Aborted Fetus (pic)

This picture is of an aborted fetus60 days from full term that came last night out of Carpe diem and an about time cow.  The cow was tested for TH and PHA and came back clean carpe diem is a TH carrier.  The scenario, for the past 5 days this cow started out with the front right leg swelling from hoof to shoulder and then 2 days later swelling in the right rear, then her appetite went away and she was having difficulties in the heat, extreme labored breathing and her body conditioning went way down, slight swelling in the brisket but none in neck or jaw and no swelling in the left side of any kind, she did exhibit some signs of respiratory problems. My initial thought was something poisonous had botten her, then it went to Lept and then a Vit A deficiency.  Cow had been vaccinated for Lepto,on a ration of 2 yr old bottom bale alfalfa and sudan I hit her with Draxxin and 2 days of excenel as well as Aureomycin crumbles and a dose of VIT ADE.  Swelling started to go down as of yesterday morning later afternoon I went out to check on her and when she walked fluid was coming out as though her water had broke.  I figured she was aborting, by 3 am this was deliverd and her swelling had gone down and her appetite was "hungry".  Does it look like a TH calf?  My vet has no clue, does anybody have any suggestions?  I think I need to retest the cow.

If you still have the fetus collect a tissue sample and have the vet send it to a lab to be tested.

That's what my vet recommends. If it's too late a blood sample can be drawn from the cow and a lab can check for diseases in the blood.

I've had two heifers abort the past month, both from blue tongue according to the blood sample.

if it was a th calf the legs would be twisted.

What about the slight hernia and extreme body swelling, the back is arched and the butt looks like a pigs but.  It makes no sense to me.

I've had a TH calf that the rear legs appeared normal. I can't really tell from the picture if it has a hernia in the abdominal area. It's also possible that the hernia wouldn't be as large as a full term calfs. I would have her checked again. Mine was a result of not knowing the bull was a carrier. The odd thing to me is your cow. I wouldn't think a TH defective calf would cause your cow to abort and fall ill like that, but I may be wrong.  Sorry for your bad luck. 

is this a pha calf?  with the swelling, and pig look to it, makes me wonder

Carpe Diem isn't a ph carrier I do not believe, and neither was supposed to be my cow, that was another thought the pictures resembled more of PH calf than th but TH would be best culprit if it's genetic.  About Time and Carpe Diem are both Carriers, and maybe I got blood tests back incorrectly.

JMO. I think what you are seeing is a fetus that has been dead inside the cow for a short time and has swollen ,(puffed), up. The calf being as far along as it was was large enough to cause the cow to become toxic,(very sick) , from the dead calf that she was carrying around. The fetus looks to me to be a normal calf that is just going through the stages of decomposition. I would follow up treating the cow a couple of times with your vets recommended choice of antibiotics.

TH and PHA are recessive gene, the calf would have to be homozygous for the defect to show itself. If the cow is clean of TH and PHA then that should rule out both of those possibilities.  I agree it looks like the calf may have bloated in the cow, if the calf for some reason died and began to decompose the problems with the cow could have been from toxicity.  Did the cow improve after aborting the calf?  My suspicion would tend to lean towards some type of toxin causing this.

The pic reminds me of a 'bulldog' or 'snorter' dwarf calf.  (Short legs and face)

Anybody know if these animals have been tested for that defect?

My question is, if the calf had been dead inside and caused some form of toxicity to the cow, wouldn't it have smelled or possibly fallen apart when I picked it up.  It was strongly intact no discharge or odor, you could just feel the fluid build up, but it did not feel decomposed at all.  The cow had been swollen for a few days, so if the calf had been dead that long especially in 110 plus temperatures right now wouldn't it have been a bit more gruesome (thank god not).  Now somebody said dwarf or bulldog, last year her calf was out of gigolo joe, the calf was a dwarf he never grew looked almost double muscled and had the same roundness pattern as this fetus almost pig shaped.  She raised him fine and we sent him to the sale barn so I have no idea what happened to him.  So maybe she has a genetic malfunction.  Where do you test for those? 

we need dl on this one!!! 

The picture of the calf you have looks to me that it may have died 2 to 3 days prior to aborting it. I would consider selling your cow if she had a dwarf/poor doing calf last year along with this one. JMO. Good luck.

She already made the cull pen.   Poor sweet old girl :'(

Did you by chance check the calves teeth. The ones I have had that died in uterine the teeth were real loose and falling out. Both were close to due date when aborted dead. Had the same symptons as your cow on one of mine. An old dairy farmer said it was from a dead calf inside so we went in and he was right. I am kind of in awe of the amount of drugs you pumped inthe old girl before birth, was this vet prescribed? I would be hesitant to give a cow so much while still in calf. JMO.