Valliant Effort but Brokenhearted Anyway

So, what happens when a dairy cow (possibly because of its breed) has a swollen abscessed knee? Well, for one it needs to be lanced so it can drain. Check did that several times. Then, let the cow out of the barn to walk around on the soft ground so it doesn’t have to stand on concrete (padded or not). Did that too. What a farmer cannot control is the attitude of the cow. We have one that we have done everything we’re supposed to, including drying her up early (according to the due dates given the sale barn by the previous owner and acknowledged by the sale barn’s own vet). It was only by a few weeks, but we suspected the dates were wrong anyway as she was huge and milking less and less every day. She used to eat everything that wouldn’t get out of her way, but once that knee went, she stopped. We even took feed to her outside and kept the other dry cows at bay so she could eat. She wants corn silage, which unfortunately, like many farmers this time of year, we are out of, and grain, which given too much is not good for the cow or our wallet. She lost an enormous amount of weight as she wouldn’t graze very often. She did eat the fresh grass, we could see that in the manure, but still, she mostly just laid around. We made her get up and exercise that leg and brought her in to the barn to give her grass silage, extra minerals, and grain, checked her knee and did whatever was necessary, and let her back out. Still, one day she started bagging up (putting on milk) and within three days she showed signs of being in labor. I told my husband not to let her out that morning since it was overcast with rain due anytime and there was a cold wind. He did anyway. 

A few hours later she started pushing. He was doing field work and told me if she hadn’t had it by the time I got back from the feed store, he was going to intervene. She had it while I was gone, but this was six weeks earlier than that due date of June 24^th. When I got home, he told me the calf was well on its way out and she just stood up and let it drop on the ground on its head! Then she walked away. Two other dry cows actually went to it and cleaned it. They did a fine job, but it never got up, as would be normal, to nurse (on anyone handy).

The truck was loaded down so I couldn’t take it out to the field which left me totally on foot. I took my trusty baseball bat because our bull is ornery to say the least and seems to have it out for me. He was interested, but not too much at the time. The other cows backed away when I got to the calf. The poor thing was not quite dry and he was shivering. I knew I couldn’t just leave him out there but he would not stand up. Hoping he wasn’t too heavy, as I was still nursing a back injury, I squatted down and lifted him off the ground. I was shocked to discover that he couldn’t weigh more than 25 pounds. That is way small, which of course he was. It didn’t look six weeks premature, so they were probably only off a month and he was likely only two weeks early. Turns out that was enough.

I started walking, trying to figure out how I would get this poor thing in the barn when that stupid bull decided he was more that interested and started jumping and snorting and lowering his head as he pawed the dirt. I was literally just across a plywood wall from my husband where he was loading the manure spreader, but with two tractors running he couldn’t hear me. I couldn’t swing my bat because, even though I had it in my hand, my arms were full and there was no way I was putting that calf down in the mud. He was the other dry cows run across that section of the cow yard in my direction and figured out the bull was at it again since what they usually do when he’s after me. He came to the rescue and kept him at bay while I got next to the barn and helped me get him in and into a stall.

I called the calf ‘poor little guy’ as I was afraid to name him. He was so small and he couldn’t hold his head up at all. I warmed a bottle of colostrum (we keep some in milk jugs frozen just for this purpose). I went to spray his umbilical cord just to find he didn’t even have one. It had broken off at stomach level (bad). I rubbed him vigorously to warm him up and even wrapped him in a towel to keep him warm. I worked fluid out of his lungs and checked him over closely. He couldn’t keep his tongue in his mouth, as if he were dead and it appeared he was blind in one eye. When I tried to feed him, he couldn’t stand or help hold himself up when I held him up and then I discovered he was unable to even suckle. We ended up rigging up a feeding tube with a small hose and a funnel, which isn’t the way the commercial ones are made, but at least I could hear it if I got into a lung rather than his stomach. We got a pint down him and later two. The next morning I got three. He could hold his head up for a minute at a time and sort of crawl, but still could not stand. His breathing was labored. By chore time (feeding time) in the afternoon, because he was unable to stand up, his milk had come back up on him and he aspirated it into his lungs and was well into pneumonia. As we picked him up it literally ran out of his lungs. He was no longer able to hold his head up at all and he was limp and all but dead. I had to leave the barn as my husband did the kindest thing he could have for the baby calf and I cried for the loss of the beautiful little thing. 

One of our cows who normally is a bit standoffish, backing away when I unhook her, actually sensed my distress as I unhooked one next to her to go to the parlor and laid her head against mine for a moment and then licked my face. (Yeah, yuk, but I didn’t care). She did it again when I unhooked her. 

I am still brokenhearted over the loss. I know we did all we could for him, but he was born too early and severely malnourished from the womb, and he really wasn’t going to make it. I had him for 28 hours. His mother still is not eating very much. We’re giving her forced supplements (paste squirted down her throat). Of course the vet leaves town on Thursdays not to return until sometime Monday so if we call the vet, it will have to be then. (She has two practices over an hour’s drive apart.)

The last tally is out of 14 calves since December 23rd, 2 bulls sold, 1 heifer stillborn for unknown reasons, and one premature bull calf which died. Of the 14, 6 have been bulls and 8 heifers. We're waiting on 1 that is overdue by a few days, 1 due at the end of the month, and a couple due in June and then a lot due in July (I lost count.)