May. 20, 2002 ~ What a weekend...
I'm just so tired. The fact that I woke up at about 3:00 this morning probably doesn't help matters.
Saturday started out like a pretty normal day. I was supposed to attend a local event, kind of like a small town fair, and help judge a pet show. But first, we thought we'd take a couple of calves to the auction. We had plenty of time, or so we thought. Loading the heifers in the trailer was entirely too easy, though... both Husband and I knew that something was coming. And it did.
As we were ready to leave, I discovered a newly hatched chick. Mama Duck hatched a little chicken! They do that every year. They raise both chicks and ducklings. I gave the new baby some food and water, dipped its beak in each container, and figured that was our excitement for the day. Wrong.
Three or four cows got out when we pulled the trailer out of the front pasture. They didn't get any farther than the front yard, but still, they did not endear themselves to me. We rounded them up and got them back in the pasture. I gave them "the look." They "looked" right back at me. Little snots.
We drove about halfway down the driveway, when I said,
"Fence is down. There." And it was. Not all the way down, but the top two strands were broken, so there was nothing for it but to back up and get the proper tools, and get that fence fixed. We couldn't leave it like that; a cow could have stepped right over it.
While we were parked in the driveway, I looked up and saw our newest baby calf, and realized that he had been in much the same spot by the pond for a couple of days. That isn't good. I went down to check on him and he was extremely weak. He hadn't been nursing, and I didn't think he'd be alive when we returned from the auction.
We wound up milking the mama cow and bottle-feeding the baby (with the cow's milk), who seemed to perk up considerably. We thought all was well. It wasn't.
When we returned from the auction about three hours later, the calf was close to death. Limp.
Once again we milked the cow (Note: beef cattle do NOT appreciate being milked. At all.). The calf did a little better, but never has looked right since. Saturday and Sunday were both pretty rough, calf-wise. We had to make an emergency run to the feed store for milk replacer, since Husband was going to be out of town this week, and there was no way I was going to be able to milk that cow myself. On the way to the feed store, Husband dropped me off in town, and I did my pet show judging thing. Top honors went to a beautiful long-haired, shiny black dog. A very smiley dog, at that. What a happy boy, that dog.
Sunday I thought Husband was going to get seriously hurt or killed by Mama Cow, who kicked him several times. I said I would just bottle-feed the calf... no more milking that cow, PLEASE! We had the milk replacer, so that was that.
Today was crazy. Husband had to leave at 3:00 AM, and I woke up when the front door closed. So it's been a lonnnnngggg day. Susan was over today, so she looked at the calf, and pronounced him SICK, possibly brain-damaged, but definitely sick... poor guy. She gave me drugs for him, so I gave him a shot and did various other things. She is not... hopeful. Well, she's hopeful but is realistic. We'll be lucky if this boy makes it.
He's doing better today. He's up and nursing the cow now, though he's still obviously ill and quite wobbly. We have hope.
Long day. Long weekend.
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