# Blood on the pipette



## BlackWillowFarm (Mar 24, 2008)

Just recently had my Jersey heifer calf bred. The AI guy said she has a crooked/twisted cervix and there was blood on the pipette after breeding. This is the second attempt at AI with her and both times there was blood on the pipette. 

He suggested if it didn't work this time to put her with a bull and thought that would do the trick.

Anyone have experience with this?


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## thequeensblessing (Mar 30, 2003)

When we had our 17 month old heifer AI'd last year, there was quite a bit of blood on the pipette and on the guy's glove (it was our dairy farmer neighbor who AI's all his own cows). He said that it wasn't unusual for a heifer at all. The AI didn't take. He offered me the alternative of putting her in with his bull if she didn't take. We took her down at the right time, and with her showing all the signs of heat, and watched her stand for the bull. He got her twice. She didn't take again. Next heat, we trotted her back to the bull one last time before we made the decision to cull her. Again, we watched the bull cover her twice. That time, she took. She's due the first week of October. My dairy farmer neighbor reiterated that its not unusual for a heifer to show blood, not conceive and have to be rebred. 
If you have the chance, I'd definitely put her with the bull. Nature can get the job done when we can't.


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## springvalley (Jun 23, 2009)

^^^Good advice^^^ > Thanks Marc


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## willow_girl (Dec 7, 2002)

BlackWillowFarm said:


> Just recently had my Jersey heifer calf bred. The AI guy said she has a crooked/twisted cervix and there was blood on the pipette after breeding. This is the second attempt at AI with her and both times there was blood on the pipette.
> 
> He suggested if it didn't work this time to put her with a bull and thought that would do the trick.
> 
> Anyone have experience with this?


Hmm. I am not going to say that it's impossible that your heifer has a deformity of her reproductive tract, but ... here are a few thoughts. 

First, a brief anatomical lesson.  A cow's cervix is attached by ligaments but floats rather freely inside her body cavity. It resembles a hot dog (really!). Breeding a cow is like skewering a hotdog on a long stick. Inside that hotdog are muscular rings that the breeding gun must pass through, and sometimes these create a bit of trouble, but with some patient manipulation, a little luck and a few cuss words, the tip of the gun gets to where it needs to go.

Sometimes a cow can have scarring in her cervix due to previous calvings, but one would not expect this to be a problem with a virgin heifer.

Some cows are more difficult to breed than others, that's for sure! And a cow who isn't in heat will be much more difficult to breed (as I learned in training, where we practiced on sale barn cows who weren't in heat). 

A few possibilities for the bleeding. Could be the tech is breaking some blood vessels, either in trying to get through those muscular rings, or due to getting hung up in the fornix, a "pocket" around the opening to the cervix. When I went through A.I. training, we were told that if you induce occasional bleeding, not to worry about it, but if EVERY cow you breed bleeds, you might have some issues with your technique.

I would think that trying to breed a cow who isn't in heat would make it much more likely to do the sort of minor damage that would lead to bleeding. 

Another possibility: It is not unusual for a cow to show a bloody discharge 24-48 hours after ovulating. If she is being bred late in her heat cycle, that could explain the blood, and also why she isn't conceiving. 

In your case, I would recommend making sure the heifer is in good, standing heat at the time she is bred. If she is not in with another cow, this may be hard to detect. You may want to talk to your vet about "setting her up" with a series of hormone shots that will allow for a timed breeding and take some of the guesswork out of the equation.


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## BlackWillowFarm (Mar 24, 2008)

willow_girl said:


> Hmm. I am not going to say that it's impossible that your heifer has a deformity of her reproductive tract, but ... here are a few thoughts.
> 
> First, a brief anatomical lesson.  A cow's cervix is attached by ligaments but floats rather freely inside her body cavity. It resembles a hot dog (really!). Breeding a cow is like skewering a hotdog on a long stick. Inside that hotdog are muscular rings that the breeding gun must pass through, and sometimes these create a bit of trouble, but with some patient manipulation, a little luck and a few cuss words, the tip of the gun gets to where it needs to go.
> 
> ...


Thanks for the description Willow Girl. Now I have a visual picture of what's going on in there. My AI guy is the neighbor who runs a large Holstein/ Jersey Dairy. I think he has 1500 Holsteins and 800 Jerseys. He's the one who breeds all my cows for me. The heifer was in standing heat both times when she was bred. No question about that. He even told me what side he put the semen in her. His concern is the blood will kill the sperm and probably why he recommends using a bull if AI doesn't work. He also said her cervix should correct itself after calving. I hope he's right. 

She's a real nice heifer. He offered me $1500. for her but she's not for sale.


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## willow_girl (Dec 7, 2002)

I am not sure why he is (apparently) depositing semen up into one of the horns. Conception rate will be higher if the semen is deposited in the uterine body. If the cow ovulates from one horn, and you've deposited semen in the other, it reduces the odds of conception. Depositing into the uterine body allows the semen to populate both horns.

He's sort of correct about the "blood killing the sperm," as far as a bleeding wound being a bad thing, but it's because of the cow's immune system response, not the blood, per se. The cow's immune system, stimulated by the minor injury, may go on 'red alert,' recognize the sperm cells as foreign invaders, and attack them.

There's certainly no harm in using a bull, if you have access to one.


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