Stephanie, the smallest cow in our herd started off with a caesarian, at her former home. Our own vet avoids them if there is any chance at all, so her second calf, presenting correctly, was a very hard pull due to soft tissue obstruction. Our vet had ropes every-which-way, was very caring & sensitive, but insisted she could not continue to rely on caesarians, given that they have their own associated problems.
Her third and fourth calves were quick and easy deliveries. She is due to have her fifth mid-April.
Fingers crossed that Spice has an uneventful heifer for you. When is she due?
Thanks for the advice, there was absolutely no choice this time, she was so tiny that the head would not present and was turning slightly sideways and downward. You would first feel the feet, then the knees, then his left ear, his eye and his nose was poining down toward her abdomen and slightly backwards.
I had a little try to move things as she is so quiet but nothing would budge.
The vet roped everything and tried his best to move the head but couldn't and said that it was really to big to come through anyway. However he sees no reason for her not to be able to calve normally next time as she will have grown.
On this subject I should like to pick your brain Margaret. How long should I leave her now? I had intended to give her 5 or 6 months before I put her to the bull but I have a vague recollection that there is an optimum age for the first vaginal delivery due to flexibility of everything and I don't want to end up going to much the other way!!!
Steph - Several years ago one of our cows had a caesarian, everything was normal & the incision healed as it should do. She went on to calve successfully on her own the following year. She would have gone back out to grass with her group, with the bull serving her as usual.
I can remember the vet asking if we had put her back in calf & he was glad we had not left it another 12 months as is sometimes the case.
I had a heifer calf at 21 months on 21st May 2006. I had altered my feeding to grass and hay only so she was not as well grown as she would have been in the days when I was very generous with the cake. It absolutely had to be a caesar, but she recovered well apart from not wanting to feed her own calf. She went to the bull as normal and calved on 14th May 2006, had some very gentle help just because I was there but I am sure would have managed fine herself. She took the calf right away and all has been normal. She will calf in April this year.
The caesar was a solomn lesson to me, don't get heifers caught early, and don't try to calf at 2 yrs exactly if you are not feeding for very rapid growth.
Duncan
Duncan MacIntyre
Burnside Dexters 00316
Burnside
Ascog
Isle of Bute
We had a heifer that had to have a caesarean last year. She had a very large bull calf last year. The heifer was a bit on the fat side. This year we watched her weight carefully and she calved easily on her own. We are being very careful not to let our heifers get too fat now. They are fed only on grass and hay.
Stephanie, I hear that Mallard cleaned out OK, and I presume that she had a long acting antibiotic, so she will have healed by her second post calving cycle, but personally I would leave her a little while. You might think about calving her second as a three year old, but as you have a houdini living at your house, you might not have much say in the matter, although it isn't necessarily always the bull.
A couple of times I have heard from different friends that one precocious heifer or another had helped itself to the bull paddock, to calve down at 16! months, not 21 months, then plans to keep her aside to grow out have resulted in her helping herself to the bull again.
Early calving two year olds get a bit rangy when lactating, trying to get enough tucker to keep themselves growing as well as the calf, and teething possibly. Do they teeth at that stage like horses or not? Not sure. I've never looked.
We drenched a lactating two year old this morning, with a multi-mineral & vitamin drench, and gave her calf a shot of B12 with selenium, calf not blooming as well as the others in that group. If it works I won't know if it was the treatment or my crossed fingers.
Thanks you all for being kind enough to answer for us.
The heifer is having antibiotic injections daily. One from the vet the night of the op and another 5 after that.
We intend to keep her and the little bull as far apart as possible for the first few weeks at least! Especially as it was she who went in to the bull for this calf. Fingers crossed it works.
The white on the calfs nose is whitewash off the wall - just thought I had best say Duncan!!! :D
Couldn't get a pic this morning it is moving too fast and my flash is far too slow in comparison!
She - the Mum is being marvellous, some friends brought their small children to see the calf yesterday and she allowed them to stroke the calf as well as herself, then the children carried her food bucket in for her and the childrens Dad took lots of pics with a flash and she didn't bat an eyelid, just ate. Mind I did stand by rather nervously just in case!
We had a bought-in heifer who had to have a C/S when she was (if I remember rightly) not much more than 12 months. The Vet thought it would stunt her growth, but it didn't. She reared a large healthy heifer calf and grew into her correct size. I did wait a year to put her back to the bull and she and her calf have both calved successfully since. The biggest problem was registering the calf with BCMS, their system doesn't cope with such out of the ordinary happenings and they had to put all the info in manually.
When we turned them out yesterday we put them next to the steer and our future stock bull, we thought we had better wait and make sure everything was OK.
The 2 older boys were very interested in the new arrival and keen to touch noses through the gate. Quite gratifying really - it actually made them look big!
Today they were out next to each other for a lot longer and when I went to check the little bull appeared to be babysitting, he was lying the other side of the fence but close to the new calf.
Babysitting must have got a bit boring though because when I went out next it wasn't only the calf that was asleep!
We had a heifer deliver at 22 months. She didn't cycle within the alotted time period for the herd, so I left her empty for the year. During that time she was able to reach her proper height and weight. The next calf she had was still small, because it was a carrier.
Her first calf, was too small to get into calf along with her age group, so I left her with the following year's calves and put her to the bull a year later. She's looking good now and so is her mum, but without leaving them both an extra year to reach their proper growth level, they wouldn't have done as well. Our herd is only fed grass and then hay in the Winter, so feeding is a big consideration in the decision. We don't have the lush grass that you have in most places in the UK. Also our cows have to do a lot of exercise for their food because of the steep hills. So they don't tend to get fat.
We should be expecting the grandcalf in Oct/Nov this year. It'll be interesting to see what it looks like.
So they don't tend to get fat.