections has she been on? Get on to vet as peritonitis could be setting in

cattle man

biddy2013 wrote: »

What injections has she been on? Get on to vet as peritonitis could be setting in

she just got long acting antibiotics day of the section and one follow up for the next day. hasn't received anything else since.

shes still up and alert and passing dung just no real interest in eating silage or nuts

badshot

cattle man wrote: »

she just got long acting antibiotics day of the section and one follow up for the next day. hasn't received anything else since.

shes still up and alert and passing dung just no real interest in eating silage or nuts

any section i ever had done
would usually involve giving antibiotics
everyday for a week.
contact your vet

Capercaille

cattle man wrote: »

she just got long acting antibiotics day of the section and one follow up for the next day. hasn't received anything else since.

shes still up and alert and passing dung just no real interest in eating silage or nuts

The local vet here puts the c-section animals on antibiotics for 5 days. She could have held a bit of cleanings as well which would make her sick. Get the vet to check her out. the vet often sayes if the beast is eating after a section she will be grand, if she's not eating she's in trouble.

biddy2013

give her some ivy or let her out for an hour on a nice bit of grass, she probably needs betamox or similar to pick her up

cattle man

biddy2013 wrote: »

give her some ivy or let her out for an hour on a nice bit of grass, she probably needs betamox or similar to pick her up

After getting 3 days of noroclav off the vet now to give her. Will try some ivy this evening. Thank for the advice

jomoloney

cattle man wrote: »

After getting 3 days of noroclav off the vet now to give her. Will try some ivy this evening. Thank for the advice

a shot for pain relief might help also

slippy wicket

jomoloney wrote: »

a shot for pain relief might help also

Not colvosone if you happen to have any.
She wouldn't need any extra hit to her immune system.

Loxicom would be a help at a guess.

biddy2013

hows is she now?

cattle man

biddy2013 wrote: »

hows is she now?

HI biddy

still not great to be honest. had vet out last Saturday week and she said she had a injection in the womb and injected her with prosolvin to try and get her to pass some of the infection in the womb as she was to tight to wash out. continued her on noroclav and and she is still on that. had her out grazing for a few hours during the day and she is picking at grass.

But then this evening she passed a lot of infection and a bad smell from the wound from the bottom of the section and one stitches has opened so getting vet back in the am :mad: i suppose its better that the infection has bust out really what do you think ?

dar31

Dehydration, are eyes sunken in head
Stomach might not be functioning properly either ways vet is required asap.
Don't see many sections getting infections unless it was a balls of a job

dar31

Dehydration, are eyes sunken in head
Stomach might not be functioning properly either ways vet is required asap.
Don't see many sections getting infections unless it was a balls of a job

Capercaille

dar31 wrote: »

Dehydration, are eyes sunken in head
Stomach might not be functioning properly either ways vet is required asap.
Don't see many sections getting infections unless it was a balls of a job

Local vets say that 10% of cattle getting c-sections don't make it. A vet could do a perfect job and the beast might still die.

biddy2013

Capercaille wrote: »

Local vets say that 10% of cattle getting c-sections don't make it. A vet could do a perfect job and the beast might still die.

hope that isnt the same for humans:rolleyes: in fairness the vet doing the op will determine the outcome

cattle man

dar31 wrote: »

Dehydration, are eyes sunken in head
Stomach might not be functioning properly either ways vet is required asap.
Don't see many sections getting infections unless it was a balls of a job

she still drinking plenty still lacking apatite according to the vet is from the infection in the womb. she has been like this for the past week or more not really sure what to do all vet keeps doing is filling her with noroclav.:mad:

she will have to re stitch the wound i would think because after today the wound is quiet open at the bottom again

biddy2013

cattle man wrote: »

she still drinking plenty still lacking apatite according to the vet is from the infection in the womb. she has been like this for the past week or more not really sure what to do all vet keeps doing is filling her with noroclav.:mad:

she will have to re stitch the wound i would think because after today the wound is quiet open at the bottom again

are you washing the wound?

dar31

cattle man wrote: »

she still drinking plenty still lacking apatite according to the vet is from the infection in the womb. she has been like this for the past week or more not really sure what to do all vet keeps doing is filling her with noroclav.:mad:

she will have to re stitch the wound i would think because after today the wound is quiet open at the bottom again

Had 4 from 70 this autum with twisted womb in a row, 2 were sectioned lose both stomach stopped working no matter what we tried couldn't get them going
Bit of a bit@h

RobertKK

Had one section two years ago, it was on a belgian blue who was in calf to the supposedly easy calving ERE limousin bull.
The calf was a monster, called the vet as the legs were huge and exit was not the biggest.
The vet said we should try and pull it, I said I wanted a section done.
After the section was done and calf delivered, the vet said it was a good thing we didn't try and pull it.

J.O. Farmer

biddy2013 wrote: »

hope that isnt the same for humans:rolleyes: in fairness the vet doing the op will determine the outcome

I hope human operating theatres are a little cleaner than your average farmyard. A good vet will give you better odds than a poor one but given the conditions your never going to reach 100% success rate unless a vet is very very good or very very lucky and probably a bit of both.

Milked out

Might be worth getting the vet to check for a displaced abomasum, had a cow with triplets once and she developed the displacement while recovering form the calving

Figerty

Only ever had three sections, thankfully all successful and all calved again.
One thing the vet had us do in each case was get a bottle of hydrogen peroxide to put on the external wound to keep it clean and to keep off the flies.
The wound should be open at the bottom to let it drain outward.
I have two exceptionally good vets that did the sections. Hyper concisous about cleanliness in the process.
Unfortunately, the odds are still that some will go wrong. However, if this cow is still up and going at this stage she has a chance.

leg wax

i was in belgium before christmas, our vets have a lot to learn about c sections, the quality of the work was ex, the vets over there only give penstrep the day of the operation no more unless the cow gets a temp, no holes left open for drainage,they were so good at sewing they could put a zip in my sunday trousers .

Figerty

leg wax wrote: »

i was in belgium before christmas, our vets have a lot to learn about c sections, the quality of the work was ex, the vets over there only give penstrep the day of the operation no more unless the cow gets a temp, no holes left open for drainage,they were so good at sewing they could put a zip in my sunday trousers .

The vet I have spent years on ranches on farms in Canada, he is ultra particular about the process. You would find different version of the methods everywhere. I also heard that in the Belgium/Holland that the farmers were doing their own section after some training. I doubt that is true thought. There's too much risk involved.

cattle man

Figerty wrote: »

Only ever had three sections, thankfully all successful and all calved again.
One thing the vet had us do in each case was get a bottle of hydrogen peroxide to put on the external wound to keep it clean and to keep off the flies.
The wound should be open at the bottom to let it drain outward.
I have two exceptionally good vets that did the sections. Hyper concisous about cleanliness in the process.
Unfortunately, the odds are still that some will go wrong. However, if this cow is still up and going at this stage she has a chance.

hi all.

i have had the vet out again Monday and she said this time she has a bad case of peritonitis.

cow is still on pen-strep and is just picking at silage and drinking water.

i dont know how long to continue to go with the pen strep as she is not getting any worse and not really getting much better. not sure where to go from here.:(

cute geoge

mix a pack of glucose with wate4 should stop dehydwation

Bizzum

cattle man wrote: »

hi all.

i have had the vet out again Monday and she said this time she has a bad case of peritonitis.

cow is still on pen-strep and is just picking at silage and drinking water.

i dont know how long to continue to go with the pen strep as she is not getting any worse and not really getting much better. not sure where to go from here.:(

We had a heifer that took a long time to recover from a section. In fact I dunno how she survived, there were plenty of times we thought she'd be dead the next morning. She was a shook outfit for several weeks but stabilised and then went ahead. Keep with her an hopefully she'll be lucky.

Farrell

Bizzum wrote: »

We had a heifer that took a long time to recover from a section. In fact I dunno how she survived, there were plenty of times we thought she'd be dead the next morning. She was a shook outfit for several weeks but stabilised and then went ahead. Keep with her an hopefully she'll be lucky.

Did it take her long to come through?

Bizzum

Farrell wrote: »

Did it take her long to come through?

It certainly took a month before she turned the corner. And there were several times we thought it was curtains for her, but she struggled on. When she started to go ahead, she flew.
We had 2 sections around the same time, I know I put up pics of the other heifer on the photo thread. This one was flying from the off and went out to grass after 5 days and never looked back.
Both reared their calves and were fattened and moved on.

biddy2013

cattle man wrote: »

hi all.

i have had the vet out again Monday and she said this time she has a bad case of peritonitis.

cow is still on pen-strep and is just picking at silage and drinking water.

i dont know how long to continue to go with the pen strep as she is not getting any worse and not really getting much better. not sure where to go from here.:(

is pen/strep strong enough?

Farrell

Bizzum wrote: »

It certainly took a month before she turned the corner. And there were several times we thought it was curtains for her, but she struggled on. When she started to go ahead, she flew.
We had 2 sections around the same time, I know I put up pics of the other heifer on the photo thread. This one was flying from the off and went out to grass after 5 days and never looked back.
Both reared their calves and were fattened and moved on.

We've 1 calved in September, needed op as pelvis too small, then vet had to come to remove cleanings, just seemed to go off food & dehydrated (same as op) wasted away. Eating better now, but still skin & bones, hopefully she'll fly4 at grass

cattle man

biddy2013 wrote: »

is pen/strep strong enough?

Ya I know I was thinking the same biddy but I had her on noroclav for 2 weeks and changed onto pen strep about a week ago. Don't know should I go back to noroclav really don't know how long should I keep goin at this she still the same today picking at nuts and silage not much interest tho. Strong enough smell out of her too but washing the wound with detol also daily which seems to be helping that.

biddy2013

cattle man wrote: »

Ya I know I was thinking the same biddy but I had her on noroclav for 2 weeks and changed onto pen strep about a week ago. Don't know should I go back to noroclav really don't know how long should I keep goin at this she still the same today picking at nuts and silage not much interest tho. Strong enough smell out of her too but washing the wound with detol also daily which seems to be helping that.

mmmm, i have a few touch and go cows at the minute, i let them out to a paddock when the weather is nice for a few hours, i should probably cut my losses but i get great satisfaction of eventually getting one off to the factory in good nick. Has she any milk for the calf? are you washing the wound? maybe a shot of estrumate?

biddy2013

Sorry just reread there dettol mightnt be strong enough. Maybe salt and water or hydrogen peroxide ( I think it's called) also Manuka honey you can get it in aldi etc will keep wound clean

Mad4simmental

Would sum sort of a steroid type injection be good to get her going?

cattle man

biddy2013 wrote: »

mmmm, i have a few touch and go cows at the minute, i let them out to a paddock when the weather is nice for a few hours, i should probably cut my losses but i get great satisfaction of eventually getting one off to the factory in good nick. Has she any milk for the calf? are you washing the wound? maybe a shot of estrumate?

I know the feeling it's hard to give up when she's no worse and still trying I had her out today for few hours but. She didn't eat much. ya vet gave her estrumate shot there the second time she was out and no she has no milk now since about 3 days after calving. But on the bright side great bull calf is doin well on milk replacer

Cowmad

Had a cow the same way this year.Called back the vet and he gave us Rumen booster for 3 days. this got her going and he put her on noraclav for 5 days. this seemed to sort her out. try her with hay change can be good too.

biddy2013

Cowmad wrote: »

Had a cow the same way this year.Called back the vet and he gave us Rumen booster for 3 days. this got her going and he put her on noraclav for 5 days. this seemed to sort her out. try her with hay change can be good too.

Ye stimulex and chanatol.

J.O. Farmer

cattle man wrote: »

Ya I know I was thinking the same biddy but I had her on noroclav for 2 weeks and changed onto pen strep about a week ago. Don't know should I go back to noroclav really don't know how long should I keep goin at this she still the same today picking at nuts and silage not much interest tho. Strong enough smell out of her too but washing the wound with detol also daily which seems to be helping that.

Why did you change to penstrep from noroclav. Noroclav is from the penicillin group and has the clav part to help work on bacteria resistant to penicillin. With the change to penstrep you are more looking for the strep part to work.
Biddy mentioned hydrogen peroxide and she's right on it. The pharmacy would have it. It is probably a 3% solution or something. I'm not sure but I think you could use it neat. If not I think a 1:10 dilution should work.
How about spraying with strong 10% iodine.

biddy2013

how is she now?

cattle man

biddy2013 wrote: »

how is she now?

Much the same not much change giving her stimulax now the past two days and also a vit and min injection think I'm goin to stop the noroclav on Tuesday and see what happens

Bizzum

She must be totally pissed off with all the handling. It turns into an ordeal, the whole thing.

cattle man

Bizzum wrote: »

She must be totally pissed off with all the handling. It turns into an ordeal, the whole thing.

I know well she just knows now when ya come into her to walk into the crush. I'd say she is well sick of needles. Bit of a mess really