Hope he makes it

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boondocks

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The first pic is what I found at noon Thursday. (Barely hanging on, contorted, shaking with cold). The second one is about two hours later: after I got him dried off better (sacrificed my sweatshirt, gladly), some hay under him, rubbed his circulation back, stretched his contracted limbs out and quite frankly laid next to him and warmed him up for 90 min. Then went and found his clueless first-time mama.
When I got help this eve, we got the pair in the barn. He's trying to nurse. Hopefully he's getting something.
I don't know if he'll make it. But I know if I'd done nothing, he would not have. So I think it was...a good day?????
Two more due any time. Wish this winter bs would loosen its grip a wee bit. Although 20s and clear is better than 30s and rain....


 
Normally if mom will let the calf try and nurse, and the calf tries to nurse things work out. Any time we help a calf "touch" I give the calf a shot of MultiMin and iodine the cord. Good luck.
And I'm complaining about it being 34 and clear because the grass is growing.
 
YIKES! I'm glad it worked out for you. That snow needs to melt, but your mud season is going to be he//.
 
Glad you found him when you did! sounds like you did all you could do. If he got some of that colostrum, within his first 5 to 10 hours, he should be okay. Good job!!

If you keep his mamma, she'll probably do better next time.
 
Lil dude was nursing this eve. YAY. Still not that active but it's early days. He and mama are still in the barn. She seems to let him nurse but doesn't lick or nuzzle him much, like most of ours do. We only really have a good (segregated) area in the barn for one pair, so I'm watching the low temps and the two cows due any second with some worry. Ideally, if he doesn't get scours and gets a bit more energetic, I'd like to turn them back out Sun am in case we need the area for another one. But we've got cold rain heading in in a few days, so it's hard to know how to play it. We are going to make a better-sheltered calving area for next year.
After working hard for 5 years to get our summer calving pushed back to spring, I am having second thoughts. This year and last year, March was just miserable. (Two years ago, we were setting up polywire by mid-March and had the tank heater out by late March). Thanks for all the good wishes!
 
Boy, I can sympathize with the March calving.... We always would try to get them in mid to late March because the weather seemed to be getting a little nicer, sunnier days and more warmth in the sun. The last 2 years our March calvings have been like yours, cold , miserable and this year all this late snow with mud and sloppy conditions. Nor do we have places to bring then in because they are on pasture. Told my son the other day that maybe we ought to just go to later calvings and the he// with dealing with this weather and just calve them all over a 4 month period and be done by Oct and that's it. But then getting uniform groups is harder. And with the numbers and rented places, there is no way we can have "inside facilities" to calve them. Feb would have been a better month with the days in the 60's but who knew? And we had some in Jan that did okay, it was soo cold that there was no mud in sight. No snow either though... I don't know anymore.

Good luck cuz I know we are in the same boat. Got 3 out of the muddy mess and put onto some rolled out round bales yesterday and scraped some mud off their legs and all with wads of hay. They seemed to stop shivering once they weren't so wet and curled up on the hay.

And another possible storm Sat eve and into Sunday. Coming from the upper midwest not a real wide band but could bring a trace to a foot according to where it hits. Southeast Va in the Floyd County area, and into Martinsville are supposed to get the most.
 
i had one laying next to momma dead the other day.. she's had 4 all healthy calves so I'm not sure what happened with this one..
 
ddd75":14qg61re said:
i had one laying next to momma dead the other day.. she's had 4 all healthy calves so I'm not sure what happened with this one..

Sorry to hear that! Was he normal size?

We have been lucky so far. Turned the lil dude and mama back in with the herd this eve. I hope he doesn't get sick; it
is still very cold and slushy/snowy. He had a lot of energy and was driving his mama nuts running around so that's a good sign!
 
Argh. So, the bull calf is spry and (knock wood) got a ton of energy, running around field and driving his (newbie) mama nuts. BUT we had a heifer calf born Monday eve that starting get scours yesterday. It was consistency of water yesterday, but calf was walking around and not droopy. Seemed to be nursing. I called vet and was advised to keep an eye on her for now. We tried to get them in barn but mama was extremely protective and not wanting us anywhere near, so we had to leave them be. It poured cold rain last night but today was warmer. Calf seemed a little lethargic, had frequent poo but it wasn't pure liquid at least. Mama has a huge bag and baby isn't real settled in yet on nursing. (I figure she must be getting some). Mama was still giving me the glare-eye today if I got even remotely near, so for now we just have to cross our fingers and wait.
We have another cow that was due today (and has always gone early before). She's getting close, so I hope that one is uneventful.
After working like crazy for 5 years to get our summer caving moved back to spring calving (with no clean-up bull, at that), I'm now thinking we should shoot to start calving in late April rather than late March. The problem is, we don't have the ability to run 2 herds in the winter, so we would need to wean them for at least six weeks, and reunite them before Christmas. That would put us weaning at 6 months, best case scenario. (These are grass only). I need to figure out a way to sneak in an extra month around Sept.-Oct......
 

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