prolapsed uterus

I received a neat gift today, in addition to a healthy WMW heifer, I got to deal with a huge swollen bloody mess. Vet and I had an enjoyable time trying to cram what seemed to be 300 pounds of yuck back into a heifer that didnt seem to want it back. Felt like we were trying to thread a needle with a pound of raw hamburger.

I hadnt had one of those in a LONG time, and I would just as soon not do it again. Momma heifer is one and done and will grow wheels in the fall, but I am curious if anyone has had any experience keeping daughters of calf bed shuckers and if it is a heritable trait. At first glance the little Who looks like she would be keeping material, but not if it means the possibility of a sequel to her mom's little puppet show.

Any experience with this?

We have kept females out of uterine prolapse cows.  We have only had a couple of those and have never seen a repeat out of the daughters.

How much did the calf weigh?  In heifers that have a big calf or have been pushing too long, it can happen regardless of genetics.  Herefords, do however seem to be more prone to it.

Having a vet close enough, and willing enough to come out and help put it back in is fabulous.  One hint is that if you have to do this yourself is use granulated sugar, about 5 pounds, sprinkled on the uterus to help shrink it down.

Other supplies good to have on hand at the time are a new, sterile uterine needle to use with umbilical tape to sew the vulva shut.  I am not telling you to do this instead of calling a vet, but where we live it can take literally hours to come out, if they will come out at all.  Heifers,especially can go into shock and die if action is not taken fast.
Lots of disinfectant, a clean brand new tarp, and scads of penicillin, also.

We do not typically keep these heifers, but a live heifer in the fall is so much better than a dead one.

Sounds like fun. It seems I read somewhere that prolapsing can be heritable. We had a vaginal prolapse a couple years ago. We got rid of the cow and kept her heifer calf and the heifer calved this year with no problems.

I completly know how you feel. My heifer also prolapsed about two weeks ago today. Luckily, she was not pushing when we went to work on her and we were able to get her taken care of within about 30 minutes. Vet told me heifer calf would be ok to keep but do not keep the cow as she is more prone to do it again. Lots of suggestions from this board leaned towards giving her another try though. I'm still trying to decide what to do with her...

Back in the dark ages NASCO catalogue had a  harness for lack of a better description that went in front of the hooks, around the flanks, and crossed below the rectum & above the vulva,  kind of held everything in place,  used one once worked well,  we use powdered sugar to encourage thing to go back

We have a cow that prolapsed with a heifer and she has had three calves since without a prolapse and her heifer, knock on wood, didn't prolapse this year either.  Just hang in there and make sure you follow up with the antibiotics the vet RX.  It will be okay!!

We had a cow tha polapsed as a heifer had a calf without a problem then had a C-section on her third calf and still was able to deliver not prolapsing again. Our vet whow also grew up on a diary farm said it is not heritable and they usually are okay if you get them back in time. Betadine is a great disinfectant by the way. You can dilute in a bucket of water and soap. Rinse the uterus with that dilute mixture you should be fine. We use Dial handsoap and betadine. (Wait on the vet to arrive. But definitely get it clean)

How big was the calf? Did you pull her?

Uterine prolapse occurs secondary to straining (+/- gravity) during the 3rd stage of labor and is generally related to dystocia and or hypocalcemia (esp dairy cows) - it rarely recurs and assuming the uterus is not damaged cattle usually rebreed and successfully carry the calf to term. If you think about how to get the huge uterus over the pelvic brim and out you can see that getting the heifer to stand immediately after calving and not calving on a hill or slope would help prevent uterine prolapse. I wouldn't cull a heifer I liked for a prolapse

Our Vet says if they are not torn from snagging the Uterus on something or stepping on it he can put it back in and the cow will be fine and should not do it again

4 years ago I had a 10 year old cow prolapse, she just had a calf yesterday with no problems. I have 4 daughters in the herd and no problems with any of them.

I used to work for our vet.  He did exactly what Cowz suggests.  regular granulated sugar to draw the fluid out.  Most go on and produce calves normally, if you keep infection from setting in

Thank you all, and specifically you o wisened DVM maine lady. couple additional thoughts, first of all this heifer slopes from hooks to pins worse than a Brahma. Could this have been a contributing factor? The calf was a perfect sized first timer. ten days early and under 70lbs easy. Also, while we were cramming and jamming something "popped" and a gallon or more of fluid gushed out (mostly on me). That didnt strike me as something positive.

I have loaded the culprit up with enough combi pen sterilize a dead goat, but I dont like how she looks this morning. the old down headed mopes.

In all our years of calving we have only had 2, 1 the vet got back in, but she died and 1 this year that calved during the night and she died before the vet got here. 
What you do with them is a personal choice, and everything may be fine, but here if they have problems they go to town, I can't afford to take a chance that next year will be ok, I'd just as soon replace her with one that has a clean record. JMO

I am of your thoughts Jill. Unless the baby WMW would turn it up and become a true great one, leading me to believe the momma is some diamond in the rough steer machine, she wrote her death warrant. I didnt need many excuses to 86 her anyway. Shes a Witch, looks like a diseased yak, and is a midget. Only reason she made it this far with me is she is a black Alias x Full Throttle cow that has had many big coupons. Plus she is so ugly they probably would have banned me from ever coming back to my local salebarn if I tried to sell her there.

yuppiecowboy said:

Thank you all, and specifically you o wisened DVM maine lady. couple additional thoughts, first of all this heifer slopes from hooks to pins worse than a Brahma. Could this have been a contributing factor? The calf was a perfect sized first timer. ten days early and under 70lbs easy. Also, while we were cramming and jamming something "popped" and a gallon or more of fluid gushed out (mostly on me). That didnt strike me as something positive.

I have loaded the culprit up with enough combi pen sterilize a dead goat, but I dont like how she looks this morning. the old down headed mopes.

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yeah the slope might play a factor - I doubt the fact that you got soaked means anything (except that you are wet) because there are pockets of fluid in folds when the uterus comes out that were "feed" when you were replacing it

You gotta figure the heifer has been traumatized - she proabably needs some TLC and talk to your vet about meds for pain and inflammation (ie Banamine) - when they dies suddenly it is because of rupture of the uterine artery (usually) - you got her back together so I would suggest that you aggressively try to manage her discomfort and get her to eat - even if you have to hand feed her - cows that are off feed do not do well so even if you aren't going to keep her "forever" you need to make sure she eats - my personal favorite tonic for cows in this state is Beef Nutridrench - you can get it at TSC - good luck

Thank you for your counsel DL. Unfortunately we had a bleed out and I now have a bottle calf. I have a suspicion the tear that gave me a bath is involved somehow. Thankfully I dont have a ton of experience with prolapse, but I am pretty sure I can recognize an UHOH.

Anybody need a graft calf? Got one cheap.