No Calf?!

My Mom wanted another milk cow, after her last cow died of old age in her 20's. So she bought a Guernsey bottle calf, and named her Sweet Pea.

 

The woman she bought her from, transports cows for the dairies, and was told to take her to the auction, but she just couldn't do it to her.  She said she was a tiny premie twin. So she bought her from the dairy, and raised her for about 1 month before putting her up for sale. We didn't know anything about Freemartins when my Mom bought her. When we were informed about what a Freemartin was, my Mom called the woman to find out if her twin was a male, but she didn't know. The twin was born dead, so the dairy workers had already disposed of it before she got there. So all we could do was wait and see. She started coming into heat like a normal heifer, and when she was old enough we had her bred.

We were expecting her to have a calf around the end of this month.

We have watched her belly grow and her udder start to develop.

 

We have had the cows over on a neighbors property since winter.  Around the beginning of of the month Sweet Pea gave us a scare. The neighbors called to let us know something was wrong with our cow, that she was on the ground, and unable to get up. We rushed over to find her layed out and bloated up. Unable to hardly move or breath. She was so big we could not get her to her feet. So my Mom began rocking her with all her strength. It seemed to get some of the gas out, but not nearly enough. I ran home and called a vet. I ran back, and traded off with my Mom. Then when I was tired, my Dad took his turn. I started to head home to watch for the vets arrival, when my Mom started yelling. I turned around to see Sweet Pea standing. Sweet Pea had tried to get up, and my Dad pushed with all his might. He rolled her onto her chest, and she was able to stand. My Mom walked her home, and we waited for the vet. We didn't understand what caused this. She wasn't on lush pasture. It was drying up, and it had been VERY windy. The vet arrived, and gave her a thorough inspection. He checked to see if she was in labor. Nope. So he checked to see how far along she was, and he said theres no calf. What! No Calf!? How could that be? She looks pregnant. She's developing an udder. How could she not be pregnant? He asked if anything was suckling on her to cause her udder to develop. Nope. Hmmm. He checked her udder, and she had milk. But she is a twin. Is she a Freemartin? So he gave her a very thorough check. He said she is not a Freemartin, but she's not pregnant. That he is 95% positive. We know she's over weight, but he had no explanation for her having milk. He said it's the first case of phantom pregnancy he has ever seen in a cow. We don't know what caused her to bloat. He said she might have started to get a little ketosis (meaning her body was starting to burn its fat, and making her have sore muscles), because the field was drying up. She also might not have wanted to get up in the morning, because of the strong wind. So she stayed laying down, started bloating, and then couldn't get up. But these were guesses, we don't know for sure. All we know is she gave us a scare. Sweet Pea is now home on our irrigated pasture, playing boss of the goats. Her bag has continued to grow since her visit with the vet. So I took the pictures above. I search online for information on cows having phantom pregnancies to no avail. Is there such a thing as a 5% chance of pregnancy?

Kimberly