Livestock in danger? Opinions

msmith · January 10, 2010, 03:13:37 PM

I had a cow that had a calf. I could tell by the discharge on her tail and hanging from her vagina as well as she was thin again. This was new year's day. I looked for the calf and couldn't find it but didn't think it strange as she has a history of hiding her calf. Tried to find it the next day to no avail. She hadn't been sucked on either, so now I am concerned. The next day she has afterbirth hanging out so I get her in the chute and pull it out. The next day I call the doc, so he comes over the next day. We get her in the chute again and he checks her out. His prognosis; she went full term, uterus is fine and dropped, good milk, so she calved. We notice scratches on her nose and a cut on her rectum a week to ten days old.

Does this sound like a couple of yotes may have gotten to her while she was calving?

pitw · January 10, 2010, 05:17:47 PM

Mike my first thought[only because of where I live and things I've heard of] is does any of your neighbors have a cow with a set of twins. I know hard it can be to find the little buggers and I know we always like to blame coyotes but I still believe that coyotes take a tiny part of 1% of calves. I know they do cause I've seen it[seen several thousand they didn't too]. As a farmer you know that a cut on the nose can happen from about anything and the same can be said for the other end. I wish I could give you a definite answer but that's impossible from here.

Jimmie in Ky · January 10, 2010, 07:17:50 PM

I have to agree with Pit on this one. But if it happens aggain soon with the crazy weather we have benn having I woudl say yes. Check the pastures for trail sign and see if you have more activity than normal. Jimmie

Okanagan · January 10, 2010, 09:57:42 PM

Ditto to pitw, no way to know for sure from here. Sorry to hear of your trouble.

It could be a coyote or domestic dog or some other predator killed and ate the calf. There won't be much left if that is so. I have seen a coyote standing at the stern of a calving cow that was lying down, and heard of them starting on the calf in such a situation before it was fully out. On a cow that died while calving near our house one winter, the coyotes started on the calf and ate their way into her body cavity via the enlarged birth canal. I don't know if they killed her while she was having difficulty birthing or if they started on her after she was dead. I have also seen a cow standing facing a coyote at about ten feet with a wobbly wet calf behind her and the afterbirth hanging out. I don't think that coyote got the calf. (I was looking out the window of a Greyhound bus at that one). All of these are range cows out away from barns etc.

msmith · January 12, 2010, 08:37:19 PM

Thanks guys. I'm not generally too concerned about coyotes and the cows calving but it struck me strange that she would have cuts on her face and rectum about the same time she supposedly calved. At the time I was feeding back on our hill away from the house and barn, so all of the evidence kind of fed into an assumption. Definitely yotes around though. I have been seeing tracks all over the place, even through the field they are in and in the snow on my round bales. Like I said, it has never really been a concern as the cows and yotes have coincided just fine in the past, but as Jimmie said, we have had some crazy weather lately, and it seems most wildlife is scrounging for food right now.

Frogman · January 13, 2010, 06:26:26 PM

Mike,

I got call to come hunt a farm out Rt. #50 towards Pennsboro. They told me they had lost some calves and a cow to the coyotes. A neighbor had watched three coyotes attack a cow that was giving birth. Two of the coyotes distracted the cow from the front while the third actually pulled the calf from the cows vagina. This same family had DNR set out some of those poison cyanide traps. They killed one coyote that way. We hunted there twice and never saw nor heard any coyotes?? Haven't been back there for a while!

Jim

alscalls · January 14, 2010, 09:25:10 PM

If it was a coyote kill which I dont think its likely.... Ya cant do much about that....except pressure em
I would check my fence lines to see if she worked extra hard to hide it.....hence the scratches.....I know how that can be around here with all the multi flora rose...
that calf coulda just froze off your property somewhere or took up with the neighbors cows....
its hard to prove coyote damage but once ya do.....Call the DNR and tell em ya want a trapper.....they got a fella in Elkins that will snare a bunch of em in the off season for ya and that will slow em down a bunch.

Its been my experience that that afterbirth is a favorite thing for a coyote to eat....why was it still there? I have also seen area domestic dogs do more damage than a coyote at times and the coyote takes the wrap.

HaMeR · January 14, 2010, 09:42:45 PM

Wouldn't Momma be bawlin around looking for her calf??

Just a thought.

msmith · January 17, 2010, 07:21:32 AM

Quote from: HaMeR on January 14, 2010, 09:42:45 PM
Wouldn't Momma be bawlin around looking for her calf?? Just a thought.

She never did. That's why I thought she hid it.

I moved my feeding area close to the house til after we have all the calves. I have been pressuring the coyotes, but it is tough due to where I can hunt and the wind.