cows throwing dead premature calves

Dickie10

had two cows throw dead premature calves. any ideas? thought the first one got a dunt or belt in pen. have i too many in the pen perhaps? only 18 in a double bay slats room for 16 cows to feed both sides at once . could it be toxo? i lost three sets of twins lambs to abortion from cats. these cows may have got some of that hay that was contaminated. either way i think im done with sucklers to be honest. those cows are heading for factory in may. prob just buy in 10-15 extra weanlings each autumn instead

charolais0153

Dickie10 wrote: »

had two cows throw dead premature calves. any ideas? thought the first one got a dunt or belt in pen. have i too many in the pen perhaps? only 18 in a double bay slats room for 16 cows to feed both sides at once . could it be toxo? i lost three sets of twins lambs to abortion from cats. these cows may have got some of that hay that was contaminated. either way i think im done with sucklers to be honest. those cows are heading for factory in may. prob just buy in 10-15 extra weanlings each autumn instead

Bring to a laboratory. Could be anything.
If there is competition for feed and your restricting them before calving your asking for trouble. Lots of pucking and velting trying to get to barrier i imagine

whelan2

What did your vet say? Do you vaccinate for anything?

Dickie10

no i didnt vaccinate only rotavec corona

mahoney_j

How premature were they ??could be salmonella ,lepton or possibly iodine deficiency

Angus2018

Mineral Lick? Condition?

I lost 2 full calves a few years ago, the cows aborted both of them in the same night. It was horrible. The worst thing is I never got an answer. A department vet came out and did 2 separate blood tests but they didn't find anything. Autopsy on both calves came back with nothing either.

Dickie10

oh its horrible! i could take one and put it down too bad luck but two. its knocked be back big time. wasnt sure about continuing with sucklers now i think my mind has been made up. had two nice simmental hiefers lined up for bulling this summer but im going to finish them now.cows were getting plenty of minerals every day more than enough each on silage. the more i think of it the more i think i would be better of to finish an extra 20 cattle a year than have cows

Hard Knocks

Bring to the lab, best to know
Had that last year, all came up clear.
Then I saw a little runt of a weanling that was put in pen trying to dunt

Dickie10

i have a feeling it could be dunting too a rogue cow

Who2

A friend lost five or six this way last year, tested for everything possible and got no answers at all. He put plenty of minerals, blouses feed checked, bloods done the lot and still none. Sorry I know it’s not much help.

Mooooo

Get calves to lab including the cleaning if it's there and blood the cows

Westernrock

I’d still take aborted foetus to the lab and maybe get cows bled.
It’s very rare that a cow ever aborts due to getting a dunt, the calf is well protected inside fluid inside the uterus. It could lead to inflammation in the uterus I guess but it would be unlikely to be the cause of abortion.
The reason we get so many negative results from labs is the tests are not 100%, often the lab only get one foetus out of a group and it’s usually gone off when they get it.

patsy_mccabe

Were these 2 cows the most timid in the group?

Dickie10

no not really

Henwin

we had 2 cows throw cows as well this year, we sent them to the lab but no results yet, but we reckon it was a batch of mouldy straw tat was the problem, we use a diet feeder and mix a small bit of straw wit d silage, maybe it was bad silage?

Dickie10

got the silage tested its very good, but i did use old hay or hay cats could have been on, would it be toxo? 3 doubles ewes aborted earlier this month. thanks for all the help though, really pissed off over this