6 weeks from calf and not too good

KatyMac

Have a cow, 6 weeks from calving, seriously full of fluid. Vet gave her an injection yesterday and she seems bit better today. Something has come away from her - would put you in mind of afterbirth but much smaller. I'm wondering if she was carrying twins and this is what is left of one. (I'm very squeamish about disgusting stuff like that, so didn't want to look too close) What's the chance of there being another calf, do ye think?

Kovu

Six weeks from calving would be very, very late into pregnancy to drop a twin and it'd definitely be recognisable as a calf (think golden retriever dog sized)
Did the vet handle her at all to check the calf wasn't rotten in her? Sorry for the ick image there

KatyMac

She is dropping something this morning. Getting vet out to her. Have red lamp ready just in case as my mother reared one many years ago by 2 hourly feeds.
Your icky image didn't appear Kovu! Whatever came yesterday definitely wasn't dog sized - just looked like a bag of goo.

Kovu

KatyMac wrote: »

She is dropping something this morning. Getting vet out to her. Have red lamp ready just in case as my mother reared one many years ago by 2 hourly feeds.
Your icky image didn't appear Kovu! Whatever came yesterday definitely wasn't dog sized - just looked like a bag of goo.

Oh I hadn't attached an image, just in case I made one appear in your head

To me it sounds like she's aborting. Hope I'm wrong though! The last cow we had full of fluid had a calf that was 'wrong' and calved before her time too. Let us know how it goes.

KatyMac

Well had a 'wonderful' morning!
She had couple more bags of goo and two dog sized, very wrong calves. Absolutely horrible to see.
Vet said it was a rare genetic condition called (pardon spelling) hydramnios (can't remember the very end!), something to do with the placenta filling up with fluid, no room for calf(s) to form properly.
I now seriously worried as I have a full sister of her, same mother/same bull, and had great hopes for her. Vet said to get her checked when about 6 months pregnant as he wouldn't be able to check if all okay much before that.
What a start to the calving season.
At least cow seems to be ok, as vet said if she had gone much further he would have had to cut the calves out and be bad outcome for cow as well. Talk about silver lining to a cloud!

Kovu

Oh crap I'm sorry to hear that at least there's a sort of silver lining in that you noticed it so soon.

KatyMac

Just to let have the rest of the story: Cow was down for rest of Thursday, just about able to get to her feet on Friday. by Saturday she was groaning so much that I was sure she was a goner. Called vet to come and put her out of her misery, but he said she was far from dying, so washed her out and gave her more antibiotics. I've been injecting her every day and have a couple of more to give her, but today I feel we've turned the corner - she is stronger getting to her feet and is munching anything put in front of her.

Kovu

^ Forgot to add to this thread myself! Had a cow yesterday with the very same thing. If you google Hydrops you'll find the two kinds.

Our cow was four weeks from calving and the calf only looked about 6/7 months, mostly hairless and a belly full of fluid/deformed head.
Amazingly the vet has seen three cases this year so far despite it being a rare occurrence normally. Hope this isn't some sort of sign :eek:

She's doing fine though our Dawn (the cow). Was just down with her there and her calf from last year is nuzzling noses with her over the gate so she's happy looking, alert & eating well.