Depending on your outlook, living on a farm can be horrible and/or wonderful. Not to be a downer, but last night was not fun. We had to put down our first cow who had just given birth to a bull calf. The calf was very large and, possibly in the processes of expelling the baby, the cow expelled a lot of other internal items. By the time we found her, she had lost a lot of blood and we didn't know whether she had even had her calf or not. We called our neighbor who came over (he and his wife have cattle) and he said it looked really bad for this cow. He asked me if she had had the calf and we thought, as big as she still was, that she couldn't have, but I found an amniotic sac and started searching.
I found the calf across the field curled up, completely wet but it got on it's feet quickly. That is a good thing. While waiting for a call from a mobile vet we contacted, my husband got the calf secured and taken down to the barn to be put in a stall and I milked the dying mother cow to get as much colostrum as we could. Not easy to do when the cow is laying on it's side and you are used to gravity helping you get the milk out. I tried my best not to cause her any more pain. We never did get a call from the only large animal vet that has an after hours phone number. Sometimes living in rural areas, where a lot of vets simply lose money working with livestock animals and so are more likely to work with smaller animals, just sucks. We are blessed, however, with a vet who at least talked to me on the phone this morning regarding this calf.
So there we are, having to put the cow down and move her out of the field as dusk was falling. I admit it, I cried when we did it. Not that I was in love with this cow, it was just sad and I think I was feeling fairly powerless/helpless at this point. We tried several times to get the calf to suck on a bottle with his mom's freshly milked colostrum to no avail. We did get him wiped down and mostly rubbed dry, although he is still a tad damp this morning (it is very humid and warm here this week). We dragged ourselves wearily inside, showered all the goo and muck off, and went into town to eat. We got back home around 10:30 p.m. and fell straight into bed.
This morning we got powdered colostrum from the feed store, a smaller nipple, and a little more info on how to bottle feed a baby that doesn't seem to know how to suck and is resisting all attempts to show it. We've spoken "cow" to the baby (which is funny all on it's own merit--two grown humans "mooing" to a calf), it is urinating (good thing), it has hopped around a bit (good thing), goes to the corner of the stall door as though looking for a teat (which baffles me), and ignores the bottle nipple completely (which baffles and frustrates me). So I've been putting the colostrum on my fingers and running them inside his mouth so he'll get a taste and hopefully get a hankering for more. He isn't getting it yet...but I feel it is merely a matter of a bit of time and more patience/trust on my part.
I am trying not to worry because they say getting the colostrum in within the first 24 hours is critical...I believe we waited too long with JoJo to get her started on colostrum/milk replacer and so she was overcome with scours. I really don't want that to happen to this little guy. So keep your fingers crossed and send us lots of good vibes...
I found the calf across the field curled up, completely wet but it got on it's feet quickly. That is a good thing. While waiting for a call from a mobile vet we contacted, my husband got the calf secured and taken down to the barn to be put in a stall and I milked the dying mother cow to get as much colostrum as we could. Not easy to do when the cow is laying on it's side and you are used to gravity helping you get the milk out. I tried my best not to cause her any more pain. We never did get a call from the only large animal vet that has an after hours phone number. Sometimes living in rural areas, where a lot of vets simply lose money working with livestock animals and so are more likely to work with smaller animals, just sucks. We are blessed, however, with a vet who at least talked to me on the phone this morning regarding this calf.
So there we are, having to put the cow down and move her out of the field as dusk was falling. I admit it, I cried when we did it. Not that I was in love with this cow, it was just sad and I think I was feeling fairly powerless/helpless at this point. We tried several times to get the calf to suck on a bottle with his mom's freshly milked colostrum to no avail. We did get him wiped down and mostly rubbed dry, although he is still a tad damp this morning (it is very humid and warm here this week). We dragged ourselves wearily inside, showered all the goo and muck off, and went into town to eat. We got back home around 10:30 p.m. and fell straight into bed.
This morning we got powdered colostrum from the feed store, a smaller nipple, and a little more info on how to bottle feed a baby that doesn't seem to know how to suck and is resisting all attempts to show it. We've spoken "cow" to the baby (which is funny all on it's own merit--two grown humans "mooing" to a calf), it is urinating (good thing), it has hopped around a bit (good thing), goes to the corner of the stall door as though looking for a teat (which baffles me), and ignores the bottle nipple completely (which baffles and frustrates me). So I've been putting the colostrum on my fingers and running them inside his mouth so he'll get a taste and hopefully get a hankering for more. He isn't getting it yet...but I feel it is merely a matter of a bit of time and more patience/trust on my part.
I am trying not to worry because they say getting the colostrum in within the first 24 hours is critical...I believe we waited too long with JoJo to get her started on colostrum/milk replacer and so she was overcome with scours. I really don't want that to happen to this little guy. So keep your fingers crossed and send us lots of good vibes...
