Unlucky Christmas Eve

[sawboss]

We returned home from my in-laws Christmas Eve to find my youngest son's Red Brangus heifer in labor.  The problem is she was not due to calve until April, and was already way along.  After spending an hour with her she dropped her calf, fully formed but too premature to survive.  After many tears from Mom and the little one we went on about our Christmas Eve.  We will now have to scratch her from the shows at Fort Worth and Houston and decide what our next step will be.  My youngest son's concern is how well she would have done at these shows, mine is will this be a pattern for the future.  I realize this happens often, it was extremely painful for my son since it was his first show heifer.

 

[Show Dad]

Sawboss - Sorry to hear about your sons heifer. I know that these things can be tuff on you but add that it's your sons makes it even harder.

My first instinct is to cull the heifer but also check to see if the fault lies in something else (feed, weeds, stress, etc.). In these things I tend to stretch my rules when it's the kid's animal. so if its not to much trouble get the vets opinion.

 

[showsteerdlux]

We had the same thing happen to our commercial heifer last year. She delivered the calf 7 weeks early last year and of course the calf was way to young to survive. In our case we are pretty sure that the heifer was butted around pretty good seeing as she was new cow on pasture but that's the way it goes. We decided to give her one more chance and this past Friday she popped out a heifer calf that is healthy and energetic. Hope you have better luck with her if you decide to keep her. Just remember if you've got em sooner or later your going to lose em. Good luck with her. If you don't mind what was she bred to?

 

[Jill]

We returned home from my in-laws Christmas Eve to find my youngest son's Red Brangus heifer in labor.  The problem is she was not due to calve until April, and was already way along.  After spending an hour with her she dropped her calf, fully formed but too premature to survive.  After many tears from Mom and the little one we went on about our Christmas Eve.  We will now have to scratch her from the shows at Fort Worth and Houston and decide what our next step will be.  My youngest son's concern is how well she would have done at these shows, mine is will this be a pattern for the future.  I realize this happens often, it was extremely painful for my son since it was his first show heifer.

I guess my 1st question would be was she bred before you got her, if she was due in April she shouldn't have been already way along.  We had one several years ago that came in heat month after month and we just couldn't get her stuck finally check her and she had been bred before we bought her as a calf at 9 months.
My keep or cull decision alway come down to if I like her or not.  If she's just a calf and I can replace her easily sell her and buy something else, if I really like her or she would be expensive to replace keep her another year and see what happens.

 

[red]

so sorry. It can happen to the best of us. I hope your son still had a good Christmas!

Red

 

[sawboss]

The heifer was on schedule, as she was bred in late June and really doing well.  The calf weighed 15-20 lbs. and was on target for it's stage of development.  There were no obvious defects in the calf.  Once the labor process started there was no turning back.

 

[common sense]

Well, I know JUST how you feel.  The mother of one of our Denver bulls evidently fell on the ice in our hilly field and is in the process of losing her calf.  I am on my way out to put her in the barn.  I know this won't be a good deal.  Just hope that I can save the cow.  Hills and ice are a bad combination here.  Always seems to happen to your favorite critter too!  I am almost positive that it's from a fall but I am going to have the vet test the calf/cow anyway just to eliminate any other issues that might be going on. Look at the bright side...at least you didn't lose the cow!

 

[common sense]

O.K., thanks for the KARMA...is must be working.  The cow is not losing her calf.  Calf is alive and well.  The cow has quite a bit of bloody discharge but discovered that she had been riding an open donor cow out in the stalk field.  I need to get the donors seperated at this point in the calving cycle of the others.  Blood was a result of slight vaginal prolapse.  Nothing serious.  WHEW!!!!