Aborted fetus pics

lightnin4 · Jan 3, 2012

Thought I would post some pics I took of a fetus one of my heifers aborted. She was about 7 months along when it happened. It sucks that it happened but I thought the pics are interesting because we rarely ever see one in such perfect condition. More often than not the coyotes or buzzards get to them before we do. I was fortunate that I found the cow in labor and put her in a pen. I was able to take the fetus and placenta to the necropsy lab for testing.

Shadow Hill Farm · Jan 3, 2012

Interesting but at the sametime it really sucks! Glad it wasn't a disease that made her abort. At least you don't have to worry about your other cattle! Hopefully the rest will be healthy calves for you!

Pleasant Grove Farms · Jan 3, 2012

are you sure your heifer was 7 months along?
that baby looks substantially younger than that....

even after all these years of raising cattle, I hate to see loss....

I would guess that the labs will come back with nothing.
all sorts of accidents of pregnancy can happen that are natural occurrences.

be sure the momma passes all her cleanings in a timely way; often times after
an abortion they don't.
a round of antibiotic wouldn't hurt her and good nutrition, then in a couple months try again.

LN · Jan 3, 2012

I agree with Pleasant Grove, the fetus doesn't look 7 months. I had a heifer abort this past summer from heat stress at 7 1/2 months and like you was lucky to find everything intact. The aborted fetus looked fully developed and had hair but was just smaller than a fully developed calf.

Sorry for the loss, every one is gut wrenching but you did the right thing sending it in for a necropsy.

JSchroeder · Jan 3, 2012

That looks a LOT more like what a 5 month old pregnancy would feel like while palpating than 7.

Sly · Jan 3, 2012

i had a heifer that was called open by the vet. So i started her on the shots and cidrs to ai. Gave her lut. Then 3 days later the heifer gave birth to exactly what u have. She was 4 months along by our records.

lightnin4 · Jan 3, 2012

Pleasant Grove Farms said:
are you sure your heifer was 7 months along?
that baby looks substantially younger than that....

even after all these years of raising cattle, I hate to see loss....

I would guess that the labs will come back with nothing.
all sorts of accidents of pregnancy can happen that are natural occurrences.

be sure the momma passes all her cleanings in a timely way; often times after
an abortion they don't.
a round of antibiotic wouldn't hurt her and good nutrition, then in a couple months try again.

Looking back at my records, she was right at 6 months along. It happened in November and the cow is fine now. The lab found no sign of infectious causes.

heatherleblanc · Jan 3, 2012

That's really neat, thanks for sharing those photos, I have never seen one in such condition. What kind of things were they testing for in the lab?

willow · Jan 3, 2012

Wow things like this are always a little hard to look at, at first, but really neat to be able to see and document something like this. We just lost a set of twins that were about 240 days along and they looked much more mature than this little guy. They had full fair and looked like a regular full term calf just smaller. I almost took pictures of them and now that I think about it I probably should have. Thanks for sharing. Definitely something you don't get the opportunity to see very often.

lightnin4 · Jan 3, 2012

heatherleblanc said:
That's really neat, thanks for sharing those photos, I have never seen one in such condition. What kind of things were they testing for in the lab?

They test for bacterial and viral causes of disease/abortion.

willow said:
Wow things like this are always a little hard to look at, at first, but really neat to be able to see and document something like this. We just lost a set of twins that were about 240 days along and they looked much more mature than this little guy. They had full fair and looked like a regular full term calf just smaller. I almost took pictures of them and now that I think about it I probably should have. Thanks for sharing. Definitely something you don't get the opportunity to see very often.

I was a Vet Tech for 11 years, so I find stuff like this pretty interesting. My background causes me to photograph "cool stuff". I've got photos of all kinds of things that I saw when I worked at the vet clinic.

ruhtram · Jan 3, 2012

Its always sad losing a calf :-\

Aborted fetus pics

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