The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Cattle => Topic started by: Muddy Wellies on January 04, 2020, 10:49:29 am
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Hallo!
Has anyone had this happen?
I have a heifer who has been about to calve for the past week - pins dropped and some mucus showing a week ago, started bagging up on Monday - but by Wed her teats had shrivelled and I thought I'd imagined seeing them start to fill. Now the same thing has happened again - last night teats were filling, this morning one has shrivelled to nothing. Am I seeing things?
What's going on?
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Often bags go up and down in the run up to calving, often as a result of lying down and moving around.
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I've never had it happen, bag come and go before calving. Like how you said pins dropped!
Knickers calved 2am Sat morning, full term and we still can't quite figure out where she kept him. I compare her to a supermodel, perfect figure before and after calving!
Small bag though long teets. Good size and Edward sucks like a dream!! With any luck, this time next year, she'll have her 2nd calf and 1st calves for Mary and Jennifer!!
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Thank you both! Good to know she's not the only one not doing things by the book :)
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Next question!
Colostrum finally came in last night.
It's now 10 days since her "due" date.
Can heifers go beyond 10 days? Please say no, and that she'll definitely get on with it today!
Or could she even not be ready, and perhaps she got pregnant 3 weeks after the date I noted seeing the bull with her?
(My other 3 have all calved over the last month)
Thanks :)
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It will happen when she's ready , so take a depth breath and relax and stop starring at her
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Or could she even not be ready, and perhaps she got pregnant 3 weeks after the date I noted seeing the bull with her?
We had this with one of our cows this year - she was vast and way past her "due date". I even got the vet to have a look when he was in about something else. When I looked back the diary, she must have slipped the calf she was carrying when they were scanned and come back into season almost immediately - hence calf was six weeks after "due date". All well though.
Shep53 is right though - watched kettle and all that :)
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It will happen when she's ready , so take a depth breath and relax and stop starring at her
What she says :)
Gestation varies yes. Plus both sheep and cows can “keep them in” if they think the conditions aren’t right. Which does indeed include not being given any peace! Lol.
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Next question!
Colostrum finally came in last night.
It's now 10 days since her "due" date.
Can heifers go beyond 10 days? Please say no, and that she'll definitely get on with it today!
Or could she even not be ready, and perhaps she got pregnant 3 weeks after the date I noted seeing the bull with her?
(My other 3 have all calved over the last month)
Thanks :)
If you are sure it's colostrum and not just a watery liquid then I should begin the hourly checks and get the hot water, soft calving ropes, lubricant and towels ready. :excited: :fc:
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It will happen when she's ready , so take a depth breath and relax and stop starring at her
Ha! Easier said than done!!
We watched Knickers on the monitor then went down just in case she needed assistance! Did well herself, pen spotless. Actually thought how dry it was. Little darling pushed calf out first so as soon as she got up, out popped waterbag literally exploding everywhere!!
Good job I've mothered her since she came at 3 weeks old, she licked calf whilst I was brushing water blood slime galore up and putting down clean bedding. Her none slip mat became an ice rink for him!
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Plus both sheep and cows can “keep them in” if they think the conditions aren’t right. Which does indeed include not being given any peace! Lol.
Ooops!!!! ::)
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We have a MooCall calving sensor... it gives us some assurance that we won’t miss a calving and it’s saved a fair few calves in the 3 years we’ve had it :thumbsup:
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We have a MooCall calving sensor... it gives us some assurance that we won’t miss a calving and it’s saved a fair few calves in the 3 years we’ve had it :thumbsup:
We were just joking we needed a "Coo Cam"!
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If you are sure it's colostrum and not just a watery liquid then I should begin the hourly checks and get the hot water, soft calving ropes, lubricant and towels ready. :excited: :fc:
Definitely colostrum!
Came in yesterday evening....
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...Which does indeed include not being given any peace! Lol.
Comet the heifer agrees...
I promised myself some cocoa after the last check, but instead have been washing my mouth out with salty water - Comet got me in the chops with the end of her tail... :yuck:
Just her way of thanking for trying to remove her muck and give her some clean straw I guess... ??? ;D ;D
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:roflanim:
Love their names :)
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Still no calf....
We seem to have slipped seemlessly from being late from expected date to being early for 3weeks later
I've been checking her regularly for 2 weeks now.
At what point should I get worried?
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3 things
1 - have you seen movement from either side? Shimmering or flinching? Mum always says that the calf is On her right (from behind)
2 - following on from seeing movement, can you feel it? That's if the animal is quiet enough. With Juniper and Knickers, not pressing too hard i felt the calf move, just for a split second, but I did feel it.
3 - stethoscope! Got one? If not Get one and listen. I have one, not brilliant, picks up wonderful gurgling noises from Junjpers guts rather than a heartbeat! Once I got it into the right position a faint boom boom boom could be heard.
In the past when we had the bulls here, we had to watch and wait and guess many times by mum feeling their bums. Now, with AI i know the date (kind of) and I have the vet out to scan to confirm pregnancy.
Now theres a thought, do you feel her bum? I can never feel it but mum can. It's where the bones separate in preparation. She says usually gives you 6 hours notice.
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stethoscope! Got one? If not Get one and listen. I have one, not brilliant, picks up wonderful gurgling noises from Junjpers guts rather than a heartbeat! Once I got it into the right position a faint boom boom boom could be heard.
A stethoscope is a great idea! Even just for the fun of hearing the rumbling tummies!
I'll keep a look out or one :)
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Plus both sheep and cows can “keep them in” if they think the conditions aren’t right. Which does indeed include not being given any peace! Lol.
Well she took this to the extreme and held the calf in til Storm Brendan arrived and the van slewed off the track and got stuck in the mud and the wind was so strong I couldn't stand upright never mind walk across two fields to the shed...
So she had undisturbed peace all afternoon, if you can call a raging storm peaceful!
And to rub it in, the whole herd started trumpeting the calf's arrival just as I landed face down in the mud and muck having finally managed to navigate myself and a wheelbarrow of food across in the dark, after both torches packing up...
Calf has been named Brexit by the kids....
Cow has been renamed :rant: :rant: :rant: :rant: by me!
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Plus both sheep and cows can “keep them in” if they think the conditions aren’t right. Which does indeed include not being given any peace! Lol.
Well she took this to the extreme and held the calf in til Storm Brendan arrived and the van slewed off the track and got stuck in the mud and the wind was so strong I couldn't stand upright never mind walk across two fields to the shed...
So she had undisturbed peace all afternoon, if you can call a raging storm peaceful!
And to rub it in, the whole herd started trumpeting the calf's arrival just as I landed face down in the mud and muck having finally managed to navigate myself and a wheelbarrow of food across in the dark, after both torches packing up...
Calf has been named Brexit by the kids....
Cow has been renamed :rant: :rant: :rant: :rant: by me!
Well at least calf is here and by all accounts all went well! You were keeping us all on tenterhooks... (a smallholder who is not allowed to have cattle sadly...)
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Cattle and sheep giving birth in storms happens way too often to be coincidental.
Glad she’s finally popped!
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Cattle and sheep giving birth in storms happens way too often to be coincidental.
Glad she’s finally popped!
Apparently for humans too according to a obstetrician neighbour who has worked in many different countries. She reckons its low barometric pressure which sets them off. I now have an app on my phone during lambing so if there's a massive drop in pressure we can get ready!!
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Counter-intuitively, there is probably an evolutionary pressure for it.
Lambs (or calves or other herbivores) born into a storm may well perish before they get that all important first feed, so you’d think there would be evolutionary pressure against it. But as it is most definitely a thing, I’ve wondered about a few factors that could create an evolutionary pressure for it. The first and most obvious is that predators wouldn’t be very likely to pick up the scent of the birth fluids etc. The second is that any offspring which do survive such an arrival will clearly have good mobility at birth, and be fairly hardy to bad weather; the mother must have good mothering instincts and lots of good quality milk : all factors which improve survival rates no matter what the circumstances of your birth. In years when all the young are born into stormy weather, in a wild species, the only survivors will be those with these factors. In a domesticated situation, humans mitigate this of course, and nurture and rear a number of the youngsters which would otherwise have perished. “Fair weather mothers” will lose disproportionately more of their offspring when the weather is bad, so over time, the stronger will be the ones whose genes dominate. That’s my theory, anyway
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That all sounds very likely. Also perhaps predators are less likely to be at large? When you only need to eat every other day you may as well wait until it stops raining ;D