firesweepranch
Well-known member
Had our third embryo calf today; one I bought from Tim Burke on Breeders World (Harkers Domination x Zeis cow). He was breech, and since I have no experience calving a breech presentation I immediately called the vet. My daughter put an arm in the cow and verified that it was a hock and not a knee (thus making sure breech and not an upside down calf), so we waited for our vet. He did a great job explaining how to pull a breech calf, and I got to use my calf jack for the very first (and hopefully last!) time. A great, calm experience. Anyway, calf is average to big (I will weigh him in the morning when my husband is home to help), I'd say no more than 85 pounds, and took over an hour to try to stand. He buckles on both the back and front pasterns, rolls forward, like a minor contraction. My concern is his back hock flexes forward, like overextends towards his front knee. It is kind of sickening to watch. Will he come out of that, or is there something we need to do to prevent it from getting worse? Is it from pulling him from this back legs? He was pulled at about 5:15 this evening, and was finally able to stand to suck by 9 PM. He is very wobbly with is contracted tendons, and that hock popping forward... just wondering if I should just wait and see or get involved.