Anyone ever concerned about a pregnant cow?
Jan 28, 2021 11:41:12 GMT -5
throwback, jerseycowgirl, and 1 more like this
Post by Shawn on Jan 28, 2021 11:41:12 GMT -5
Dumb question, right? LOL We always are.
Ellie (Milking Shorthorn) is due Sunday, 31st. 3rd-4th calf, can't remember for sure. I'm going to write this all out cause I'm a little rattled.
Wed during the day DH took the dogs and walked more of the pasture and found nothing.
Wed PM she's standing at the fence line bawling, even though the rest of the cattle are right there in the barn with her. That made me sick. I was so worried I had done the wrong thing. I called my AI tech who was so wonderful. She came over and palpated her. She went way down in and found something hard, which she assumed was the calf. So the calf wasn't in the birth canal. She said she definitely doesn't feel like a cow that has calved. She also commented that her DIL's cow looked that way for a week before she calved. So that made me feel better.
I'm just talking this out here because it's stressing me and I'd like some feedback.
sorry, mods, I just realized this went into Across the Fence. Can someone move it, please? treatlisa lew92
thanks.
Ellie (Milking Shorthorn) is due Sunday, 31st. 3rd-4th calf, can't remember for sure. I'm going to write this all out cause I'm a little rattled.
I've been watching to make an educated guess on when to lock her in the corral so she has shelter and nicer place to calve. We've been having some snow and cold. Tues night she comes into the barn looking very slab sided to the point I was thinking she'd already calved. She was previously very round, udder coming along, pins still fairly tight. This night she was very full udder, slab sided (I've never really seen that before), pins still tight and a pencil sized (width and length) string of dark mucus. The mucus is what really got me concerned. Although she had a bit the week before.
So it's dark, she's the cow that can't see squat at night. I'm thinking, she may have a calf out there in the dark. Can she even find it if I let her out? I was seriously in a quandary. We were due to get another couple inches of snow, had a bad windchill and I did not want her to calve in the pasture that night. But if she already had a calf, would I be locking her away from it? So as I fretted, DH said How about keeping her up for a couple hours and see how she reacts. Good idea.
Meanwhile, we took flashlights and the dog and walked a lot of the pasture. We had a light dusting of snow already, so I felt our chances of seeing a melted area might be decent. We didn't walk the entire pasture, but just the area where I felt she might have been, until we were frozen and went back in.
I let her out of the stanchion and she walked to the gate to go out and then heard me fluffing out hay and came right back and dug into the hay. So I left her for an hour and when I came back out at 10:00 PM she was contentedly eating her hay. Based on that I left her in.
Wed during the day DH took the dogs and walked more of the pasture and found nothing.
Wed PM she's standing at the fence line bawling, even though the rest of the cattle are right there in the barn with her. That made me sick. I was so worried I had done the wrong thing. I called my AI tech who was so wonderful. She came over and palpated her. She went way down in and found something hard, which she assumed was the calf. So the calf wasn't in the birth canal. She said she definitely doesn't feel like a cow that has calved. She also commented that her DIL's cow looked that way for a week before she calved. So that made me feel better.
I'm just talking this out here because it's stressing me and I'd like some feedback.
sorry, mods, I just realized this went into Across the Fence. Can someone move it, please? treatlisa lew92
thanks.