How can you tell when a cow already gave birth?

Answer 1

Her udder swells with colostrum, her vulva engorges with blood, her sides will sink in front of her thurls, there may be some mucous coming out of her vulva. She'll get fidgety and look for a place to calve. When her udder is full, she's about 3-7 days from calving, although some cows or heifers won't show any freshening until the day they are about to calve. When her sides sink in, she's 1-3 days from calving. When there is discharge from her vulva, she's less than a day away from calving. When you see that water bag, she's in labor and it's just a matter of minutes.

When she's in labour, she will be pacing around, laying down then getting up repeatedly, stopping suddenly as if she's straining (which she probably is), and thick mucus discharge from her vulva, soon followed by a water sac (yellowish in colour). Soon after the water sac appears you should be able to see feet sticking out, and these feet should have the bottoms pointing downwards, indicating that the calf is coming front first. You should also see that BOTH feet are coming out; if there's just one you might want to consider getting the cow in a head-gate for you to go in and bring the leg up or get the vet to do it. Soon after the feet and the first part of the legs show the nose, muzzle and head soon follow, then the shoulders. After the shoulders the rest pop out easily, however trouble can also come if the hips get locked in the cow's pelvis. Don't hesitate to help her out then either if she doesn't progress to dropping the rest of the calf. But if the hips don't get locked, before you know it you'll have a new baby calf on the ground. Congrats!

Answer 2

This young heifer would not be coming into heat every 21 days or so. If you were watching her closely and counting off the days between each estrus (heat period) then she would most likely be pregnant. However, confirmation must be sought by your local large animal veterinarian, who will preg-check her (rectal palpation) to see if one of her uterine horns are larger than normal, indicating a growing embryo or fetus, depending on when you have the vet palpate her (45-90 days or 4 months after you finally noticed something wasn't quite right about this heifer). This method you can also do yourself if you know what to feel for, but it's probably better to let someone with more experience do it instead. It is less expensive and quite accurate method of preg-checking, but again this goes according to the experience of the person doing it. A urine test is impossible to do because you'd have to be standing by the heifer waiting for her to pee for you then suddenly jump in and try to get a sample. It may be possible with dairy heifers, but I wish you luck with them feisty beef heifers! The milk or serum progesterone test (also called the ELISA [Enzyme-Linked ImmunoSorbant Assay] test) is more complex and costs more money to have done, plus the results may be scewered if the heifer's stress levels are up or the tests were done wrong.

This young heifer, assuming she was less than 15 months old (in my terms "young heifer" means she could be between 6 and 13 months old) when she was bred by accident, was done so either by a young bull being kept with the cow-calf herd with high libido for his age (this happens lots), or the herd bull got out and was more than happy to service her when she was experiencing her first or second heat periods. Herds with high fertility rates often get heifers and young bulls that reach puberty earlier than other herds with less emphasis on fertility, thus the increased risk of having a young heifer becoming bred, unless the young bulls and heifers are separated as soon as they are weaned and put into different pastures or corrals that are not easily accessible by either parties nor the herd bull[s].

The options you have of what to do with the heifer and/or her calf can be difficult to choose, but something to seriously consider if you want to save the heifer and possibly the calf. The heifer's reproductive ability may be impeded later in her life after she has had the calf, because, especially if she was bred before her ovaries fully matured (hence sexual maturity), her ovaries may not function as well as other heifers that were bred at an older age and heavier weight. But even this is a gamble, as you may be surprised to find that the heifer had suddenly picked up and has been a good mother for many years to come. If not, if she comes up open (has not concieved and has repeatedly experienced heat periods) after several attempts to get her bred when she is of age, then there is no choice but to cull her and ship her out. Other things that will contribute to her success of becoming a full-rate cow is her size compared to the other heifers. If she is smaller and lighter she probably won't make it to become a full brood cow. Smaller and lighter heifers at her age may give birth to small calves, but this also depends on the bull she was bred to. I've seen young heifers have big healthy calves too. But a big calf in a small heifer is a trainwreck waiting for a place to happen. Twins are worse. Most big calves are bull calves, believe it or not. If this heifer was a large heifer (above average weaning weight [average as in herd average]) then you might be lucky to have her carry the calf fully to term without much problem. But she still is a young heifer, not a mature cow.

Now for the fate of the calf. Depending on what the owners of the heifer want to do with the calf, there are only two alternatives: inject Estrumate or something similar with the hormone Estrogen into the heifer to abort the fetus or embryo before the fetus gets too big; or, wait until the heifer comes to the end of her gestation period (~285 days) and have the veterinarian come out to do a Ceasarian section on her to take the calf out, for the producer to bottle-feed since the young heifer probably won't have enough milk to raise the calf. This all depends on the heifer's age and also is a gamble in itself for both the producer and the heifer.

Answer 3

The first symptom should be the most obvious: she doesn't come back into heat after 21 days after her initial heat period when she was supposedly bred. After 45 to 90 days have passed and she hasn't shown ANY signs of estrus, then that is a confirmation that she is indeed pregnant. As she gets further into her pregnancy, like in the middle to latter half of her gestation, you will also notice that her belly is getting larger and larger.

The second way to tell if she's pregnant is carrying out tests to confirm her pregnancy. Rectal palpation is the cheapest route to go, and is better done by a vet or an AI technician than you, especially if you don't know what to look for or how to properly preg-check her. The safest time to have her done is after 45 to 90 days after the date she conceived. Another somewhat less invasive way to preg-check her is by getting a blood-test done on her and sending it away to a lab. Blood testing is inexpensive, but it should only be done by those individuals that live not too far away from a city with a blood-test lab. For those that have a bio blood-test lab over 600 miles away form where they live, blood testing is not a recommended way to go. An ELIZA test is also good, but it tends to be less reliable than a blood test or rectal palpation.

However, THE least invasive way to tell if a cow is pregnant (though a bit more expensive than rectal palpation), is by using Ultrasound. You can use it on a cow much like you can on women, only you need to work in the RIGHT side and near her hind legs. Ultrasound is great on cows that are used to being touched, like dairy cows or your favorite, most docile beef cows. Wilder cows may not agree with you doing an ultrasound on them, though.

Answer 4

If there are several heifers together an in heat heifer will often mount another heifer that is in heat as well. If the heifer is alone it will be difficult to determine without the use of palpation or ultrasound.

Answer 5

If you can't see her calf at her side suckling her or her standing beside a newborn baby calf, the best way to tell if she's already given birth is by looking for a red roundish sac hanging down from her vulva. This is afterbirth, and normally will be expelled within 4 to 5 hours after birth. If she has already expelled the placenta, watch her for a while to see if she stays within a certain distance of where her calf is hidden, or if you see a calf come up to her to suckle her.

Answer 6

When a cow is ready to calve her pins will drop allowing for more room for the calf to emerge. This can be felt by pushing gently in between her pins and spine. If it is softer than normal she is starting the process towards calving.

Answer 7

When she no longer comes back into heat. Count from the day the bull was turned out with the cowherd, or when you think she as bred, to approximately 45 to 90 days afterward. If she has not come into heat during that time (since 45 days covers 2 heat periods; 90 days covers 4), then she is definitely pregnant. Once 45 to 90 days has passed, you should get your cowherd preg-checked to better verify your suspicions and to cull out any open females.

Answer 8

The following signs indicates when a cow is ready to calve:

1. Calf fetus rotates so that the front feet and head are positioned towards the rear (posterior) of the dam.
2. Contracting uterus begins to push the fetus towards the cervix, applying pressure to the cervix.
3. Pressure on the cervix activates pressure-sensitive neurons located in the cervix that synapse in the spinal cord and eventually synapse with oxytocin producing neurons in the hypothalamus.

Answer 9

when the cow starts to go into labor you'll see the feet of the fetus poking out