Has Been farmer with a bad memory and a sick cow

[randy_weiland]

A friend of mine recently bought a farm and has a few cattle. He's also been tending herd for his ailing grandfather, and grandpa has had a heifer down for 48 hours. I grew up on a farm, but due to youthfull rebellion and poor forsight, I walked away from it, and unfortunatly burnt the bridge. 20 years later Im at work and knowing my farming background, my buddy asks what I think about his down heifer. I first asked him if she'd been bred, and he said "not to his knowledge". First I reccomended milk replacer and whiskey, but then I found out the heifer was 6 or 7 hundred pounds. I then recommended he roll her to the right onto her back and hold her there a few min., and then continue rolling her to the right back onto her belly, in hopes of correcting a flipped stomach. He went home after work and tried my advice. During this process he noted a large HARD mass in the heifer's belly, and called me at home to say maybe she had been bred. At this point I went out to my friends farm. The first unsusal thing I noticed was a very hard turd about the size of a softball stuck half in/out the rectum. Next was a small ammount of discharge coming from the vagina(this was what I was looking for in the first place). The vagina didn't look as dialated as my memory said it should be, but this I figured might be because I'd never dealt with a heifer this young trying to calve. Upon discovery of the seepage, I began to squeeze the udders and they produced milk on the first squeeze, and shot milk the second squeeze, though the bag wasent particularly large or tight. When I was a kid I helped pull several calves, and in later years, pulled a few, with my dad looking on, but.... a vaginal exam left me with more questions than answers. I was in almost to the elbow and the cavity narrowed to shut. No hooves, no head. I had my buddy go in first and see what he could feel, cause, well... it's his cow. When he came up with nothing, I checked to be sure he was right. Yep ...Nothing.... So what's going on with my buddy's heifer? It's taken a long time, but I have earned back the respect of society.(Sure wish my dad had lived to see it).... My friend(who is also my boss) respected my opinion enough to ask for it when the life of one of his animals was at stake. I done the best I could for him and his animal, based on some foggy 20 year old memories, but the fact of the matter is, if I ever knew what to do next....I've forgotten. Please Help. :help:

 

[dun]

There are too many things that it could be that gureessing over the internet isn;t the correect solution. Do one of 2 things, have her seen by a large animal vet or shoot her!

 

[jerry27150]

could be a twisted uterus, might try rolling her the other way a couple of times to see if you can get arm in then

 

[hillsdown]

There are too many things that it could be that gureessing over the internet isn;t the correect solution. Do one of 2 things, have her seen by a large animal vet or shoot her!

Absolutely !

 

[backhoeboogie]

I am figuring this is another hit and run. 1 post wonder. I have been wrong before tho.

 

[randy_weiland]

I am figuring this is another hit and run. 1 post wonder. I have been wrong before tho.

Did you read the post? Of course it's a hit and run....I don't own a cow. Once my buddy's situation comes to an end for better or worse, why would I be back?

 

[randy_weiland]

Thanks everybody for the input! :tiphat:

 

[boondocks]

I am figuring this is another hit and run. 1 post wonder. I have been wrong before tho.

Did you read the post? Of course it's a hit and run....I don't own a cow. Once my buddy's situation comes to an end for better or worse, why would I be back?

I can't speak for backhoeboogie but I suspect the referenced quote was speculating whether you'd come back to see the replies at all (not whether you would become a regular). No harm likely intended; just realize that lots of people who've never posted come here, post about some dire emergency, people jump in and try to offer advice/support, then the poster never even checks the responses, or lets everyone know how the situation turned out.

As a (fairly) newbie here myself, everyone likes to know how the situation resolved; it's often instructive and adds to the collective knowledge.

That said, hope the heifer is improving?

 

[backhoeboogie]

Yes. I was following the post with curiosity. No follow ups. Now there is some but we still don't know the outcome.

Generally when someone else's cow is down the first thing I do is give her a full tube of CMPK. Some on here talk about "milk fever". You'd be surprised at the folks who give their cows a "mineral block" that is 97% salt. A tube of CMPK often gets a cow on her feet within 30 minutes.

It sounded like the heifer was near calving. My mind comes up with all sorts of possibilities. Calf position etc. I am certainly not a vet. Work with a few tho from time to time. There's no way for someone like me to make a diagnosis based on the words expresssed. All I can do is postulate possibilities. Many of those conditions may have already been refuted by the owner there with the cow.

There are manuals out there, as well as websites, that express remedies for conditions much better than what I could express in 100 pages of text here. In the mean time the heifer is drifting deeper and deeper in to trouble.

Dun offered the best advice in my opinion.

 

[randy_weiland]

It ended badly . I'll cut right to the chase...We drowned her today on our lunch hour trying to give a bag of electrolytes...... My buddy never called a vet but he had a reason. As mentioned in the first post the heifer actually belonged to his very sick grandpa. Grandpa never said" Hey boy why don't you see if you can save my heifer. Grandpa said "Heay boy I got a heifer I need you to shoot." My buddy took it upon himself to do what he could but he didn't want to have to explain to his sick grandpa why there was a vet on his farm tending a heifer that was supposed to have been shot. So i'm gonna give a run down of what all transpired and maybe someone can say what went wrong. When I went out to look at her(about a half hour after he rolled her the first time) and found the softball hard turd, my buddy said that was her first bm since she'd been down. I tried to get him to put her in a belly strap, but his grandpa said he'd lost every cow he'd ever forced to stand, so my buddy didnt want to go against the advice of his grandpa. Yesterday we went to roll her at lunch time and she had a normal sized pile, of normal looking poo, laying behind her. After we rolled her she held her head up for about a minute. We have a young kid who works with us (19 and FRESH off the farm). The youngster told my buddy he could show him how to push a feeding tube and give her electrolytes. (I've given hundreds of boluses, but never a liquid tube) Last night after work they rolled her again, found another small pile of normal looking dung, and the kid gave her a bag of juice. Today at lunch I went to the farm with him. We rolled her again. She held her head up but not for as long as yesterday. I held her head up, he ran the tube and began to squeeze the bag while I rubbed her neck. After about 3/4 bag she gurgled, and heaved a couple times, and it was over... We figgured we had nothing to loose, so we opened her up....There was no calf. The huge hard mass was dung. Why was there milk?....Maybe she delivered and was having post complications.....OK then why wasent she still dialated?... I would still like to have answers.....As mentioned in my first post, I lived so shamefully in my youth that I lost what would have been my share of my dad's farm. It's true I spent 10 years screwing my life up, but I've spent the last 10 years making it right. Two years ago I finally got another shot at a "career type" job, and my wife just graduated from IU......Maybe, just maybe...I'm gonna find my way home yet....If I do, I'm gonna need to drum up every old memory I can, and learn a bunch of new stuff, cause the old man wont be there bail me out if I get in a bind. Thank you all for your time and thoughts. Don't be surprised if you DO see me pop back in from time to time

 

[cmf1]

Sounds like you were just trying to help with no real control over the situation.
Good luck to you, Randy. :tiphat:

 

[Deepsouth]

Sounds like you were just trying to help with no real control over the situation.
Good luck to you, Randy. :tiphat:

+1

 

[WalnutCrest]

Sounds like you were just trying to help with no real control over the situation.
Good luck to you, Randy. :tiphat:

+1

+2

 

[regolith]

O-kay.
If I were you I certainly wouldn't tell Grandpa any of this.

It's possible for heifers to come into milk without being pregnant. Just a bit of misunderstanding in the hormones.

 

[backhoeboogie]

Really sorry it ended like this.

I do appreciate the follow-up. Quite often we never hear the outcome.

 

[cowmilker]

Stick around Randy. You can learn alot listening to these guys. I've worked with many people who never get their lives together. Congratulations to you. Craig