what would you do

stew · Post by **stew** » Wed Aug 08, 2007 7:34 am

while looking round my beasts i found to my shock that edward the bull had been with pippa a 10 month old heifer
shes a good sized animal
dont know weather to leave it as she might not be carrying but dont mind if she calved
or do i get the vet to flush her out
what is right and wrong
the most important thing is her welfare

Post by **Mark Bowles** » Wed Aug 08, 2007 8:02 am

I would be inclined to inject her to abort, if she has been served. It wont hurt anyway to be sure. At 10 months you may be able to get away with her calving at 19 months but it would stunt her growth and set her back a bit.
Mark

Martin · Post by **Martin** » Wed Aug 08, 2007 8:15 am

Hi Stew,
I normally put my heifers to the bull at fourteen to fifteen months, ten being rather early. I would certainly discuss it with your vet if he knows a little about Dexters. They are rather resilient and it is possible that she can calve with few problems if she is well grown enough. It is also possible that she could have problems. Your vets advice is what you should take heed of. I had a six month heifer that the bull got to and my vet gave her an injection of some drug that caused her to absorb the calf before it got to big. He had to administer the drug as it is rather harmfull and cannot be given other than by a vet. The heifer is now nearly thirty months old and has a really good five month old steer calf at foot.

Martin. Medway Valley Dexters.

Sylvia · Post by **Sylvia** » Wed Aug 08, 2007 8:28 am

Yes, on balance I'd go for the injection by a vet. It would be cheaper than a ceasarian which may be needed later on.

Duncan MacIntyre · Post by **Duncan MacIntyre** » Wed Aug 08, 2007 11:51 am

If she was over a year then leaving things be might be more of an option but at 10 months I would play safe and have a mesalliance injection done by your vet. Timings may vary from practice to practice and according to which product the vet is using, I would use a prostaglandin injection minimum 1 week after the mating and preferably less than 2 months. The longer it is left the more disruption there is for the heifer, but at the age of yours there is plenty of time for uterus to return to normal and ovarian cycle to be ok long before you would want her served at 15 months plus.

Duncan

Kirk- Cascade Herd US · Thu Aug 09, 2007 5:09 am

Having her immediately aborted is not a bad plan, but there are other options. I think the chance that she is pregnant is less than 5%. At 10 months, too many things would have had to be perfect for pregnancy to occur (is the heifer actually cycling yet? was she cycling while the bull was in there? Did the insemination actually take?) I would be tempted to just watch her and see if she cycles within the next 21 days, if she does, then you have nothing to worry about, if she doesn't, then you might consider just putting her on a very high plane of excellent nutrition to maximize her growth. A good sized, well fed 19 month old heifer can do just as well as an undersized 23 month old on poorish feed. Keep her on excellent feed with supplements while she is nursing to keep her growth going.

That said, a vet's advice trumps mine.

Duncan MacIntyre · Post by **Duncan MacIntyre** » Thu Aug 09, 2007 12:01 pm

Kirk's advice on waiting to see if she comes in season is very valid, certainly do that if you are confident of heat detection, and if she is in season 3 weeks later then don't do anything.

I wouldn't chance letting the pregnancy go on though.

Duncan

stew · Post by **stew** » Thu Aug 09, 2007 3:37 pm

thanks the advice
i have booked the vet
if she had been 12 month i would have let her go full term
besides that it would have messed up my system if she calved out of sync with the other girls

John C · Post by **John C** » Thu Aug 09, 2007 3:49 pm

You havent mentioned wether or not you thought she was bulling at the time of her being in with the bull

stew · Post by **stew** » Thu Aug 09, 2007 9:25 pm

yes she was bulling
and he did his job well
we tend to keep the boys intact as they tend to finish earlier

Jo Kemp · Post by **Jo Kemp** » Thu Aug 09, 2007 10:39 pm

I would certainly get the vet to inject her. Why make life more difficult/stressful at calving time than it normally is!
I don't think there are any repercussions if it is done reasonably early but as Duncan says, it must be at least a week after any possible interferance.
When it first happenend to one of mine, my vet said, "Calm down Jo, we've got days yet!" all was well with her first, planned calving too
Jo:D

Inger · Post by **Inger** » Sun Aug 12, 2007 1:09 pm

I've had to get the vet to inject a cow (served by non-registered bull) and a heifer (only 6 mths old at the time) on different occasions and the peace of mind is wonderful. I'd much rather have all my cows and heifers calving at the same time of the year. Its less stressful to limit the length of time you have to go out on a lambing or calving beat. I should be down to a 1 month stretch for calving this month and with any luck, lambing should only take 3 weeks. :D

Sylvia · Post by **Sylvia** » Sun Aug 12, 2007 3:53 pm

That's the spirit, Inger, get 'em all organised !! We try for angora goats, March; Shetland sheep, April; the cows in 3 blocks to give youngstock maturing at different times but if we had fewer I'd certainly go for a single spell of calving. The alpacas are a law unto themselves - we prefer Spring, they prefer Autumn (that's our spring and autumn of course, theirs, coming from the southern hemisphere is the same as yours) and because of a non fertile male last year they will really be in their element all calving in October/November this year. Oh joy!! :D