A:   Consult your veterinarian for advise. Usually the drugs of choice depends of stage of pregnancy. Early in pregnancy, progesterone secreted by the corpus luteum (CL) that is locatd on the ovary is needed to maintain pregnancy. So if it is an early pregnancy, then the veterinarian will prescribe a prostaglandin that will cause the CL to regress and the pregnancy will be lost. Late in gestation, for a cow to maintain pregnancy, progetserone from the CL is not needed. There are other sources of progesterone and so causing the CL to regress will not always result in the loss of pregnancy. Inducing calving late in gestation is usually accomplished using a glucocordicoid. Sometimes a prostaglandin and glucocordicoid will both be perscribed to induce calving.

The key here is to know breeding date. If the cow is induced too early, the ability of the calf to survive is compromised. In addition, if induced too early one of the results is retained placenta. Again, consult your veterinarian to help map out a plan.