Post by tripleh on Dec 24, 2009 17:36:37 GMT -5
After being away from the board for a while, winter time always brings me back to catch up on the happenings of Joann and the many fine folk on this forum. I received a lovely note from Joann which prompted me to tell her of the demise of my dear cow Taz a couple of weeks ago. I was not sure if I should post what had happened or not... but Joann has encouraged me to do so in the event it may be the nudge another person needs to avoid a similar circumstance... so this is my story... forgive me in advance for being long winded...
Taz gave birth to a lovely heifer calf a couple of weeks ago. It was an easy birth, she cleaned out well and was up, happy, eating well and taking care of baby. When I had felt the calf inside Taz before she calved (bumping and feeling her), I thought she had a larger rather than smaller calf inside her... so I was a bit surprised that the heifer born was not as large as I thought I had felt. But she was a nice size, not small, so I did not immediatly think of twins.
After Taz cleaned out her afterbirth, I saw a slight discharge and what "sort of" looked like a remant of a birth sac. A feeling in my belly siad to run her in the cattle chute and have a quick check inside her to see if there was another baby but Taz was not acting like a cow who was carrying twins, she was acting like a happy cow who had just given birth. We have had quite a few cows deliver twins and normally the cow is restless and continues to display signs of birthing when she has another baby inside her. Taz showed none of these signs. My belly kept telling me to check, I even told my husband I thought I should check and we both decided things were fine.
Four days later, I went to feed Taz and my poor girl was laying down, dead. She had been trying to pass a calf that was dead inside her. The calf was not in the birth canal but you could tell by Taz's position that she had been trying to calve. I went ahead and opened her up which is how I was able to confirm she did indeed have another calf inside her
I was, and am, devastated by this. For all my time around cattle both beef and dairy breeds, for the number of times we have had cows drop twins, I should have listened to my belly and taken a few minutes to check her. I feel so guilty about this as does Darrell. As he said... it is a hard lesson to learn but my goodness will I always listen to my belly in the future? You bet I will! Maybe this post will serve as a grim reminder to everyone that there are those occasions when something may tell you things are "not quite right"... may I encourage you to act on that feeling as prevention is far better than cure.
Rose
Taz gave birth to a lovely heifer calf a couple of weeks ago. It was an easy birth, she cleaned out well and was up, happy, eating well and taking care of baby. When I had felt the calf inside Taz before she calved (bumping and feeling her), I thought she had a larger rather than smaller calf inside her... so I was a bit surprised that the heifer born was not as large as I thought I had felt. But she was a nice size, not small, so I did not immediatly think of twins.
After Taz cleaned out her afterbirth, I saw a slight discharge and what "sort of" looked like a remant of a birth sac. A feeling in my belly siad to run her in the cattle chute and have a quick check inside her to see if there was another baby but Taz was not acting like a cow who was carrying twins, she was acting like a happy cow who had just given birth. We have had quite a few cows deliver twins and normally the cow is restless and continues to display signs of birthing when she has another baby inside her. Taz showed none of these signs. My belly kept telling me to check, I even told my husband I thought I should check and we both decided things were fine.
Four days later, I went to feed Taz and my poor girl was laying down, dead. She had been trying to pass a calf that was dead inside her. The calf was not in the birth canal but you could tell by Taz's position that she had been trying to calve. I went ahead and opened her up which is how I was able to confirm she did indeed have another calf inside her
I was, and am, devastated by this. For all my time around cattle both beef and dairy breeds, for the number of times we have had cows drop twins, I should have listened to my belly and taken a few minutes to check her. I feel so guilty about this as does Darrell. As he said... it is a hard lesson to learn but my goodness will I always listen to my belly in the future? You bet I will! Maybe this post will serve as a grim reminder to everyone that there are those occasions when something may tell you things are "not quite right"... may I encourage you to act on that feeling as prevention is far better than cure.
Rose