Pregnant Heifer still cycles on cue

[Deleted]

Hello
Sorry this is going to be a little drawn out in background info:

We have a non-dwarf heifer that has been cycling like clockwork since she was 9 months old.

At 16mths of age we decided to join her and we watched the joining, marked the breed registry and thought nothing more of it.

Three weeks later, our 6mth old bullcalf was beginning to pay quite a bit of attention to her, and she was seen ‘flirting’ near the fenceline of the other bulls.
She was definitely in season – we put her and chosen bull back together and that evening the two of them joined _again_.

Oh well, we thought, chosen bull’s first-ever joining was with said heifer, maybe things weren’t quite ready on his behalf even though he performed his duties like a pro, and genetleman with his selected 6 girls.

We then watched the other 5 girls but cycle timeslots came and went without incident – as far as we are concerned, pregnancy confirmed in other 4 cows and 1 heifer.
Three weeks later, to the day, young bullcalf was yet again interested in said heifer. We called the vet. He took swabs and blood noting she looked in great health.
We did not allow for an internal as bloods were checking for pregnancy anyways.

We then put senior, experienced bull with her – just incase (This girl was throwing out our syncing of a 3 week calf-drop, darn it  ) – and he joined with her just before dark.

The following week, swabs and bloods came back – all was clear of infections and pregnancy was confirmed............how weird?

And so it repeats, yesterday she began showing signs of cycling again – right on cue.
What the..........?


I know the human female can still cycle during pregnancies – can cows?

Has anyone else experienced this?

Cheers
Donna

[Deleted]

OK, Im going to answer my own post.

I was just on another site and yes, this is common especially in heifers and especially during the first 3-4 months.
 
Some will do this with every pregnancy and some will do it right through a pregnancy.

I was told it was called a ‘hot’ cycle: bulls interested in joining with pregnant moo and will perform if allowed.
‘Warm’ cycles are those where bulls maybe interested in pregnant moo but not that interested to join.

And someone stated there is an increase risk for the foetus to be aborted and also increase risk of premature birth.
So our little ‘Miss’ is now on a monthly watch list.

And its not as rare as one may think Which is good to know that she is not too strange of a girl.

[Julie]

Ooh - just read this post and am wondering if this is what is happening with my heifer?!! I do hope so! She is cycling every 3 weeks. I am going to make an appt for preg checks with the vet. Thanks for this post!