randiliana
Well-known member
Yesterday was quite the day around here. We are calving and it has been just snapping right along. We have 70 out of 148 cows calved out in 12 days so far. Pretty amazing as far as that goes. Weather has actually been pretty darn nice so far too. We'd lost 2 calves early on, but things seemed to have settled down and the cows and heifers have mostly been having their calves and taking care of them on their own. We've had to help a few heifers, but that is par for the course (and that bull won't be breeding heifers around here again either....).
Well, yesterday morning I went out to check things out as I usually do. There were 5 or 6 new ones down there from the afternoon before and overnight. Looked around and saw 2 more brand new ones, but they were up and looking for breakfast. Til I turned around and found one laid out flat. Head stretched back and legs going. So this is not so good :help: . I dragged it over onto the straw pack, to get it out of the wind til we could get back with the truck to get it up to the barn. I've carried calves up there before, but that is just way too much work nowadays.... Now, I will leave it at that and anyone who wants to guess at the problem go right ahead. Cows are all on a vaccination program and have free choice mineral too.
So, we go out and do chores, check on all the calves and everything is looking good. Had another cow calve before lunch and it is fine. So the day goes on. Things are looking OK, we've tubed the calf in the barn with some colostrum and treated it and it is showing signs of coming around.... Few hours later and it is up and even looking for a suck, AWESOME :D !
Most of the afternoon is pretty laid back. About 4:30 DH comes in and says that heifer #31 is starting to calve. So we check on her in a bit, and she just doesn't seem to be progressing, she is working hard, but no feet are showing. Get her in the barn to check her out, DH says, it's all right there, I think she just needs more time (he likes to leave them alone longer than I do, it causes the odd argument...lol). So we give her a bit longer, but still nothing. This time we get the chains out, and the puller too. I run the puller, and I'm pulling pretty hard, and nothing is coming :frowns: . So, we call the vet, she says she will be 30 min or so, we get the heifer loaded up. And then we notice one of the heifers whose calf is about a week old is running around looking for him...
She is standing right over this grave (for a horse) that we'd had dug last fall. The badgers had been busy all winter excavating it, we'd fill it in, they'd clean it out. I say to DH ' he wouldn't have fallen in there would he!' So now we head out to try and find her calf, get the shovels out and dig a bit and sure enough he is in there. Figure they were playing around there, and he either got in too deep or fell in and it collapsed around him....Got him dug out but only few hours too late, dam it all :cry2: Now of course we are late for the vet, but as it turns out only about 5 min late. Get the heifer over there and vet says, no way calf is coming out the back end....
It was the longest C-section I'd been to took almost 2 hours. Calf just wouldn't co-operate and he was laying on the heifer's right side... But the vet finally got him pulled out and he was a big boy alright. Got the heifer stitched back up and back home, and she surprised us and took right to him. And as soon as we got home, we went out to check on things, and have another cow calving, she's got upside down feet showing, lovely a backwards calf now.... Just another note to add to an already crappy day. At least we got this one out alive and without surgery.....
And to top it off, when we went out to do chores this morning, we found another week old calf just laying there dead. It was OK yesterday, so who knows.....
Well, yesterday morning I went out to check things out as I usually do. There were 5 or 6 new ones down there from the afternoon before and overnight. Looked around and saw 2 more brand new ones, but they were up and looking for breakfast. Til I turned around and found one laid out flat. Head stretched back and legs going. So this is not so good :help: . I dragged it over onto the straw pack, to get it out of the wind til we could get back with the truck to get it up to the barn. I've carried calves up there before, but that is just way too much work nowadays.... Now, I will leave it at that and anyone who wants to guess at the problem go right ahead. Cows are all on a vaccination program and have free choice mineral too.
So, we go out and do chores, check on all the calves and everything is looking good. Had another cow calve before lunch and it is fine. So the day goes on. Things are looking OK, we've tubed the calf in the barn with some colostrum and treated it and it is showing signs of coming around.... Few hours later and it is up and even looking for a suck, AWESOME :D !
Most of the afternoon is pretty laid back. About 4:30 DH comes in and says that heifer #31 is starting to calve. So we check on her in a bit, and she just doesn't seem to be progressing, she is working hard, but no feet are showing. Get her in the barn to check her out, DH says, it's all right there, I think she just needs more time (he likes to leave them alone longer than I do, it causes the odd argument...lol). So we give her a bit longer, but still nothing. This time we get the chains out, and the puller too. I run the puller, and I'm pulling pretty hard, and nothing is coming :frowns: . So, we call the vet, she says she will be 30 min or so, we get the heifer loaded up. And then we notice one of the heifers whose calf is about a week old is running around looking for him...
She is standing right over this grave (for a horse) that we'd had dug last fall. The badgers had been busy all winter excavating it, we'd fill it in, they'd clean it out. I say to DH ' he wouldn't have fallen in there would he!' So now we head out to try and find her calf, get the shovels out and dig a bit and sure enough he is in there. Figure they were playing around there, and he either got in too deep or fell in and it collapsed around him....Got him dug out but only few hours too late, dam it all :cry2: Now of course we are late for the vet, but as it turns out only about 5 min late. Get the heifer over there and vet says, no way calf is coming out the back end....
It was the longest C-section I'd been to took almost 2 hours. Calf just wouldn't co-operate and he was laying on the heifer's right side... But the vet finally got him pulled out and he was a big boy alright. Got the heifer stitched back up and back home, and she surprised us and took right to him. And as soon as we got home, we went out to check on things, and have another cow calving, she's got upside down feet showing, lovely a backwards calf now.... Just another note to add to an already crappy day. At least we got this one out alive and without surgery.....
And to top it off, when we went out to do chores this morning, we found another week old calf just laying there dead. It was OK yesterday, so who knows.....
