What do you do with a calf that died @ birth?

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SKF

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Apr 24, 2007
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1,057
We just had a cow lose her calf at birth on Friday and we took the baby right away and disposed of it. She is still looking for her baby and she thinks the baby in the pasture next to her is hers. She constantly looks over the fence mooing to it all day. She does occasionally goes and joins the herd and when she does she checks all the babies then goes back to the calf next door. Do you let the cow stay with the baby so she realizes it's dead or do you take it right away? Do you think they relized their calf is dead? I have had some others who have lost their calves and they go back ot where they lost there calf but she is really stressed about this. Just wanted to know what everone else does in this situation. Thank you!!
 

txshowlamb

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Jun 22, 2008
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514
We had this happen over summer we let the momma smell and clean the baby before we took it but when we took it she chased us and mooed but was fine the next morning maybe just get another calf for her if shes too stressed
 

OH Breeder

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Feb 14, 2007
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Ada, Ohio
In the past we have quiet a few dairy's in the area. We have bought bucket calves and put on the cow. Then fed the bucket calf out. It all depends on your area.
 

DL

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Jan 29, 2007
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I always let the cow lick off the calf - I think they get a sense that it is not coming around but I think they still miss it. I don't know if cattle understand the concept of "dead" - Temple Grandin doesn't seem to think they do - I do think they understand the concept of gone, missing etc and I do think they feel sad, feel loss. I am not sure they always understand "mine".

True story...3 month old calf - wasn't keeping up with the herd and when I examined her she had a whooping heart murmur - she was knocked over in the field by the other calves playing - I examined her and she was in fulminant heart failure so I figured it was time to euthanize her - I walked from the field to the barn to get the tractor (too big to carry) and "blue juice" and all the cows except the boss cow followed me up to the barn. The boss cow (who was not her mother) stayed with the calf. Got the tractor and rode back to the field - all the cows followed me and then they circled the calf and me as I injected to euthanasia solution. But the calf in the bucket and drove back to the barn - all the cows followed and then the mother went back to the spot where the calf had fallen and wailed for about 5 minutes - can't tell me cows don't feel psychic pain

ps IMHO the worst thing you can do from a disease standpoint is foster a dairy calf - especially a sale yard dairy barn calf

PS I always necropsy calves born dead -
 

DCC_Cattle

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May 8, 2008
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398
Location
West Jefferson, Ohio
I've been in this situation before. We let the cow lick the calf and spend some time with it. When you take the calf out, they do get mad and bawl, but they normally accept it with some time. No matter what, they will miss the calf.

One time, one of my show heifers had a c-section and had a dead calf. One of our feedlot cows had a calf on the same day and she refused to take care of it. So we put that calf on the show heifer and she took right to him. After his real mother calmed down we thought we would put him back with her to see if she would take care of him and the show heifer that had lost her calf, bawled and looked all over for that new baby. We put that calf back with her and she took care of it like her own. :)
 

OH Breeder

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Feb 14, 2007
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Location
Ada, Ohio
DL said:
I always let the cow lick off the calf - I think they get a sense that it is not coming around but I think they still miss it. I don't know if cattle understand the concept of "dead" - Temple Grandin doesn't seem to think they do - I do think they understand the concept of gone, missing etc and I do think they feel sad, feel loss. I am not sure they always understand "mine".

True story...3 month old calf - wasn't keeping up with the herd and when I examined her she had a whooping heart murmur - she was knocked over in the field by the other calves playing - I examined her and she was in fulminant heart failure so I figured it was time to euthanize her - I walked from the field to the barn to get the tractor (too big to carry) and "blue juice" and all the cows except the boss cow followed me up to the barn. The boss cow (who was not her mother) stayed with the calf. Got the tractor and rode back to the field - all the cows followed me and then they circled the calf and me as I injected to euthanasia solution. But the calf in the bucket and drove back to the barn - all the cows followed and then the mother went back to the spot where the calf had fallen and wailed for about 5 minutes - can't tell me cows don't feel psychic pain

ps IMHO the worst thing you can do from a disease standpoint is foster a dairy calf - especially a sale yard dairy barn calf

PS I always necropsy calves born dead -

We never bought SALE barn dairy calves. I know most of my dairy neighbors and most of them have cleaner barns then some folks houses. I wouldn't suggest going to the sale barn either. We dealt directly with the dairies in our area.
 

inthebarnagain

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Oct 10, 2007
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613
Location
Indiana
We had a cow once thats calf was born breech and died.  After she had sufficiently cleaned it and we THOUGHT realized that the calf was dead we drug him out of the pasture and disposed of him.  For two days after that everytime the cow would see us she would start bawling and run up to us and see if we still had her calf, it was horrible.  My husband would walk the pasture checking for new calves with Abigail right on his heels crying to him.  He would just talk to her and apologize for her calf but I could tell it was wearing on him. 

On the third day we went out and Abigail was nowhere to be found, until we went over the hill and saw her mothering a newborn baby.  Now the newborn had a mother already but for some reason she let Abigail take care of the calf too.  I think she was tired of listening to her bawl too! 

I think cattle have more feelings that people give them credit for. 
 

Malinda

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Feb 16, 2007
Messages
160
I leave the calf with the cow for 1 to 2 hours.  As soon as I see that she is loosing interest I know it is OK to take the calf out. I think this really helps the cow.

I have seen newborns that just lie (lay there? ain't no good with grammar) and the cows will get less and less interested and finally stop trying to stimulate the calf. But, if the calf is lively the cow won't give up. This is just one more argument for getting colostrum into calves within an hour and wanting SMALL, LIVELY calves.

I have never been a fan of getting an 'out of herd' calf to bring in and graft onto the cow. I did contact my vet about 5 years ago to ask what local dairy did the best job of herd health, environment, etc., etc. and I did get a calf for grafting onto a 10 year old cow.

There is a funny story about that little Holstein calf. The summer before the neighbor's Holstein bull had come over to visit twice and the neighbor and I were having 'discussions' about keeping weeds off the high tensile fence. Well, I just couldn't resist....

After I grafted the Holstein calf I was driving by the neighbor's one day and saw him out by his barn. I drove in and ask him if he had time for me to take him over to my barn to show him something. I drove him right up to the lot and right in front of him stood the calf. Well, the look on his face was priceless.

SKF, sorry to hear about you loosing the calf. It's never fun. I lost an 8 day old ET heifer calf up at the OSU vet clinic a few days ago. Loosing calves always adds to the grey hair and sleep deprivation.

Malinda


 
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