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.)

Wild New Cow Moms

In the over 30 years I have been farming, I have never seen cattle act the way this current batch of heifers is acting. I have raised dairy, beef, and a cross of the two, and never saw them try to bash or eat their young. I am glad mine are currently tied up in the barn or we’d have a lot of dead calves. I have seen them ignore their babies or favor one twin over the other and literally knock the one twin away, refusing to let it nurse, but this behavior is very strange. 

Our first heifer to calve, Stripe, squeezed it out, cleaned it up, easy-peasy. She wouldn’t let it nurse, which I have seen several times, but we took her in and milked her and fed it – no problem. She went by the stall every day (twice) and stopped and yelled at it for some reason (maybe wondering why it was there instead with her) but now just nods at it. That’s funny. 

Then Dot, our only red and white holstien, had a bull calf and we thought she was going to stomp it to death. Every time we put it near her she screamed as loud as she could and pawed at it and smacked it with her nose. She licked it sort of, but spent most of the time trying to bite it. She, at one point, grabbed its foot and started to throw it. I got it away from her and dried it myself in its own stall. She shut up immediately and pays it no attention when she goes to get milked.  She is just as calm as can be going to her stall and to the parlor and in her stall. You can do anything you need to without her kicking, except milk her. Then it is a rodeo. It has been a week and she still acts as if she doesn’t know what is going on. Go figure!

Cuddles, so named because of her demeanor, had a heifer and licked it a few times, but also screamed her head off at it. It was deafening. She tossed it around with her nose and tried to beat on it with her foot. I thought she was trying to get it into a better position to clean it, but no, she wanted to eat it. Another one I had to dry off and mother. She gives it a glance on her way to the parlor, but otherwise pays no attention. She milked like a dream for all of two days and now kicks at the milker; not anything like Dot, but has be tied up to get the job done all the same. I suspect her bag is so full she is in pain until some of milk goes down and then she settles down. I can dip her and she doesn’t even twitch an ear. 

This morning we got out to the barn just in time play catch with another heifer from…George Foreman. Heaven help us. She acted pretty much like the others. She went nuts and even tossed me into the wall across the feed aisle. I was trying to keep the calf in licking distance but she didn’t want it near her. Another one I had to clean up! We thought she’d tear the parlor apart, but she stood perfectly still and let us milk her. Hmmm.

I understand from the latest report that Legs, so named for her extremely long and straight legs which can reach you anywhere she wants to kick, is about to deliver her calf. I think I’ll need ear plugs and armor for this one.

Anyone know what the deal is with these cows? The cold maybe? It is awfully cold.

UPDATE:

Legs had a baby bull. She actually didn’t try to eat it and Dot, being in the stall next to her, actually helped clean it. It looked black at birth at my husband named it Shadow. Once he was dry we discovered he is actually brown! After selling the last bull calf, I discovered half-jersey calves, being on the small side, don’t do well at market, and for that reason declared I wouldn’t sell any more of them. We’ll just have to find room. Husband agrees. 

Oh, Legs milks without beating the crap out of anyone, unlike Dot.

 

Gosh those little calves are cute. I still need a picture of Shadow.

                    This is Petunia. I'll see if I can catch her standing up and not drinking a bottle.

                         Ghost! Her face is marked crooked just like her mom, George Foreman.

New Baby

Yesterday we got to the barn in time to see another calf was about to be born. At least we were in there for this one. Now, Stripe cow does yell as she goes by her baby Tessa, but she licked her clean and did all the nice cow mom stuff she was supposed to and was protective. She calls out for her calf and the calf returns the call from her stall down the barn. Gertrude just ignored hers completely and I was ‘mom’ until we sold him.

Dot, on the other hand, is the darnedest thing I ever saw, and people, I have been raising cattle a long time, as in, off and on for over thirty years. She was quietly dealing with her labor while we moved the ladies in and out of the parlor to milk. During the second round I noticed the feet heading out but she wasn’t done by the time we were. It was, however, completely out by the time we got the first half (4) back in their stalls, so we stopped what we were doing to deal with getting the calf up to mama so she could lick it clean. 

This important for a lot of reasons: 1) It cleans all the yuk off the calf and dries it. 2) It stimulates the calf to breath – like when they smack a human baby’s bottom to make it cry the fluid out of its lungs. 3) It warms the calf. 4) It stimulates the mama cow to finish the delivery process by expelling the afterbirth. If she doesn’t clean out, she’ll get an infection that costs a lot to clear up and it could interfere with her being able to breed back. 

What Dot Did

Dot sort of licked at her calf. We had to babysit her cleaning it to a point where my husband forgot we had cows still in the parlor waiting to be put back until I reminded him. We got them put up to much foolishness as they wanted to play with the new baby and we had to stop them. This being done, we were back to monitoring the cleaning process. We constantly had to push the calf back to his mother (it was a bull) and she would just scream at it. I’ve never seen a cow scream at her calf that way. It was like she was saying to it, “So you’re the reason for all my discomfort!” The reason we were monitoring her when we normally would have left her in peace? She kept trying to bite him. Seriously! She opened her mouth and almost took off an ear. She bit his neck. She went for his side. She had his foot in her mouth. She kept pawing at him with her front foot. We thought at first she was trying to get him into a position where she could get to him better, but she was knocking him out of the way even though her instinct told her to lick it clean. We made sure she did the licking part and she did most of it before she got too out of hand with him and we finally just took him away and finished cleaning him off ourselves. She calmed right down. Weird.

We took another round into the parlor even though she would be the only one to get milked so we could get the colostrum for the calf. There was no way she was going to let him nurse and she wouldn’t allow us to hand milk her. The calmest cow we had, even in training, went totally berserk when we actually tried to milk her. (Yup; had to hog tie her.) But, I got the colostrum and fed the poor little guy and made sure he had his blanket on him because he was shivering. It is cold up here! He ate well though.

Later, after the chores were finally finished, we sat across from the calves watching them. The new one was breathing funny and my husband thought he might have gotten pneumonia since he didn’t get the proper stimulation to get the fluid out of his lungs, but then I noticed how he had him tied up and jumped up just in time. His breathing got worse by the second and he was gurgling. I said something colorful and grabbed my pocket knife and cut the string free and started stimulating him to breath. My question to my husband was why does he always tie a slip knot on their necks? He didn’t think it was a problem the way he ties them. I had to inform him it was because I ALWAYS, and I mean ALWAYS, have to go back and either retie or start from scratch, the string he uses to tie them up because it tightens up on their neck and chokes them. He has just never seen it I guess. I had to teach him how to tie it so that it doesn’t slip and choke them anymore. We’ll see. The calf is fine and breathing right now. No meds needed. 

I won’t give the little guy a name. Bull calves are worth too much right now to keep him and we don’t have our calf facility set up yet. We’re using unused cow stalls for them until then and it isn’t that much space – only four stalls. We can fit 8 little ones in that, but once they start to grow they’ll need the stall to themselves. 

Are you getting a barn full of new calves?

 Our newest little guy to the barn. He is so darned cute; it's a shame I have to sell him.

 

Tessa photobombed him. 

Mom- Dot