Post by Tamara on May 3, 2016 6:05:20 GMT -5
How common are false heats? What are your experiences with them? Has anyone encountered a cow who produce consistent false heats throughout a pregnancy?
A bit of history: as you may or may not know, I've been trying to breed my jersey Tallulah this year... she got in with the neighbour's bull, accidentally, in November last year. But when she showed signs of cycling regularly, I figured she was open. So in February I leased a bull for a week during her expected cycle. She didn't show any of her usual signs but the bull was very interested in her for a couple of days, and then she showed signs of being mounted/mated (tail up, discharge, tailhead rubbed). Although I didn't witness the breeding, I figured it was successful.
However once again, she has displayed regular cycles ever since on about a 21 day schedule. The signs all point to her being in heat - swollen vulva, discharge, mounting, holding up her milk, and sometimes - but not always - a bleed off. Note that it's been over 3 years since she calved, and she's been in milk since then.
I was going to have her preg tested via blood sample in February after she was with the bull, however I lost my kit. I didn't bother buying new stuff as I was sure she couldn't possibly be pregnant. I finally found the kit just the other day and I'm debating whether I should use it or not. I only have one last tube and prepaid test left.
Now I would STILL be absolutely sure she's not pregnant, except one small but peculiar change... recently her pins/tailhead area has started to get soft and squishy. Probably the last month or so. At first I thought she was gaining weight as I am familiar with the padded 'cushions' of fat around the tailhead from her fat daughter Ginger. But that can't be possible with the current lack of grazing and she doesn't even have 24/7 access to hay. Plus she actually has the telltale sign of weight LOSS, which are small marks of skin on either of her thighs where the fur rubs off when she gets a bit skinny.
I will get a pictures tomorrow but it's probably hard to compare in photos alone. I know I'm not crazy though, there IS a marked difference in the softness of her pins.
Nothing else has changed about her that I can tell. She continues to produce about 1 litre of milk. Her next cycle is due on the 6th.
Could this be a sign of anything else? Just body changes due to age? Or is it possible she actually IS pregnant? If she caught on the November visit, she'd be due this August. If she caught in February, she'd be due mid November.
I am trying to track down someone who can AI, and if that fails I'm going to be leasing a bull soon as I want to get Arwen bred anyway. Obviously I don't want to AI Tallulah if she's bred... do I just suck it up and test her to be absolutely certain either way?
I've done some research on it and a few forum posts point to cows that do show false heats regularly throughout a pregnancy. Seems pretty darn rare though. It seems to be due to unusually high levels of estrogen. As it were, high levels of estrogen is also what causes a 'bleed off' (the estrogen "causes blood to leak from vessels near the surface of the uterus"), and many false heats during pregnancy are indistinguishable from regular heats.
Here's some sites I found helpful on the topic:
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2728283
www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/01652176.1997.9694771
www.backyardherds.com/threads/cow-pregnant-and-in-heat.452/
A bit of history: as you may or may not know, I've been trying to breed my jersey Tallulah this year... she got in with the neighbour's bull, accidentally, in November last year. But when she showed signs of cycling regularly, I figured she was open. So in February I leased a bull for a week during her expected cycle. She didn't show any of her usual signs but the bull was very interested in her for a couple of days, and then she showed signs of being mounted/mated (tail up, discharge, tailhead rubbed). Although I didn't witness the breeding, I figured it was successful.
However once again, she has displayed regular cycles ever since on about a 21 day schedule. The signs all point to her being in heat - swollen vulva, discharge, mounting, holding up her milk, and sometimes - but not always - a bleed off. Note that it's been over 3 years since she calved, and she's been in milk since then.
I was going to have her preg tested via blood sample in February after she was with the bull, however I lost my kit. I didn't bother buying new stuff as I was sure she couldn't possibly be pregnant. I finally found the kit just the other day and I'm debating whether I should use it or not. I only have one last tube and prepaid test left.
Now I would STILL be absolutely sure she's not pregnant, except one small but peculiar change... recently her pins/tailhead area has started to get soft and squishy. Probably the last month or so. At first I thought she was gaining weight as I am familiar with the padded 'cushions' of fat around the tailhead from her fat daughter Ginger. But that can't be possible with the current lack of grazing and she doesn't even have 24/7 access to hay. Plus she actually has the telltale sign of weight LOSS, which are small marks of skin on either of her thighs where the fur rubs off when she gets a bit skinny.
I will get a pictures tomorrow but it's probably hard to compare in photos alone. I know I'm not crazy though, there IS a marked difference in the softness of her pins.
Nothing else has changed about her that I can tell. She continues to produce about 1 litre of milk. Her next cycle is due on the 6th.
Could this be a sign of anything else? Just body changes due to age? Or is it possible she actually IS pregnant? If she caught on the November visit, she'd be due this August. If she caught in February, she'd be due mid November.
I am trying to track down someone who can AI, and if that fails I'm going to be leasing a bull soon as I want to get Arwen bred anyway. Obviously I don't want to AI Tallulah if she's bred... do I just suck it up and test her to be absolutely certain either way?
I've done some research on it and a few forum posts point to cows that do show false heats regularly throughout a pregnancy. Seems pretty darn rare though. It seems to be due to unusually high levels of estrogen. As it were, high levels of estrogen is also what causes a 'bleed off' (the estrogen "causes blood to leak from vessels near the surface of the uterus"), and many false heats during pregnancy are indistinguishable from regular heats.
Here's some sites I found helpful on the topic:
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2728283
www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/01652176.1997.9694771
www.backyardherds.com/threads/cow-pregnant-and-in-heat.452/