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Dystocia in Cattle: Prospective Analysis in Daily Veterinary Practice

Dystocia is defined as delayed or difficult parturition. General causes are fetal-maternal size mismatch, fetal malpresentation and maternal-related causes. It has a direct negative impact on calves and dams. The aim of this prospective study was to collect cases of dystocia in 4 rural veterinary practices in Switzerland over 12 months, focusing on calf vitality.

During 12 months, data of 573 assisted parturitions were collected. The age of the cows involved ranged from 2 to 17 years old (median 5.2 yr) with a median gestation length of 288 days. The veterinarians filled out a short questionnaire after each assisted calving. The position of the calf, feto-maternal disproportion, uterine inertia, uterine torsion, and applied calving assistance (including number of persons pulling) were registered by the veterinarians, including drugs administered. Additionally, information about the number of fetuses, gender, the estimated birth weight as well as the vitality and malformations of calves were gathered.

Overall, 651 calves were born (61.2% male). 481 were single and 85 were twin births. For 7 calves, no data were available. As to calf vitality: 66.1% of the calves were alive, 25.4% dead, 5.1% weak and 3.4% died during the assisted parturition process. The percentage of dead calves was higher in twins (43.5%) than in singletons (18.9%). The vitality was influenced by gestation length, parity and the time elapsed since the rupture of the amniotic sac. In this study, calf vitality was neither influenced by sex of the calf nor breed of the parents. A uterine torsion was found in 31.8% of the cases with the direction of the rotation anti-clockwise in 94%. Twins were twice as often in posterior presentation as single-born calves (31.4% versus 15.6%).

In conclusion, calf vitality was negatively influenced by lower parity, gestation length < 270 d, and an increased period from the rupture of the amniotic sac until the assistance of parturition.

Article by Chantal Bühler, et al, from Switzerland.

Full access: http://t.cn/Eby6Zzz
Image by Oliver Kennedy, from Flickr-cc.

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