A Goodbye to Tubby

Tubby in the spring of 2013.

This season was my husband's favorite cow, Tubby's last season.  The spiral started with the huge weather swings and we had just gone through two days of weather in the 16 to 20 degree F range after three to four days of weather being in the 50's.

My husband noticed that Tubby had some bloody discharge that night when he was checking out the cows in the pre-fresh field.  He figured Tubby was getting ready to calve and we would see a calf by morning.  Morning came with no calf--not even a part of a sac hanging out and Tubby didn't look like she was having contractions so we called the vet.

The vet called back and instructed us to get her in, wash off her back end, and palpate her vaginally.  The calf was still in there and the sac felt full of fluid and unbroken (though we supposed there was a small leak somewhere).  My husband also noticed that her cervix felt small, as though it were closing back up, and she had slight muscle shivers.  We gave her a bottle of calcium under the skin and let her be on her own for an hour.  When we checked on her later she looked perkier, but still no calf or contractions.  We called the vet again.

The vet told us that she was most likely calcium deficient and that caused her to not go into labor when she should have, but her body had given the signal for labor the day before and was already starting to close up the cervix now and wall-off the uterus--in essence her body was preparing to mummify the calf that it could not deliver.

We broke the sac open and put chains on the calf (which was still alive).  We pulled gently, but with no success and no contractions or pushing on Tubby's part.  The cervix was small (about 6 inches) and the calf's head was slightly to the side.  We gave her oxytocin to hopefully help relax the muscles and help reopen the cervix and we waited for another hour.  The cervix was slightly more dilated, but when we pulled we still had no success.  We made the call and decided to have the vet come out.  We weren't willing to do a c-section since the cost is high with a high mortality rate for both cow and calf.  The vet said he would be there in about an hour and that we should leave her alone until he got there to give her a chance to build up some energy.

When he finally rolled in, we had Tubby in a halter, not so anxiously waiting for him.  When the vet palpated her vaginally, he reluctantly told us that he didn't think that the calf was alive.  He put a head snare on the calf (a metal cable behind the ears and under the chin) and once he got the calf's head through the small opening of the cervix, Tubby started pushing and the rest of the calf slid right out!  To our surprise and delight, the calf was alive (though a bull).

Tubby lied down shortly thereafter and we got the bull over to the calf pen and began to dry him off.  I gave Tubby some pills and an aloe drench and we put her back into the pre-fresh field without milking her.

The next morning Tubby was up and attacking the salt block when I went into the field.  She looked in good spirits and ate her grain in the parlor with all of the excitement that only Tubby can manage.  She filled the milk pail full of colostrumish milk, and Danny caught her to give her a few more pills to help to keep her stabilized.

That night, however, Tubby seemed a little lack luster.  She ate her grain, but not all of it and she looked much more depressed.  It had now been about 24 hours since she had calved.  We gave her some more pills and let her out.  The next morning she didn't eat her grain at all.  We called the vet and he thought she might have ketosis.

So we began to treat her for that by giving her light salt from the grocery store, because it has high levels of potassium in it.  An older protocol called for dextrose IV, but the vet said that actually usually ends up doing more harm then good to the cow (unless it is crazy ketosis).  She seemed to come around and our hopes were once again bolstered until she suddenly stopped eating feed again.  If you know Tubby, she does NOT miss her feed voluntarily.  

We did not know why she was going off feed again, but it seemed to be time to make the call.  So, that next day, we sent her to the auction.  She looked perky and moved well, but was just not eating well and her milk production was dropping.  We don't know what caused her not to calve properly and why she wasn't turning around.  The chance of us getting her bred back when we needed to were slim.  We have analyzed our herd and out of our cows that have a "calving difficulty" (we have to pull the calf out or she has other problems as a result of calving) - those cows have a 13% chance of breeding back in the window. 

We are sad to see her go.  I think we all cried.  I am going to miss that cow with all of her personality.

Tubby and others eating salt kelp.