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Central MN | When I shadow the large animal vets in my area they do this surgery fairly often on dairy heifer and sometimes bull calves. The hernia just gives another reason to sort that calf off at sale time to get them cheaper. In the long run I don't know if it causes a lot of issues. But most recommend fixing it if they are that large. Really has nothing to do with size of navel cord. Normally these show up really young less than 6 weeks or so. At that time you can measure the size of them by pushing their insides back in and seeing how many fingers wide the hole is. One of the vets told me one time would if they are smaller than 1.5 fingers wide he would let them heal on their own if possible but if they are larger than that they probably never will without surgery. Biggest I ever seen was about 4 fingers wide as a young calf and nothing was done now it has about a 8 -10 long hernia on belly at 12 months... as far as size they usually won't do them after they are 400-450 lbs I think mostly because of stress reasons. Looking at those they won't heal on their own but surgery would fix it. I would call your vet though and use his opinion. If he hasn't done a lot maybe better off leaving them be. | |
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Calf cord hernias (I think). Take action or wait? (pics)
