False Heat??

[OH Showman]

I have been reading other related topics but wanted to get direct input.I have a cow that showed false heats last year as a heifer. Discharge and all but no standing, she would even chase and ride the bull. She was bred 6 weeks ago and I thought she was bred as the same paint has been on her tailhead for 4 weeks and she hasn't had any hair rubbed off. This morning I saw calves after her and she was standing for some of them but no cow she was with showed any interest in her. I put her over in with another cow that has yet to calve and she began standing for that cow. I hate to AI her again and terminate the pregnancy if she is bred. Anyone experienced this?

 

[farmboy]

Yes. Ive had several cows show heat up until they calve right on time. patches wore off and everything. just this past year i put some embryos in and she rubbed her patch completely off the day after we did it and she calved with the other ET's. if it seems out of the ordinary for her to be in heat (The timing isn't right) its probably a false heat

 

[HGC]

You need to have her pregnancy checked.  A good vet can do it at 28 days.  False heats usually occur in the second trimester, and you aren't even close to that.  I would much rather pay to know for sure that she is pregnant than sitting there telling myself she is having false heats and she ends up being open.

With the little bit of information you gave, I think she is open.  There is good data on dairy cows that says 10-15% of confirmed pregnant cows at 30 days will lose that pregnancy by 60 days.  Beef cattle are probably 5-10%, but not a lot of information on them.  We ultrasound everything between 28 and 40 days and recheck between 60 and 90 days.  On the 38 cows we are breeding this year, we have had 2 lose them between 28 and 60 days.

 

[pweaver]

I know the frustration you're having when you think they're bred having passed over on her 21 day post breeding cycle.  But you say she was bred 6 weeks ago.  So this is her second cycle after breeding (42 days +/-).  One thing that aggravates me to no end is when a cow is showing all the signs of being in heat, but no one wants anything to do with her.  If she stood for the cow you had separated, she was in heat.  Of  course, too late now since you first posted yesterday.  She should cycle again around June 20, unless she really is bred, which I doubt.