One more question...about heat and breeding

[dairygirl212006]

I didnt want to ask this on my other thread.

My 4 yr old holstein (her name is oreo by the way) I posted a while back about the sudden death in her last calf. This was her second calf. After the first calf she was normal, she came into heat, i waited a month then bred her. (I AI breed with sex semen) She took and calved at the end of June. Her calf died 2 weeks later. She never came back into heat? I called the vet, she came out did a test on her said her uterus was fine. She recommended a cider. So I gave her the two shots. One a week after the vet did the cider and the second one the day before I bred her. (As I was told by the vet...i think I remember the shots right..if not I did do it right at the time just forgot now ) When the breeder came out to breed her the next day, he told me it was odd that the cider did not make her come into heat (she had missed 2 heat cycles before the cider) We bred her anyway. I do not know yet is she took. I dont want to call a vet out for her to check im just waiting to see her tummy grow. But I amwondering if something is maybe wrong? Never heard of a cow not coming into heat.

Thanks

Other then that she is healthy and great, normal

I just hope she is bred

[dairygirl212006]

I have only lost one calf. her second calf (this years calf) Her first calf that was born june 1st last year (2009) is doing great. I had the vet check her out and they said nothing was wrong. so thats when they sugested a cedr. not sure what else to do if the vet says she is ok? hopefully she will be ok next year and come into heat?

[BecM]

Couple of questions:
is she a high producer?
is she losing weight/ looking a bit underweight?
how many days in milk is she?

If she is producing a lot of milk and is only relatively fresh she will be in negative energy balance which means she may have 'silent heats' or very rapid heats (some high producing cows may only get mounted once in their whole cycle-not enough to set off a kamar/estrus alert or produce a ruffled tail head). Also, cows less than about 80 DIM may abort their fetus early if they dont have enough energy to support a preganancy as well as high milk production and maintenance.

As far as CIDR programs are concerned, I have done them extensively on large dairies and often 10-20 % of cows bred dont show signs of heat but do still ovulate and get in calf.

A good preg tester should be able to palpate at 32-35 days after insemination and tell you if your cow is in calf. If she is not, they should also be able to tell you whether she has cystic ovaries or not (which can be responsible for cows who show excessive or constant estrus or no estrus at all depending on the type of cyst). Bear in mind that vets are only human so a second opinion is always valuable! Even ultrasound has a 4% error rate.

So if she seems happy and healthy but is still only reasonably fresh I wouldn't worry too much but if the lack of heats persists (after she has been preg checked) try another CIDR program but give a 5ml dose of GnRH instead of 1 ml as this will force ovulation in cystic ovaries.

Hope this helps!