I was on a farm over the weekend where there wERE four cows with retained cleanings or retained placenta/afterbirth. The farmer had 90 cows calved, and he had two previous cases of retained cleanings this spring so six cases in total, or 7% of the herd with retained cleanings.

While not an exceptionally high rate, it is higher than you would like and the farmer was concerned that it might have been brought on by a mineral deficiency.

The key thing when dealing with a problem like this is to suss out the root cause. In this case, one of the cows with the retained cleaning had twins and two of the cows had hard calvings. The farmer knew this as he keeps good records of calving events on his ICBF pocket book.

Cows that have twins and hard calvings are more likely to have retained cleanings as they are physically exhausted from a hard calving or pushing out two calves and often don’t have enough energy to push out the cleaning.

The cleaning is what connects the calf in the womb to the cow. At the calf end, the cleaning is connected through the calf’s naval while at the other end the cleaning is connected to the wall of the womb through hundreds of cotyledons through which oxygen and nutrients are passed from the cow to the calf.

These cotyledons are like snap-on buttons on a shirt. Normally, the cotyledons detach themselves from the womb between two and eight hours after calving and the cleaning pops out. When the cleaning doesn’t come out after 12 hours, it is considered to be a retained cleaning as some of the cotyledons did not detach.

Minerals

Inadequate mineral status in the cow can lead to increased retained cleanings as minerals can affect the muscle power of the womb. Important minerals are calcium, magnesium, copper, iodine and selenium.

The farmer was tempted to pull the cleanings out of the four cows, but this is not advised as it can lead to damage in the womb or the cleaning splitting apart and staying in the womb.

Sometimes, a light pull on the cleaning on day five is sufficient for all the cleaning to come, especially if the cow exerts some internal force. The majority of cows that have retained cleanings also have some degree of metritis or womb infections.

The degree of metritis can vary but, in acute case,s there is a foul smelling brown watery discharge from the uterus, a high temperature and the cow will be visibly sick and off her feed.

In such cases, the vet should be called and is likely to give a Metricure or other antibiotic into the womb and maybe put the cow on a course of antibiotics too. A number of washouts, a couple of days apart, may be needed before the womb cleans.

Some people continue to use iodine washouts but the solution must be very weak, like weak tea, and not more than 20ml of Lugols iodine in every litre of water (2%). Some vets prefer to just use lukewarm water with a pinch of salt as a washout to dilute the contents of the womb, and gravity feeds this into the womb using an adapted stomach tube or similar device, without exerting too much pressure on the womb.