A long 285 days of waiting.

[triplec]

It has been a long wait but we have finally had our first Dexter here at the farm. It has been just over a year since we first brought the girls home. It seems the last week has been a long wait with a few late night checks. They say a watched pot never boils so she delivered unassisted while we were at church.

[zephyrhillsusan]

Congratulations! It really is a loooong wait, isn't it? But so rewarding at the end!

[Pinevalleydexters]

Congrats on your healthy calf!

[zephyrhillsusan]

triplec, how about some vital statistics?

[triplec]

We had a nice heifer calf. She is very healthy. I should have weighed her to keep better records but I guess about 40#. She was up and nursed and everything looked good that evening.

Now I will share the bad news. The next morning I woke up about 6 am and notice she was laying down which was in a different place she was at 10 pm. I went to check on her and she wouldn't get up. I tried multiple times and pressed hard for her to get up. I called the vet to get them out after checking temp which was 98 degrees which was low and even tried a second thermometer. I sleeved her to check for anything obvious but nothing I could tell. She was very groggy when she did try to get up. I gave the vet this information. The vet never came in time about hour and half. The cow passed and I suspect maybe milk fever. I milked here out to get any leftover colostrum. I now have a bottle calf.

[midhilldexters]

So sorry to hear of your loss, it's always hard. All we can do is try and use these tragedies as a learning tool. Vets can sometimes take forever, I've had that happen also.
Congrats on your heifer and hope all is going well with you calf.

Carol K

[zephyrhillsusan]

Oh gosh, I'm so sorry to hear of your very sad loss.  I'm sorry the vet couldn't make it in time.  

It would surprise me if it was milk fever because that usually occurs in higher-producing cows, although if she was older and had more lactations, she could be more prone to it.  Here's a link to some info on milk fever in case it can help with your other cows who are still due to calve.  Here's another article on various cause of down cows, including grass tetany and winter tetany.

For future reference (for anyone reading this), if you suspect milk fever might be a problem, you can give preventive oral treatment at calving.  Dr. Larsons is an oral gel that is non-irritating, which is great because one of the problems with oral CMPK is that it irritates the cow's mouth and esophagus, making her avoid eating, which can lead to ketosis, also potentially fatal. Once a cow is down, oral calcium is not likely to be enough save her, but if you don't know how to do an IV, you can run in a bottle sub-cutaneously.  It doesn't hurt them to give it if it's not needed, and it just might help, or at least buy you time until the vet can get there.  I keep the Safe Cal on hand, figuring that throwing away a tube when it gets outdated is cheap insurance.

This year I started using Dr. Hubert Karreman's preventive treatment for milk fever: "apple cider vinegar 2 oz twice daily for two weeks prior to freshening to keep blood calcium levels up."  I mix it with unsulfured molasses, which is also helpful, and pour it over a small amount of feed.  I start out with extra molasses until they get used to the taste of the ACV.  It's a small nuisance to me, but worth it for the peace of mind.  I also offer the cow a 5 gallon bucket of warm water with 2 cups of molasses in it as soon after calving as I can.  They usually suck down 2 of those buckets (about one bottle of molasses) as fast as they can.     It replenishes their blood sugar and perks up their appetite.

Problems like this are our worst nightmare, and we do the best we can with what we know and have available.  You did what you could for her, but I know that's not really a comfort in losing her.  Again, I'm so sorry that your first calving ended up like this. 

[triplec]

She was an older cow at least 5 years with 2 known lactations. She did have a good looking udder in my opinion. My neighbor how has had cows many years also commented that night she had good potential to raise a big calf due to the amount of milk she looked to have. I ruled out tetany due to lack of any seizures. I have this summer started a rotational grazing program on my pasture which is has about 40-50% red clover which is high in Magnesium but also high in potassium. The higher magnesium would help with grass tetany. The high potassium would negatively affect calcium intake from what I have read.
I have also found the product cmpk and another higher calcium paste that I plan on using it in my pre and post calving routine. My vet cabinet is ever increasing with preventive measures.