I just knew that there was something wrong with No Ears.
Now I don’t know if it’s a gut feel or more of a Mom’s instinct when someone is sick, but when I saw No Ears yesterday I just knew that there was something very wrong with her.
So when I woke up this morning I was anxious to hear if she came up for the morning feed. Well no news during the morning on what was going on so I beat it home on my lunch hour only to find the local Vet truck sitting up by our shed. WHAT!!
OK, don’t panic. But instantly my stomach started to churn and then the two Vets came around the corner of our back grove with smiles on their faces. OK, now I’m confused. Was No Ears sick? If so, is this seriously something to smile about? I’m guessing that it’s NOT.
But trying to act cool, I said something like, ‘hey what’s going on?’
They proceeded to say that No Ears had a baby girl calf and the calf is fine. They also said that No Ears had milk fever before she delivered the calf, so when they got to our farm they decided to help the mom by pulling the calf. No Ears water was broke anyway, and with her fever and not feeling so well, it was in the best interest of both of them.
OK, that all sounds good with the exception of the milk fever comment. They said she couldn’t get up so they gave her some calcium and if she isn’t up later tonight to call in the morning. Well the air temperature dropped to around mid 70’s so that was good. See No Ears was up in the pasture just hugging the fence line and was exposed to whatever the day was going to bring for weather.
It was one of those afternoons when the clock couldn’t move fast enough. I was really busy which helped, but when it was time to leave – I was out of there and heading north to our farm.
And wouldn’t you just know it the temperature now is around 90 degrees and very hot! I just got done giving No Ears some water when the Vets came back again and gave her more calcium and some sugar water to drink. Well of course I just watered her so she wasn’t thirsty but she was very hot! Daryl rigged up a tarp for over her and with a storm brewing it was keeping the sun and hopefully the storm off of her and the calf. See No Ears still hasn’t gotten up yet.
So instead of standing there just looking at No Ears, I decided to go to the house and get somethings done. We weren’t supposed to try to get her up until later tonight so all I could do was to wait. Yea, I’m not so good at that!
Well the storm did come. We had gotten black skies and lightening. Well the wind picked up and because it was literally almost a white out with the rain, I decided for some reason to go check on the cows. OK, now hindsight not the smartest thing to do I agree. But it made sense at the time and I went looking for a hooded sweatshirt. When I couldn’t find one, I grabbed a garbage bag and ripped it in half and used it as a tarp on top of me.
Off I went to the pasture and when I got about half way there my hair was standing up on my arms and the back of my neck with the lightening so I ran quick saw that the tarp was off the cows, knew that I couldn’t do anything about it, and ran back to the house. Yup, not my smartest move of the day or maybe even of the year to be honest.
And to say that I was wet was an understatement.
But once the storm blew over and we got over an inch of rain, Daryl and I headed back up to check on No Ears.
We milked No Ears while she was laying so the calf would have the first good milk in his belly and after talking a little bit with No Ears she got up! It was a good day after all!!
So here is my first picture of No Ears and her new little calf Lucy. I’m sure there will be more pictures to come in the next few days 🙂