Cow sick at the calving

bosallagh88

Out of interest how long would people leave a cow sick at the calving say standing with tail up restless etc with no sign of feet or water bag before checking calf presentation?

Lime Tree Farm

This sounds like a twisted uterus, Check her for dilation, if you can't get your hand in - it is time the call the Vet - sooner rather than later.

RD10

Had a cow like that nearly an hour and a half, no sign of anything, hand in and a twin calf with the head and feet down, pulled them up and she started forcing like mad. I had a feeling since the waterbag didnt show and she'd usually be ok.
Lucky i checked when i did, i think he wouldnt have lasted too much longer

Sugarbowl

I had one slow to calve like that last night - it was just a big calf and came out with a pull. She was about 3 hours restless with the tail out etc. best to check her just to be sure but all could be fine too and she is just slow to open.

RD10

You'll find aswell if you see them very restless for a while like that and they seem to give up and lie doing nothing more, theres usually a reason that the calf cant come naturally. ie feet/head down, backwards calf etc

bosallagh88

Yea had one like that for about three hours with no sign of feet or water bag so calved her was a big calf so maybe she pressed a bit and stopped when she wasn’t progressing Just wondering how long most people would leave it thanks for replys

tanko

Two hours at the most i'd say. If the cow is too fat and the calf a bit big sometimes the cow just doesn't make the effort even if the calf is properly presented.
If she's up and down and pushing hard with no sign of feet either the calf is big, isn't presented properly, she hasn't opened up enough or something like a twisted calf bed.

A couple of weeks ago i had a fat eleven year old cow calving which wasn't making any progress, handled her, didn't feel comfortable putting the jack on her, calf was coming right but she wasn't open fully. Rang the vet who gave her a bottle of calcium under the skin and a shot of oxytocin.
This got her going and she got down to it and calved two hours later.
Vet said older fat cows can be lacking in calcium leaving them lazy to calve.
She got plenty of pre calver minerals tho.

RedPeppers

bosallagh88 wrote: »

Out of interest how long would people leave a cow sick at the calving say standing with tail up restless etc with no sign of feet or water bag before checking calf presentation?

Always keep check on them with the camera here. Will leave them two hours from first signs of been sick then I would handle them. What I find a lot of the time the cow just needs longer. I think too many lads out there go pulling calves when cow is not ready and end up in all sorts of trouble. To give an example had a cow earlier this year, handled cow as no progress after a few hours. Calf was a good bit in and cow wasn’t fully opened. If I went in with the jack at that stage I would have wrecked the cow. Left her another hour and she calved on her own. Also sometimes you can be lucky and other times not. Had two cows here this year where I missed them passing water bag and in both cases it was over 6 hours later before calves were delivered and both were alive.

AckwelFoley

Hmm..perhaps being "sick of calving" means different things to us, but a cow can be off form for a few hours before going into full blown labour. We would always refer to the early stages of the cow being off form as sick of calving.

Anyhow, if she's trying to calve and nothing happening, yes.m2 hours or so is about it. Cameras are great for this because the cow doesn't get upset/ interrupted by us going at her until its needed so you get a better look at them on the camera

whelan2

I think every cow or heifer is different. The one thing I know after handling is if the calving is beyond me. Vet was saying here recently there's some farms and you only get called after they have totally messed up and you're supposed to perform a miracle

J.O. Farmer

AckwelFoley wrote: »

Hmm..perhaps being "sick of calving" means different things to us, but a cow can be off form for a few hours before going into full blown labour. We would always refer to the early stages of the cow being off form as sick of calving.

Anyhow, if she's trying to calve and nothing happening, yes.m2 hours or so is about it. Cameras are great for this because the cow doesn't get upset/ interrupted by us going at her until its needed so you get a better look at them on the camera

I'm same as you but most replies here I presume mean after the first waterbag.

Micey.ie

This is where I find MooCall a good job-once you get the first text you know she’s in labour.I had a cow going around the pen for 2 hours with no text. after 3 hours first text came through and she calved herself Just before 2nd text.