Q&A for How to Perform Rectal Palpation in Cows and Heifers

This isn't going to be very helpful, but you won't be able to find them. The uterine horns are going to be very difficult to find, because they are as soft tissue as the rectal wall. What you're really going to be feeling for is the more harder, denser tissues like the ovaries, the cervix, and the small embryo-turned-fetus. You're doing everything right if you can feel the ovaries and, if you went more shallow, the cervix. The fetus can be felt in the uterine horns, so that's what you're really going to be feeling for, not the uterine horns themselves.

There is no treatment available. You just have to wait it out and hope she doesn't abort and ends up keeping her calf to full term. A pregnant cow will have a false heat, but it doesn't necessarily equate to her aborting the calf.

You most likely should. If it is a new mom, her vulva won't be as loose as a mom who has had a few calves. To cause the cow less pain, you should preform a rectal examination.

If you're very rough with palpating the cow, not using a clean shoulder-length glove, or even puncture the rectal wall, you could most definitely introduce infection or cause an abortion. Going in too early--such as 60 days post-breeding vs. 90 or 120 days post breeding, the risk of abortion is greater. Basically, the thing is just be gentle, wear a clean shoulder-length glove, and don't go in so early, and the risk of abortion and/or infection to the cow will be very low.

This could be a false heat, so yes. Heifers tend to have their hormones out of whack and don't have the level of progesterone that older cows do, and can have enough estrogen level to go into a standing heat. So she could have a false heat now, but still be pregnant.

Yes. The rumen is more towards the front of the animal and sits on the left side. The uterus is closer to the rear, below the rectum.

If your arms can extend that far into a cow's rectum and you feel the contractions of an organ beneath your hand, then you would be feeling the rumen. Otherwise, if you don't go in as far and feel first for the cervix, then for an ovary (which will sort of feel like a ball through the rectal wall), then you are in the right place. The key is to not go too deep.

For most cows, you only need to go in about two feet (18 to 24 inches) before you start feeling for the fetus in the uterus; a little further to feel for the ovaries.

If you feel for the ovaries and feel for a larger lump, typically that is the corpus luteum, or the rupture of part of the ovary releasing the ovum to the Fallopian tubes. The CL should have a rough surface felt by the fingertips. It also feels harder to the touch than the follicles of the ovary.