Abortions: Don’t Throw Away Your Best Clue

You Don’t Rise To The Level of Your Goals,

You Fall To The Level of Your Systems

Abortion workups are frustrating.

By the time we find the calf, we’re already behind the eight ball.

If you find an aborted calf, the goal is simple—save as much information as we can.

Not because every single abortion needs a full investigation, but because if a second one shows up next week, we’ll be glad we didn’t lose the first one.

What To Do

Put the calf in the freezer

It sounds unpleasant, but it gives us options.

If this ends up being a one-off, no problem—we can always decide later that no further testing is needed.

Worst case?You threw a calf in the freezer for nothing.

Best case?A second abortion happens, and now we have two calves to submit instead of one half-decomposed mystery.

That changes everything.

Save the placenta too

If the placenta is available, bag it separately and freeze it.

Sometimes the placenta tells us more than the fetus itself—especially when we’re trying to sort out infection, inflammation, or placental damage.

Write down the basics

Before the details disappear from your mind:

• Cow ID

• Estimated stage of pregnancy

• Breeding date if known

• Vaccination history

• Any sickness in the cow before abortion

• New feed, moldy feed, ration changes

• Any new cattle introduced

• Any other abortions in the group

It doesn’t need to be fancy—just enough so we’re not guessing later.

If It’s Late-Term

If the calf is fresh and close to full-term, it can be worth having your veterinarian out for a gross postmortem on farm.

Sometimes we can identify obvious issues right there.

Sometimes we can collect the important samples (because the whole calf won’t physically fit in the freezer) — stomach contents, lung, liver, placenta, maternal blood… the clinic can hold these samples for further testing if more abortions occur.

Even if we don’t submit immediately, having those samples banked can be the difference between getting an answer and missing the opportunity completely if another abortion follows.

Not Every Abortion Is a Disaster

Sometimes it truly is a one-off.

That happens.

But if there’s an infectious cause like Leptospirosis, Bovine Viral Diarrhea, Infectious Bovine Rhinotracheitis, or Neosporosis, the first abortion is often just the warning sign.

That’s why preserving evidence matters.

My Advice

Freeze first.Decide later.

You don’t have to solve the whole problem that day—you just need to avoid losing the chance to solve it.

Because once the evidence is gone, we’re all just guessing.

And nobody likes expensive guessing.

Less Noise. Better Decisions.

– Jon

Jon Waito, DVM

Miller Veterinary Service