Cold with Calf

Just another photograph having nothing whatsoever to do with the text of the post....

Becky brought most of my houseplants back in last night as I was in the barn late attempting to calve Alan's old cow, Voldemar. Calf was upside down, contracted tendons, I couldn't get it. All I could feel was one upside down hoof, no head, no second foot anywhere I could reach. Not good. I gave the old girl a second bottle of sub cu calcium and waited for the experts to get home....seems a guy the other side of Albany paid Liz a hefty amount of money to drive over and breed a cow for him. Her dad went along to see to her general safety while driving through the edge of the city so late in the evening.

When they got home our resident college graduate righted the calf and got it out. A heifer. I have been nursing this poor old cow for months, trying to save her. She has not done too badly up until a couple days ago when she went down and couldn't quite get back on her feet. Liz says the hormone, relaxin, loosens the joints so badly on a close up cow, that if they have problems to begin with they get worse. I have despaired for the last week of getting the calf safely and I am grateful to Liz and the boss for getting it done so late last night.

I am also grateful to Alan, who wants to give me the calf because I have tried so hard for the old cow. Baby is still in pretty good shape this morning, although she probably needs a shot of selenium.



******Take a minute if you have one and visit a new blog in the blogroll, Dino Giacomazzi. He has some wonderful videos of California farm life, including the birth of a calf.