This content was created by Victor Justin Rhodes. This content was uploaded by Victor Justin Rhodes. This is a YouTube video titled "Is My Cow Pregnant? Gross Way to Find Out" (created 2022-03-24). It records a multi-speaker, informal farm scene in which a veterinarian (Bev) examines livestock: pregnancy-checking a heifer via rectal palpation and ultrasound (cotyledons/fluid), discussing breeding history and drying-off, and sedating/banding a young male (Joey). Participants are labeled SPEAKER A/B/C/D and BEV, and the recording captures practical animal-care procedures and everyday farm conversation.
Chapters
The vet is on her way, gonna be here in 45 minutes. I'm pretty sure to pregnancy test you, she's going in first. We— well, we put the heifers in the stall. The heifers and Little Surprise. How you doing, Little Surprise?
The problem is he's wild. He's like a deer.
He's not handled, is he? She's up for harvest as soon as he's 3 months old. When was he born? Do you remember? Rebecca will know. Next up, Phyllis. We're gonna put her in the overhang right out there. Next up, we got to put our mat down on the stanchion. Here's the mat. The kids say the heifers have been chewing it, and it looks like that's the case.
They just called and said the be here in 45.
She's talking about the vet. We're getting Phyllis pregnancy test. We never noticed like a breeding session.
Like she looks pregnant, so that's why I was thinking.
Yeah, it's strange that the heifers are chewing on that. It's one of two things. One, they're in search of something, so probably a mineral. So maybe a little mineral deficient. The other thing it could possibly be is boredom. They've been in here, this is their winter housing, and it's the end. Look, you can see grass is coming, starting to come back up. That time of the year, they're bored. They're chewing on rubber mats. We're getting them out very soon. How are your preciouses doing?
They are doing so good. They're doing so good. I'm so very pleased with all of them.
Bette just got here. So you're gonna do the hand thing, huh? How many times have you done this, Bette?
A couple.
What are you gonna be looking for?
Well, we're not gonna be looking for anything.
We're gonna be feeling.
How will you know?
If I feel a bump, I know there's something in there.
You'll feel it.
All right, so we're gonna go in The rectum.
What you putting on that?
Lube. She appreciates this.
Yes, she does.
She's barely even budging. She's still eating.
She is, but we're going to clean her out a little bit.
So uncomfortable.
Wow.
Lucky you're wearing gloves.
You got to clean her out because she's got poop in the tract.
I can't feel it without— with all this in there. We're going to empty her out. So how is she bred?
Well, it would have been a bull if it happened. She may be too old. She hasn't cycled back.
She's gonna be pregnant. I can feel cotyledons.
She is, or is it—
she is pregnant. She can feel cotyledons. Okay, so I'm gonna call her pregnant by that.
What's the cotyledons?
These are the way— this way the baby and the mama communicates. The whole unit is called the placenta. The Mama has the caruncle and the baby has the cotyledon. So together they— that's what keeps the baby growing and everything. But old-timers call it the blooming, or the bumps on it, on the bumps on the uterus. But, um, you can feel them, they're little round things on the inside. And you guys think she was bred?
Well, when do you think she was bred?
So she had her baby in July, July 11th.
She never ever takes it, at least the first heat, but this time it would have been the first heat, right?
Usually about 3 months is when they breed back.
Yeah, because we run the bull with her all the time. We never separate them out, but she never ever gets pregnant.
Usually he's crazy for her for 3 days. We never saw that, but we never saw it. But she did go into heat. We noticed the heat. So I don't know, um, he was crazy for her for half a day.
We're just trying to figure out when we need to dry her off because that's what I was like.
I would probably dry her off within the next, uh, anytime now.
Okay, that's what I was saying.
And if we dry her off and she's not pregnant though, we're screwed because we've dried up our milk.
Yeah, because that heifer in there ain't— we're not breeding her till July, and then we have to wait the whole time.
So if she's not pregnant, the last trimester is when you would dry them off, right?
All right, we're gonna wait a month and you should be safe. Okay, you know, we're gonna trust you, Bev, that she's pregnant.
Wonderful.
Well, Bev's gonna double-check. She's back in this time with the ultrasound.
These are your cotyledons that we've been talking about, and you can see the fluid in there. See, and that's what I was telling you, I can't hardly feel baby because it's so far down, but I can tell by the cotyledons that she is bred. So, okay, and I'm gonna go for about, like I said, about 5 months, and then that way it would be safe. I would pull the baby off in another month and, or let her dry up in another month, and that should give you plenty of time to build milk back up while she's here.
Why not band Joey? We're thinking about keeping intact.
I wanted to keep them intact, but if you want to do it, you can.
Yeah, he's going to be hard to hold down.
I mean, all I have to do is do one jab. Will he let me get near him?
He might while he's doing alfalfa.
Let's do it. Let me try it.
She's gonna go get her supplies. Hopefully we don't have to be as dramatic as a dart gun. She's gonna give him what she calls happy juice. Next time we're just gonna do it. Yeah, we're a little like surprised. We'll do surprise while she's here. We can hold him down. Because we don't want any more surprises. The last time she was out here, she actually— remember, she, she had to do a dart gun to Nick to tag him. He was our—
we were tagging him because we sold him.
We sold him. He's going out of state.
American milking dovin'.
Roll that, Dan. She's got to get within 30 feet of him, get him on the neck. She got him good. She didn't miss. This is bringing back memories, huh? Yeah, it's good to stay in touch with the vet.
It is, it is good. Just so she knows who we are, and if we have an emergency, we can, we can deal with it.
Emergency?
No.
Jenny just did some alfalfa.
See if she can—
that's a needle!
Mama, I'm watching. She's moving it. That's it. Yep.
Wow. Is he gonna start getting drowsy?
Hopefully. Hopefully.
How long does it take?
About 5 minutes.
His eyes are drooping. He ain't gonna give up that alpaca though. Is he getting wobbly? He is about to close his eyes. Just give in, buddy. He's like, he's like Henry, he's fighting that sleep. There it goes.
Come on, lay down.
There we go. Good boy.
It's going to require the big one. You might want to watch your face if that foot comes out. Be real careful, y'all.
She's got the big bander on there.
Watch your face.
It's like a rubber— it's huge rubber band.
That would be a nice couch.
Ratchet wrench.
It's a Cali Crate bander.
Yeah, you're doing a better job than I am, Beth, trying to explain something. I've never seen before.
That just cuts off the blood circulation.
And instead of being just like the band, we actually bend this little metal ring around here and then we cut it loose with the— this. And then be careful, it'll hit you.
And in about 2 weeks—
it might take a month as big as these are. Um, but what you got to do is make sure you got the testicle and the epididymis in there. Yeah, so we put it right above it, and you don't want to go too high because you don't want to hinder the urethra. Yeah, but I usually just go right on top of the balls.
Okay.
Okay, and then that should fall off.
Nice. And what's that, the reversal?
What is the reversal?
You putting his legs underneath him so he doesn't—
we don't want him to bloat.
Get bloat.
Sit him up on his chest.
Yeah, if the cows lay on their side, they will bloat. You could kill him. But you're gonna— you're putting his feet under him.
Okay. Ah, is that better? Much better. Hello.
Nice. How's that?
That's good. How's this little girl?
She's fine. She's scared. All right, putting Phyllis back. We'll see you guys. Thank you.
Thank you.
How's your bird doing? Good. She's sticking with it, huh?
All right.
Oh yeah, she's growling at you. That's good. I mean, she's still broody. She's gonna hatch you some chicks.
I'm checking on her every day.
Look who's already up and at 'em. Good night, fellas.
