Post by farmerswife on Apr 16, 2011 12:23:33 GMT -5
one of my Holstein Jersey cross cows just miscarried last night. I was getting ready to dry her out the end of the month and was still raising calves on her- but the 2 days before she didn't act like she felt good so I had already decided to start the process of drying her out...... I had noticed during the last week that she wasn't as full when it was time to come in and just thought it was production drop due to being heavy bred. She was 2 weeks shy of 7mo. she was AI'd and one of only 2 that I got successfully bred that way.
today- she still didn't act good and would not come in this morning-- I was suspicious of a pending miscarriage to her behavior and some blood on her tail yesterday morning. the dead calf was a heifer!
She had never really wanted to be a nurse cow and not enough milk for more than 3 small calves- so I was tempted to sell her after she calved but I was hoping she would give me a nice AI heifer to keep...... now---
WHAT"S WRONG?! what caused this? what to do for her? I'm going to sell her as soon as the next sale day for slaughter so I don't want to give her antibiotics but why does she seem to be drying up? I was going to bring her on in this morning to see if she would've produced any colostrum at all..... but her udder just seemed kinda flat--- last night was the only time I have not let calves suck her at all........ why this change?
I guess really none of this matters for her "saving" now since she was on the "fence" at being sold before this miscarriage but I would like to know some input on the subject so I could learn from it. She is a super gentle cow...... just didn't really like other calves besides her own and she made my routine difficult where I could never depend on her to take care of babies if I left her alone with them for the night.
would appreciate some feedback on what could have caused this!
Amanda
today- she still didn't act good and would not come in this morning-- I was suspicious of a pending miscarriage to her behavior and some blood on her tail yesterday morning. the dead calf was a heifer!
She had never really wanted to be a nurse cow and not enough milk for more than 3 small calves- so I was tempted to sell her after she calved but I was hoping she would give me a nice AI heifer to keep...... now---
WHAT"S WRONG?! what caused this? what to do for her? I'm going to sell her as soon as the next sale day for slaughter so I don't want to give her antibiotics but why does she seem to be drying up? I was going to bring her on in this morning to see if she would've produced any colostrum at all..... but her udder just seemed kinda flat--- last night was the only time I have not let calves suck her at all........ why this change?
I guess really none of this matters for her "saving" now since she was on the "fence" at being sold before this miscarriage but I would like to know some input on the subject so I could learn from it. She is a super gentle cow...... just didn't really like other calves besides her own and she made my routine difficult where I could never depend on her to take care of babies if I left her alone with them for the night.
would appreciate some feedback on what could have caused this!
Amanda