Post by donnaclyde47 on Feb 15, 2016 14:36:17 GMT -5
I started a thread on here in December about my daughter's cow testing pregnant early on and then coming back open right before dry-off. We had the LSU vets out and they found a mummified calf in her, and they said there was damage to the endometrial lining and she would have trouble rebreeding again. So, I cried like a baby and we brought her to the butcher.
I just found out today that the second cow I ever owned and sold in August was taken to the vets today and they found a mummy in her! I sold her in August as open. We AI'd her early in her lactation but she came back open and we never saw a heat again. With her last lactation she never went into heat until we sold her calf at 12 months, and then she had a heat right away. So, we just figured we hadn't seen heats this time because of the huge calf nursing her. Well, that was not it - she did take and the calf died inside of her, unbeknownst to us.
Two questions:
1. Why do some cows expel a calf, and others hold it in?
2. If now TWO of my six cows had a mummified calf, WHAT is causing it?! We do have pine trees everywhere, but I'm not sure of the kind. Also, we've had many other calves born on our land with no problems. The only other thing I can think of is, we bought some chaffehaye from Countryside Organics, and come summertime, it had a bit of fuzzy mold on the outer layers, but we would always pull those layers off and give a handful to the cows at milking time. If we missed some, could that cause this?
The original mummified calf two months ago we chalked up as bad luck. Now I know it's not that. Blah. Hate farming sometimes. Actually often.
I just found out today that the second cow I ever owned and sold in August was taken to the vets today and they found a mummy in her! I sold her in August as open. We AI'd her early in her lactation but she came back open and we never saw a heat again. With her last lactation she never went into heat until we sold her calf at 12 months, and then she had a heat right away. So, we just figured we hadn't seen heats this time because of the huge calf nursing her. Well, that was not it - she did take and the calf died inside of her, unbeknownst to us.
Two questions:
1. Why do some cows expel a calf, and others hold it in?
2. If now TWO of my six cows had a mummified calf, WHAT is causing it?! We do have pine trees everywhere, but I'm not sure of the kind. Also, we've had many other calves born on our land with no problems. The only other thing I can think of is, we bought some chaffehaye from Countryside Organics, and come summertime, it had a bit of fuzzy mold on the outer layers, but we would always pull those layers off and give a handful to the cows at milking time. If we missed some, could that cause this?
The original mummified calf two months ago we chalked up as bad luck. Now I know it's not that. Blah. Hate farming sometimes. Actually often.