Survival and fertility after uterine prolapse in dairy cows

Sixty-eight cases of uterine prolapase in pastured dairy cows were treated in 2 consecutive spring calving seasons in East Gippsland, Victoria. Fifty cows survived (73.5%). Of 43 cows available for followup, 36 (84%) conceived in the mating period following the prolapse, taking 10 d longer to conceive than herd mates that calved on the same day. Three of the 36 cows (8%) that conceived, aborted, this occurring in the middle trimester of pregnancy. No prolapses occurred at the following calving but one case had suffered uterine prolapse 2 years previously. The conclusions drawn from these observations are that cows with uterine prolapse have a good chance of surviving if treated, that treatment is cost-effective, that uterine prolapse is unlikely to reoccur and treated cows have a good chance of conceiving. The veterinarians involved in this investigation were reasonably accurate in their ability to predict long term survival but not as good in predicting ability to conceive again.