Calf Presentation Question

[SSIMMENTALS]

  Has anyone ever had a calf presented upside down? As in head first, belly up. I know this is a dumb question, but for the past two years, we have had one heifer present her calf this way. I have looked in common reference materials and I never see this position pictured among abnormal presentations. I know someone else is bound to have had it happen. Each time we lost both cow and calf. The main problem was that the head would roll back at a 90 degree angle and become stuck and every time the cow had a contraction, it became jammed even harder.The calves weighed  in the ninetys and the cows were well developed, big hipped, big framed heifers.They would strain for a longer than average amount of time before getting the water sac, and then there would be no feet following. We would wait a bit and then go fishing for the feet. Each time we took the heifers to a vet. A c-section was always mentioned, but the vets both seemed to prefer vaginal delivery. Each calf had to be born using a fetotomy(sp) to get the legs out of the way and then the vet went in to get the head and bring the calf out. Both cows had already slipped their placenta by this time, so the calf was already dead. Then one cow lived for a few months with the vet coming to flush her out and administer antibiotics. She then began to have a crystaline discharge and her throat and brisket swelled and she died. The other was back up and eating after the vet got the calf out, but she got a huge fever about three hours later. She then passed away and an autopsy showed the calf's foot to have  went through her uterus and punched an ovary. What do you think causes this presentation? I have come up with the possibility that maybe the calf died right before delivery date as neither female tightened her udder up as tight and full as it would go as they normally do right before the calf is born. Other than that, there are no similarities other than they were both simmental heifers and were past show heifers( 2 months off feed before calving). They were up to date on shots and appeared fine until the date they calved. Does anyone have any insight or was it just rotten, one in a million tough luck?
Thanks,
Sarah

 

[Bulldaddy]

Last year, I had a cow go into labor and after a couple of hours the contractions stopped.  Put her in the squeeze chute and checked the calf.  It was upside down as you describe in your post.  The calf was a relatively large bull calf.  With the help of a very knowledgeable dairyman, I was able to get the calf turned right side up and then jacked out with the calf puller.  The calf was alive and heathy.  The cow survivied and we got her bred back.  Unfortunately, she aborted the fetus at about 3 months.  I sold her figuring she was a lost cause because of the difficult, traumatic delivery.  I think it was just a fluke that the calf was upside down.