When do you worry??

[HAB]

If you don't have a sling, you will want to alternate what side she is sitting on, at least twice a day.    She probably has a slight pinched nerve.  If you didn't have to jack it out, she should be up in a few days.

 

[CAB]

For us here, if one of us sees the water bag out or broke, we wait 1 to 1 1/2 hour. If nothing is happening, we will usually get the heifer/cow in and pull the calf.
If the heifer is keeping her legs under her, that is good. When the legs are sprawled out behind them, it's not a good sign. Like Hab said, if the calf wasn't against the nerve for a long period of time, she has a better chance for recovery.
  You may search on the planet for a subject of best calf pullers. It has been discussed. I would decide on one that you feel confortable with and have it on hand B4 March. You may pay for it 4 times fold on one calf/heifer.

 

[MCC]

I'd sure keep her on 30cc of penicillin a day. Make sure she cleans. She should if your vet gave her a shot of lutelyse.

 

[Cattledog]

No refund.  That's cow business.  Calving out heifers is the hardest part of it.  It's highly unlikely a heifer like that is actually too small.  Second calf will likely go fine

I'm with Chambero on this.  Also if you only fed 1lb. of grain a day I doubt that made much difference in the size of the calf.  On a side note, I recently read an article about calving dystocia in females that were fed less to try and control BW.  It was an interesting article.  I'll see if I can find it.

 

[husker1]

Call me crazy, guys....but though any type of full refund isn't in order, I know plenty of breeders that would do something to help the customer out.  Seems that these folks did nothing wrong by purchasing a heifer (recently), caring for her in a normal manner, than getting a calf that is too big for most heifers to handle.  Our philosophy is though it hurts the pocketbook sometimes, the customer is usually always right, except for extreme situations.  We handle each situation differently, because seldom are negative situations the same.  I think some of our success  :-\ can be attributed to excellent customer satisfaction.  

Let's face it, people...most of us aren't gonna get rich in this business.  It's all about enjoying what you are doing and meeting good people.  Making a few customers happy goes alot further than a few extra dollars in the bank.

I remember once about 10 years ago when my mom was still alive; we leased a young guy two late spring bulls to clean up.  When he brought the bulls back, he explained that all of his cows were home in the yard being fed (about 150 head)...pasture ran out in the drought and the landlord wanted them off...and he still owed the whole pasture bill even for the last 30 days.  The bull lease check of $600 hung on the bulletin board for several months, before it was shredded.  Not sure if he noticed that is was never run, but it made us feel good to know that we helped out a young guy in a tough situation.  Lesson learned!

Another lesson learned...On our 3rd or 4th sale, we sold a good 1/2 blood heifer for something close to $2500 to Texas.  The heifer was halter-broke and my 6 year old nephew could lead her around.  Well, she got to Texas and the guy said she was too tough for his daughter to work with.  It stung, but we sent the $2500 check back and back came the heifer.  Well, by the time we got her back, it was too late to breed her for a spring calf.  We shifted her to the fall herd, and her first bull calf brought over $3,000.  She is the perfect 1/2 blood female, and has busted out a good one every year.  By working with the customer, we still to this day have a good friend in Texas (though he is an A & M fan  ), and we have one of the best cows in the herd that produces every year...Everyone wins.

I bet this breeder will be willing to work a little on this deal; especially where the heifer seems to have little milk.

Don't mean to offend anyone, just one guy's opinion.

 

[coachmac]

Good Post Scott! 

 

[firesweepranch]

Just thought I would give an update to our saga. The heifer is still alive, and in fact stood this morning for her food. We have been adding water to her grain to help get moisture in her, so my daughter took her feed out to her this morning, set it down about 5 feet away from her to add the water before giving it to her and the heifer got up and walked to the grain bucket and stood for about 5 minutes eating before her rear end dropped down and she fell. So she is getting better, and moved out of her wet mucky puddle she was laying in (from urinating and defecating). She is eating about 10 pounds of grain and a flake of hay twice a day, along with drinking about 5 gallons of water twice a day (or spills it). So is this a good sign? I hope so!
As far as the breeder, I have not spoken with him directly, but have been sending him e-mails giving him updates on her status, and even sent a picture of the dead calf on our tailgate (he took up the entire tailgate of a F250 truck!). With the last email, he did respond and told me to keep working with the heifer and he would work something out with us. So he is going to help and make it right, even though he does not have to. Like Scott (husker) posted, most breeders stand behind their product. The good thing is that even before we suspected there was going to be a problem, we had a good relationship with the breeder because I called him with questions and general information about the heifer after we bought her. When she was a week from her due date and had no milk or udder development, I called him again to confirm her AI date because of her lack of milk. So that helps, I am sure.
So, she has been down for 4 days and stood today; good progress???