Calves born under stress are more likely to become ill or die.
Calving difficulty, known as dystocia, may cause problems that last beyond those first days in the corral.
John Campbell of the University of Saskatchewan’s Western College of Veterinary Medicine said calves that experience dystocia are more likely to have health problems before weaning.
Higher rates of infection, lack of vigour and poor weight gain may be related to a difficult birth.
It may not be the stress of the birth so much as a lack of timely transfer of colostrum and its associated antibodies passed from the mother, said Campbell.
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In the moments after birth, cows need to experience a hormonal bonding process that starts with viewing vigorously wriggling offspring attempting to right themselves. From that moment the females will experience their first cues to attend to their newborns.
Campbell said a calf that has been exhausted after a long and difficult birth might not be able to provide those visual cues. As a result the cow will not be attracted to the calf or approach it and come into contact with its birth fluids.
Hormones in the birth fluids stimulate the mother into more licking and cleaning actions, which in turn induce a maternal process that results in the calf suckling and ingesting maternal antibodies.
Calves that fail to receive colostrum within the first hours of birth are six times more likely to die before weaning.
Campbell said lengthy stays in the birth canal, a Caesarian section or a difficult delivery punctuated by mechanical pulling can lead to mis-mothering of a newborn and eventual health problems.
Initially the newborn may suffer from exhaustion and hypoxia from a lack of oxygen in its system. This results in high acid levels in the blood that leave the newborn sluggish and less attractive to the mother.
“If a calf is taking more than five minutes to get from recumbence to its sternum, then it’s likely going to take a helping hand. More than 15 minutes, then it’s going to be a bunch of TLC, tubing and other interventions to get it going,” he said.
Joe Stookey, a professor of behavioural veterinary medicine at the college, said first-calf heifers are more prone to mismothering, but it can happen with any animal.
“If you can start that chain of events that causes the mother to take those first steps of licking and accepting a newborn, the battle may be half over,” he said.
Stookey recommends getting the birth fluids into the nostrils and onto the tongue of the mother as soon as possible and to encourage the struggling behaviour in the newborn.
“Tying an (orphan or twin’s) legs (together) so that it goes through the struggling process in front of the target female is important to kicking off the cascade of hormonal events in creating that bond between mother and young.”
“Once she’s licked the tied (calf), then cut the string and let it try to suckle. If it just goes running to the udder to suckle, that mom is likely as not to kick or head butt it away,” he said.
Studies at the U of S and the United States Meat Animal Research Center at Clay Center, Nebraska, show that illness and death losses are lower when these bonding experiences occur.
The Nebraska centre reported that dystocia causes cow and calf losses as well as delayed returns to estrus and reduced conception rates.
Campbell said it adds up to higher veterinary bills and labour cost, and avoiding it altogether is the simplest fix.
The U.S. centre reported that calf losses within 24 hours of birth averaged four percent when unassisted, while assisted births were 16 percent. Assisted births were often a result of larger than average calves or average calves from first-time mothers.
