days like these

[rockridgecattle]

I am so upset i could, well, rant, scream, punch, but I think i will take on typing

I am not upset the calf died. I mean this cow has been battling pnemonia for two weeks. With the drugs, the fever, the illness it was anyone's guess if the calf would come out alive. What upset me is what transpired.
At 6:30 pm, the vet and I chatted about the cow. We have been treating her and checking in with the vet daily because the fever has been high. Her fever had nearly broke, and the mucos from the nose was nearly cleared. One last final set of shots and let her go. And we did. She went back to the pen with the cows that had not calved
Then we processed calves
7:30 pm done calves and noticed the cow on the hill hunched and tail up...she has gone into labour. She has been bagging for a while like the rest and was due any day now.
We needed the father inlaws help to get her back up to the barn cause she was a little skittish.
8:30 we were home and letting her resettle for a bit
9:30 hubby goes to check her and decides to stay out there. There was a sack but he was not sure if it was the water or the calf sack.
10:00 I call, any progress...no
10:30 i call....I will call if i need you. tips of feet out for a bit, shes been pushing and up and down
11:15 i call...now with some frustration i am told he will call if he needs me. I explain it has been too long....again...and she needs help. Reluctanly he comes and gets me cause i hang up on him after telling him to do what he thinks is best.
11:30, get out there, hubby says what is that hanging behind her...the after birth. She is covered in sweat and is more than a bit stressed.
12:42 we got the cow up, took a bit of doing and pulled the calf...dead, along with the after birth. Now we need to watch her so she does not push out the bed.

My anger or frustration is not that the calf is dead. But after 15 years of calving he can not tell when a cow needs help. This was a big calf, over 100 lb, close to 140 maybe. She is just coming off a bad bacterial pnemonia using a lot of drugs. Temp today was still in the low grade fever stage.
This cow was in no shape to calve this calf on her own.
So, after much fighting, I explain the calf being dead is not the issue, **** happens. We had no hopes of a live calf with all the drugs and stress she has been under. But the not assisting or even not checking is what i am angry about.

Moral of the story,
remember a cow that has just come off pnemonia or some other illness which will or has impared her energy, assist. She will tire out easily.

 

[regolith]

had a 'day like that' and for much the same reason.
My cows are out there with no water, because the person in control of the water system doesn't see the troughs being empty a problem, or do anything about it.
And then I called three times through the evening trying to contact the local pump servicing people and the on-call guy was supposedly paged to call me back urgently each time. He tells me only the third message reached him. I found both the cows and the calves already distressed nearly four hours earlier.
Now I just wish it would rain heavy like it's supposed to because there isn't anywhere I can put them to get water... the creeks are dry.

That poor cow... and this is why some of us don't even consider asking for help/employing help because what seems easy or important just isn't to someone else.
The usual guidelines for when to assist a calf should have been enough in this case, regardless of her illness.

 

[rockridgecattle]

After a night's sleep, I understand why he did not want me out there. Processing calves and treating the cow and then getting her back in the pen just about did me in. The asthma and allergies kicked it in high gear. I understand he did not want me getting sicker.
But he could have called his dad.
I have been "training" him. I am the one who does all the medical stuff. So I have been teaching him about giving needles, and everything else that goes herd health, so he could do it and i could be his back up, his emergency, his helper. I do not think he finds this part of cows fun, and i think he was all too happy for me to take on these tasks. Now that it is his job, i do not see a future in cows for us
He does not like or care for it

 

[randiliana]

Hey RR, I think it is a bit of a gender thing too. Now, don't all you guys jump on me, but I think that as a rule guys tend to want to leave things alone longer than we women do. Might have something to do with the fact that some(or alot) of us have given birth ourselves, or just the 'mothering instinct'. My DH likes the cows, grew up working with them and wants to continue, no teaching for him. But he almost always will want to leave a cow/heifer for much longer than what I do. It results in quite a few arguments between us every year. Don't get too stressed over it, take a breath and cool down (lots of times someone needs to remind me of this too, and it better not be DH, lol)

Personally, I agree with Regolith, that the usual guidelines are enough in this case too. Although I would have been like you and wanting to pull the calf early too!

 

[bigbull338]

well this old man likes to get things done if they have tobe done.an since that cow was real sick,id prolly pulled that calf asap when i saw feet sticking out.i ve even stayed up pretty much 2 days calving cows.an checking them every 2hrs.an even had some calve while i slept 2hrs.

 

[regolith]

Well, my cows are getting water now... the calves will have to wait a little longer because their trough is uphill from the cows.
They've been over 24 hours without and the guy I spoke to last night spent over four hours here today - because the farm owner had turned a tap off!
Like, I went and yelled at him yesterday afternoon and he insisted he'd done nothing to the water. I said taht evening to the pump guy who explained what he'd done to service the pump that from what he told me, it had to be a tap. Then *he* phoned the farm owner. He still didn't go out and turn the tap back on.
No, it just magically turned itself off I suppose

I don't like being accused of having a 'mothering instinct' but it's for sure that there's many people working with cattle who just don't have the empathy. Like... say... that person who turned off the tap supplying my cows with water and then checked their troughs all afternoon and did nothing about it... dam, there's a reason why my instinctive response to seeing someone in with the cows is defensive, sure was a reason for it yesterday.