It's a Girl

A week ago, on a cool spring day, this heifer finally got around to having her calf. After she started I moved her from the large corral to the pens near the calving barn, just in case she would need assistance. Once I saw the feet showing I could see they were the front feet; and since this is the normal presentation I left, and gave her another hour and a half. When I came back it was clear she wasn't making any more progress, and that I would have to help her. Ella was home for spring break, and was kind enough to run the camera and hold an umbrella over it since it was drizzling a little. 

Many of you have heard me talk about pulling a calf, and may not know what that looks like. This video shows a calf being pulled. I was going to try to add a voiceover to the video to explain what I'm doing, but the video is fairly clear, I hope.  And adding a voiceover wasn't going to be easy. Maybe next time. Ask any questions you have in the comments and I'll try to answer them.

This heifer is trying to have her first calf.  Usually they have difficulty calving because the calf is too large. I always start by trying to pull by hand, timing my force with contractions. But sometimes pulling a large calf requires the use of a calf puller, which is a metal device that pulls with much more force than a person can. Fortunately I didn't need to use the puller this time. In this case, the heifer just didn't seem to try very hard. As it states in the title, this was a very easy pull. These easy pulls are a real mystery. I don't like to intervene if I don't have to, but sometimes the mommas just give up, and I can't risk losing the calf, or the heifer. I've have pulled about a half dozen calves this year, and two or three have been easy ones like this.

The calving barn has a head gate that traps the head so she can't move around. On harder pulls it isn't uncommon to have the momma 'go down' or lie down, in which case I release her head, so she can lie flat. The hard part of the birth is usually getting the  calf's head out. Sometimes, after the head comes out, the hips will get hung up. This is called 'hiplock' and requires the twisting of the calf to get it out. 

 A few things I do in the video that may need explanation: After pulling the calf I tickle its nose with a piece of hay to trigger it's breathing reflex. Later, I lift the calf up by its hind legs to help drain any fluid out of its mouth and nose. At one point I check its tongue to see if it is swollen from the pressure of the contractions. If it had been too swollen to nurse I would have had to tube the calf with colostrum. 

The calf is a heifer. She and her mother are doing fine. 

Comments

[Penny]

Wow, oh wow, that was so much fun to see after hearing about it for so many years.
Thanks to Ella's fine camera work. Amazing. Thanks, Ned.
Penny

[Jim]

Wow...
Nice job Ella!

[John Cross]

FINALLY! This is what I've been missing
1. Did any of that explosion of red hit Ella?
2. I do not remember my birth but i hope the doc had a more gentle bedside manner than Ned
3. several questions about elasticity come to mind but I will ask Ned those in person
4. Thanks for sharing that was awesome!

[shari]

That was fascinating! Did she deliver a placenta on her own? Was there an umbilical cord? Did she nurse ok after you left? Thank you for sharing!