Prairie Rants

Saturday, March 24, 2007

Bad Day / Not So Bad Day

We have had some problems with calving this spring. Remember when I said I wasn't expecting any more calves until May? Well, apparently some heifers had here-to-fore unknown "relations" with a bull - and five of them have had (or rather, tried to have) their calves in March. Unfortunately, only two calves have survived, and we have even lost one of the heifers. Her calf was not in the right position to be born, its head and neck twisted sideways and down between its front legs. Almost every living thing arrives into the world head-first - even chicks and alligators peck their way in head-first. When the head is pointed in some other direction, problems arise.

We tried to pull the calf ourselves, but quickly decided we needed professional intervention. The vet arrived with a vet student as an assistant. Dr. Gruenburg told us about the calf's strange position, and that the calf was already dead, but that he hoped he could remove the calf and save the heifer. He and his student worked, I mean WORKED HARD, for nearly four hours, trying several methods to get the stubborn calf removed, but to no avail. Ultimately, we had to put the heifer down. I've never done that before - usually we let nature take it course, or as Mike is often saying, we "give her a little more time". So, it was kind of sad to see it happen, though I know it was really the only thing left to be done.

Dr. Gruenburg was exhausted and so apologetic, saying he hated to leave us with a vet bill AND a dead cow, but these are the kinds of things that you face when you raise livestock of any kind. Sometimes it's so frustrating because you feel like you work so hard trying to save an animal, and often it feels like the more you do, the less it seems to help. You come away from an experience like that and swear that you're DONE with animals of any sort...then, one day you walk out to the barn and you see this...

2 Comments:

  • At 12:57 AM, Blogger Rachel said…

    Hooray! The kids are born! Nice that you got triplets. Too bad it also means a return to milking :)

     
  • At 2:36 PM, Blogger elizabeth said…

    Lise,

    Sorry about the cow. That is always a terrible thing. Hope the rest of the season goes better!

    The kids are so cute.

     

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