soft ovary in Donor cow

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CCW

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Jul 1, 2010
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98
Embryologist said cow's ovary felt soft when he examined her. She only flushed 1 -#1 embryo and people I bought her from were getting 5-12 embryos when they flushed her last yr. She had a calf Nov 26th and she was flushed last week. Any thoughts?
 

ROAD WARRIOR

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Jun 9, 2007
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Iowa
It sounds like she has "blown" one ovary. Only producing eggs on one horn. BE VERY CAREFUL THAT WHOEVER DOES YOUR E.T. WORK DOESN'T BLOW THE OTHER ONE! RW
 

CCW

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Jul 1, 2010
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98
thanks. could that be from giving too much faltropin. I got the records from former embryologist and he was using 16 ccs faltropin. My embryologist said he didn't like to use that much. Could that be what happened?
 

frostback

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Feb 7, 2007
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Colorado
If you do this long enough you will experience all sorts of stuff. It is a science but not a exact science. I do not believe that 16 ccs is a  large dose. My guys uses 16.75 as a starting point on all new cows, he will then gage response from that. He may start lower with virgin heifers but I have not been in on one of those. All cows are different and even each flush may be different. Just like calving problems you can second guess yourself to death. Poop happens in this game.
 

Cowboy

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Apr 13, 2007
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McCook Ne.
If your cow had a very soft and mushy ovary on flush day, and your total production for the day was 1 egg, then it came from the other side of the uterus.

The soft ovary is a real RED flag. Even with your prior 40 mg (16 ml) dosage of Folitropin, some cows are prone to blow out (over respond) even at that level.

For many years , and long before Follitropin, we used the old Shearing Plough Fsh -- it would be mixed to 10 ml back then. Each ml would be equal to 5 mg product. Today, each ml mixed to 20 ml total would be equal to 2.5 mg.

My standard start up dose for new , unproven donors is about 34 mgs. About 13 ml total. Some need a little more, but most do very well at this level.

When a donor cow comes into the flush chute suposedly ready to flush and you find what he said -- two things come to mind. First, and hopefully this is what happened, she did not have a very good CL the day you started shots, and she just failed to superovulate. You basicly got the only egg she had with no response.

The other would be bad -- she did actually over stim before, and her ovary now is non responsive and will never be normal again. More than likely, if this is the case, the Fimbria that surrounds and recovers any eggs ovulated was stretched out too much, and had adhered to the ovary itself, ultimately making it impossible to transport any eggs from that side again.

Folks -- trust me here, for those of you who have limited experience with a donor program, there is a MIRIAD of problems that can occur -- and they are ALL created by mismanagement or poor decisions. Over dosing is just that -- a VERY poor decision which may very well result in a destroyed donor.

I have several here now or in the past that came from others, some of them have one functional ovary -- and are a very hard challenge to get even one egg! Again, all due to greed or poor management!

BE CAREFULL


Terry
 

CCW

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Jul 1, 2010
Messages
98
Thanks cowboy, frostback, road warrior, for taking the time to respond
 
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