Caesarean in Cows

Marg Rawlings · Post by **Marg Rawlings** » Wed Mar 31, 2004 7:27 am

Just wondering if anyone else had experienced a caesarean on a cow. We recently had to perform one on a cow that the vet said had uterine inertia, (am not sure what that means). The cow rejected her calf and it took us four days to get her to let him feed, we had to resort to using a leg rope on her and she was actually shaking when we had to let him feed. Finally after she contraced to expel the afterbirth she realised she had actually had a calf and allowed him to suckle without having to be restrained. It was a stressful time for her and us. Am feeding her Vitamin C to help with the healing and she now seems to be doing fine.

The result is a beautiful polled, red factoring, long legged purebred bull calf. He was a whopper weighing in at 27 kg, and I don't know if his short legged mother could have delivered him naturally anyway.

But was wondering what the prognosis may be for getting her back in calf and if the same thing will happen again. This is the first time we have had such a major complication in eight years of breeding.

Any help greatfully received.

Marg

andy · Post by **andy** » Wed Mar 31, 2004 8:21 am

Hi Marg,

Uterine inertia (very slow calving) could be a sign of calcium problems I believe. But I'm not a vet. Has she calved before with no problems? If so it could be worth another go - ask your vet about mineral deficiency.

Andy (Brambledel Dexters)

Duncan MacIntyre · Post by **Duncan MacIntyre** » Wed Mar 31, 2004 9:33 am

Hello Marg
sorry you have had a lot of worry with the cow. Uterine inertia means that the uterus has completely stopped contracting , several different causes but the usual one is just exhaustion where the birth process has gone on a bit long with no result - much more common in things like bitches which have many to deliver at the same time. the term might be used where milk fever is inhibiting contractions - as soon as one of these gets calcium the contractioons start again. Maybe in this case it just happened because the calf was so big.
Cows which have had a caesarean have on average lower conception rates than others but each one is an individual. I always think the most important influence there is adhesions/infection post op - make sure she gets adequate antibiotics as even with the greatest care the abdominal cavity is exposed to fluids from inside the uterus which were open to contaminastion from the outside world through the vagina - the normal contractions combined with relaxation in between mean that material gets sucked from outside to inside with much graeter ease than you might think. It is also important to keep the cow relatively inaactive for a few days so that the healing process can begin and seal in any minor pockets of infection , limit adhesions and not spread any peritonitis. Sounds very scary but I am sure if you follow your vets instructions all will go well.
Duncan

Ted Neal · Post by **Ted Neal** » Wed Mar 31, 2004 9:22 pm

Hello Marg
About 20 years ago my very first heifer carrying my prefix had a caesarean. At the time we thought that there had been a mix up on semen and she was incalf to a larger breed. As I live very close to the Cambridge Vet college, my vet thought it a good idea to take her there. I delivered her there at 09-30 and got a call to pick her up at 14-45. It was a good size Dexter bull calf. She was tender but suckled straight away. She came bulling and was AI'd and held after a relatively short time and calved naturally. I kept her for a couple more years before selling her on.
Good luck

ann · Post by **ann** » Thu Apr 01, 2004 1:58 pm

Marg Rawlings wrote:Just wondering if anyone else had experienced a caesarean on a cow. We recently had to perform one on a cow that the vet said had uterine inertia, (am not sure what that means). The cow rejected her calf and it took us four days to get her to let him feed, we had to resort to using a leg rope on her and she was actually shaking when we had to let him feed. Finally after she contraced to expel the afterbirth she realised she had actually had a calf and allowed him to suckle without having to be restrained. It was a stressful time for her and us. Am feeding her Vitamin C to help with the healing and she now seems to be doing fine.

The result is a beautiful polled, red factoring, long legged purebred bull calf. He was a whopper weighing in at 27 kg, and I don't know if his short legged mother could have delivered him naturally anyway.

But was wondering what the prognosis may be for getting her back in calf and if the same thing will happen again. This is the first time we have had such a major complication in eight years of breeding.

Any help greatfully received.

Marg

Hi Marg

I think you will need to check this out with your vet as it may just be a one of, however if your cow is quite old it could reoccur. Unless some one corrects me, uterine inertia is when there are no contractions due to an inbalance in the hormones
therefore the animal or human can not expel the ofspring in the normal manner.

Ann

Shazz · Post by **Shazz** » Sat Apr 03, 2004 3:38 am

Hi there Marg...now that I have read your post I think our heifer must have had that too...although not requiring a ceasar. She was in labor when I found her and I followed her around for a while and noticed there wasn't any progress. When next she went down on the ground I investigated and found I couldn't feel a nose or feet but rather a tail. Heart sank to the ground....rang a fellow Dexter breeder who came over and subsequently pulled the calf. By the time though he arrived she had given up trying to deliver and was quite happy to graze as it nothing was happening, everything had stopped. She did help push the calf out when tied to a post in the shed....she gave birth to a healthy heifer calf. I am wondering though, like with bitches, that a shot of Oxytocin might get things going again....? Was your calf breach also Marg? The heifer giving birth is a carrier but unlike my other carriers is very short in the back....so there was obviously not enough room for the calf to turn around. Fingers crossed that she has a normal delivery this year...but she is in calf to a non-carrier this year...the sire of the other heifer calf was a carrier.

Shazz
Rosnasharn Farm

Duncan MacIntyre · Post by **Duncan MacIntyre** » Sat Apr 03, 2004 10:59 am

Shazz wrote:Hi there Marg...now that I have read your post I think our heifer must have had that too...although not requiring a ceasar. She was in labor when I found her and I followed her around for a while and noticed there wasn't any progress. When next she went down on the ground I investigated and found I couldn't feel a nose or feet but rather a tail. Heart sank to the ground....rang a fellow Dexter breeder who came over and subsequently pulled the calf. By the time though he arrived she had given up trying to deliver and was quite happy to graze as it nothing was happening, everything had stopped. She did help push the calf out when tied to a post in the shed....she gave birth to a healthy heifer calf. I am wondering though, like with bitches, that a shot of Oxytocin might get things going again....? Was your calf breach also Marg? The heifer giving birth is a carrier but unlike my other carriers is very short in the back....so there was obviously not enough room for the calf to turn around. Fingers crossed that she has a normal delivery this year...but she is in calf to a non-carrier this year...the sire of the other heifer calf was a carrier.

Shazz
Rosnasharn Farm

Hello Shazz,
Just thought I should say a word about oxytocin - can be of use in bitches or even sows where multiple births give rise to uterine inertia without there being any serious obstruction to the next delivery, but if it is used when the foetus cannot be delivered there is great danger of causing a uterine tear, which can be total disaster. At best it will result in futile contractions. From the info you give, it sounds like you had a true "breech" presentation - where the hind legs are tucked forward under the calf and as you say only the tail is presented. You may have been very fortunate to have skilled help at hand as this is not always easy to correct. Often an epidural anaesthetic is needed to allow the hind feet to be roped and drawn back. Perhaps this is a case of positive advantage if the calf was a short-legged dexter!! Glad all went o k, but please keep the oxytocin for use in milk let-down problems in cattle - certainly not for use without expert preferably veterinary advice.
Duncan.

Marg Rawlings · Post by **Marg Rawlings** » Sat Apr 03, 2004 11:56 am

Duncan MacIntyre wrote:
Shazz wrote:Hi there Marg...now that I have read your post I think our heifer must have had that too...although not requiring a ceasar. She was in labor when I found her and I followed her around for a while and noticed there wasn't any progress. When next she went down on the ground I investigated and found I couldn't feel a nose or feet but rather a tail. Heart sank to the ground....rang a fellow Dexter breeder who came over and subsequently pulled the calf. By the time though he arrived she had given up trying to deliver and was quite happy to graze as it nothing was happening, everything had stopped. She did help push the calf out when tied to a post in the shed....she gave birth to a healthy heifer calf. I am wondering though, like with bitches, that a shot of Oxytocin might get things going again....? Was your calf breach also Marg? The heifer giving birth is a carrier but unlike my other carriers is very short in the back....so there was obviously not enough room for the calf to turn around. Fingers crossed that she has a normal delivery this year...but she is in calf to a non-carrier this year...the sire of the other heifer calf was a carrier.

Shazz
Rosnasharn Farm

Hello Shazz,
Just thought I should say a word about oxytocin - can be of use in bitches or even sows where multiple births give rise to uterine inertia without there being any serious obstruction to the next delivery, but if it is used when the foetus cannot be delivered there is great danger of causing a uterine tear, which can be total disaster. At best it will result in futile contractions. From the info you give, it sounds like you had a true "breech" presentation - where the hind legs are tucked forward under the calf and as you say only the tail is presented. You may have been very fortunate to have skilled help at hand as this is not always easy to correct. Often an epidural anaesthetic is needed to allow the hind feet to be roped and drawn back. Perhaps this is a case of positive advantage if the calf was a short-legged dexter!! Glad all went o k, but please keep the oxytocin for use in milk let-down problems in cattle - certainly not for use without expert preferably veterinary advice.
Duncan.

Shazz, thanks for your comments. Our cow calving was an eleven year old short legged cow, who has never had any problems previously. She actually did not go into labour, but I became alarmed when she had a discharge, bright red in colour, like that which you get after calving and sought advice. Our teaching Vet hospital advised to get the calf out and when I finally tracked the vet down he came straight out. But as for the presentation it was perfectly normal, two front feet and a nose she just had not dilated enough, he was not due until the following week. The cow did not appear distressed and apart from the discharge you would not of known anything was wrong. She had spent some time the previous day jumping a cow that was cycling, but I have no explanation why she did not go into labour.

As for the use of oxytocin, we gave her two shots, twelve hours apart four days later in an attempt to get her to present the after birth, and it was on these contractions along with the expelling of a warm saline/betadine solution which we had flushed her uterus with, that she thought she had calved and accepted the bull calf.

On a positive note, he is the most gorgeous calf we have had born this year, along with his attributes of being long legged and red factoring, he is also polled and will be useful to our breeding program. So all is not lost. And still after eight years we have not lost a caf yet, be that pure luck or just good management and knowing your cows and what is happening that may be out of the ordinary.

Thanks everyone for your posts

Marg Rawlings :D