Bad Year for the Cattle

Saturday I helped the Hubby pull a calf. It has been many years since I have done that. However, this time, after having a child of my own, I couldn't help but feel so bad for the cow. After going through child birth and knowing what it feels like I know that this poor cow was in Hell.

The Hubby saw the cow on his daily checks and noted her and that she was in labor. The calf's head was out, so he continued on with his routine thinking she would have it out by the time he came back. When he went back to check her and tag the calf, the cow was still down and had not progressed. He knew that something was wrong and checked her. It was a BIG calf and it only had one leg out. The other was turned back and the shoulder was stuck behind the pelvis. Hubby ran home to get the supplies needed to help her along and I jumped in cause it helps to have 2 people for this job.

We went back to her and to get this calf out and save it, we were going to have to push it back in far enough to pull the leg and shoulder out that was hindering it being born. I bet we pushed on this poor calf and cow for 45 minutes and could not get it pushed back. Of course, the mother is pushing against us (naturally) the whole time. This is where an epidural would come in handy! That way she couldn't fight us.

After realizing that we were not going to get the leg out, we had to pull the calf by its one exposed leg. By doing this we knew that we would cause damage to either the mother, the baby or both. But we were out of options. We could try to save one of them, or let them both lay there and die. We pulled the calf and while doing so, heard a pop. We didn't know whether this was just a joint cavitation, or if it was a shoulder dislocating on the calf or the pelvis on the cow. Once the calf was out we sat it up slightly and left them, hoping that the mother would get up and take care of it. When we went back to check on them, the mother had still not gotten up...bad sign. We loaded the calf up and took it to the bunk house where we could feed it and keep the coyotes from eating it. We left some water for the cow and hoped that she would recover and be up the next day.

Unfortunately, the cow died. It was an old cow. Probably 12 or 13. It should have been sold 2 years ago, but the boss has not managed his cattle well while we were gone the past 3 years. The calf is still alive, but I believe that it has a dislocated shoulder. Unfortunately, leg problems on animals are not good. The boss is bottle feeding it, so I haven't seen it since Sunday. I will have to ask how he is doing. He is probably a 110 pound calf. We try to have birth weights of 65-80 pounds. Poor cow. She gave birth to a small adult... Anyway, I hope that her calf lives so that she didn't go through all of that for nothing. Now that Hubby and I are back, he will manage the cows better. They should be sold at about 11 years old to prevent these geriatric births.

Yesterday, the Hubby had to pull another. He once again found a cow that was down. The calf's head was out but it was dead, and the coyotes had eaten at it. Yuck! Isn't that insane!? The coyotes are REALLY bad this year. Anyway, the Hubby got the calf pulled and was waiting for the cow to get up, when she pushed again and he saw another set of legs! Twins. He got a hold of the legs and pulled the second calf out. It was breech and had already died as well. Hopefully this cow will live though.

So far this year we have had 2 cows die of old age. 2 cows die in labor, and at least 3 live calves have gone missing due to the coyotes. Like I said, bad year for the cattle.

Herd management is so important. The boss has not kept track of the age of the cattle or if they are bred or not. If maintenance is not done, then you end up with problems like this. Hopefully the Hubby will get things straitened up so that next year will be better.