Dead calves - need opinions on cause

We are disappointed and don't know what to think.  We bought a bred heifer about three and a half years ago out of a sale where they sale their own cattle and have some consignors.  The consignors are usually selling club calf type cows and heifers.  The consignor was selling this heifer as a bred angus heifer.  We thought looking at her she wasn't a pure angus, but that was fine with us.  We liked her and bought her to raise club calves.  When she calved the following fall, her calf died shortly after birth - it was TH.  We were upset and disappointed and contacted the seller and he acted surprised and said there was nothing he could do about it.  That is what we expected, but we thought he should know.  We were careful to breed her back to a bull that was not a carrier.  Well, when she was in labor we watched her closely and as soon as the calf was born, within a couple of minutes, my husband checked on the calf and it was dead.  A nice bull calf.  She had no problem having it, so we don't know what went wrong.  Well, we liked the cow enough to give her another try.  A different bull (non carrier) and another easy labor and she has another nice bull calf - DEAD.  Any ideas?  We have never had anything like this happen before.  The last two calves looked just fine, but dead.  She had both of them easily.  Just thought I would see if anyone had an idea what was wrong, so we possibly don't have this problem again.  Sorry about the long story.  Thanks in advance for your opinions.

I don't what it could be,  but it sounds like it should be time for her to go.

It's probably too late but if you want a chance at a diagnosis the dead calf needs to be taken to a vet (maybe even afterbirth) for analysis. Sometimes that can be a dead end.

My rule of thumb is two dead calves in a row = one way ticket off the ranch.

There could be an internal defect like heart organ dysfunction. You need to post a calf to find out if this is the problem. I am the worst when it comes to getting rid of cows. I feel bad and it has impacted my pocketbook because I can't part with some of them. It makes no business sense but I figure NONE of the club calf industry makes a whole lot of business sense.

it happened to me out of a cow I raised .. maine /angus x HooToo... nice looking cow... raised her first calf out of Homer but lost next two... calves were born alive but just got weaker and weaker and died... not sure what the problem was.. 2 different bulls ... she went to the slaughter...

Thank you all for your opinions.  We are still upset, but know we will have to get over it.  This was her last chance.  How come it seems like it is always the good (and expensive) cows that have problems?

Hamburger.

I would think after spending the $$ for a decent cow, you would spend the $$ to have the cow / dead calf checked out?  It's relatively inexpensive to have a vet "post" the calf, unfortunately you would have had to have it done within about 12 hours  of the calf dying... which is water under the bridge now. 

I thought I posted this before but I guess I didn't

NECROPSY

The most important necropsy is the one on the first dead calf -

Asking for opinions on a cause for dead calves that are long dead is not going to get you any useful information

DL said:

I thought I posted this before but I guess I didn't

NECROPSY

The most important necropsy is the one on the first dead calf -

Asking for opinions on a cause for dead calves that are long dead is not going to get you any useful information

Click to expand...

My question is, if the two dead calves were full term and if they smelled like they had been dead inside the cow for a day or so? This is a mystery to me, but it would definitely have me worried about what kind of diseases may have been getting spread throughout the herd that this cow might have had. Hopefully it was just another genetic defect that caused it. I would defintiely be alarmed if you had another cow do the same thing.

Check her pelvic area. I had a buddy that had a cow that did that and her pelvic area was small and it caused enough trauma to the calf at birth that the calf died.

Thanks again for the opinions.  Both of the dead calves were completely normal for a newborn calf, except dead.  None of our other cows have had anything like this before.  Sure, we have lost one before when the cow has had calving problems, but we really don't feel this was the case.  So far this year, except for this cow, we have had no major problems.  We had seventeen calves born 1-2 weeks early, but figure it was because of the heat.  They were all fine.  I guess we will never know.  At the time we were so upset, having the dead calf checked out by a vet never entered our mind.  Have a good evening and LET IT RAIN!!!!!!