May. 28, 2003 ~ Small miracle
We have a calf, about two weeks old now, who became sick and went blind shortly after birth. Husband seriously considered "putting him down." A friend on Sunday asked why we hadn't shot him. I'm not the calf-shooting type; I'm the medicine-giving type. After struggling to give him two or three shots of steroids, antibiotics and vitamins, we said it was up to the calf to live or not. He fought us too hard. He was going to have to get better on his own.
It was tough to watch him, so tiny and helpless, out in the pasture. We knew we had to keep him there where he was born, though his mother desperately wanted to change pastures and be with the herd. It was just too dangerous in the back pasture. There are woods, deep ravines, and everything is different from what little he remembered before he lost his sight. I worried, though, that we had made a mistake, keeping him alive. A blind calf is a liability. He could tear through a fence and we could lose the whole herd because of it. I wasn't sure what we were going to do as he got older. We didn't even castrate the calf, because we thought it would stress him too much. Too many things in the pen he could run into. He probably would be terrified.
Yesterday afternoon I looked out the bedroom window and saw the little calf running. But... what? I got up and took a closer look. He did it again. Ran, and avoided the fence, twice. Stopped short of running into his mother. Could this be?
I pulled on my boots and went outside. Husband thought I wanted to show him Brownie Jo's calf, born yesterday, but instead I headed for the front pasture.
"I want to look at the OTHER calf," I said. "From the way he's running, I think maybe he can see. "I was wondering about that yesterday," Husband volunteered. He thought the calf's eyes didn't look so cloudy, but figured he was imagining it.
I approached the calf, and moved first one arm and then the other, out to the side. Each time, the calf seemed to turn his head in the direction of the movement. I did it again. So did he. I couldn't believe what I was seeing! And his eyes, indeed, were not as cloudy as they had been. Susan had said it was possible, if his blindness was caused by an infection, that he would get his sight back. His eyes are now blue instead of brown, but he does seem to have at least SOME vision. He runs and bounces and acts like a normal calf. In a couple of days, if his condition stays the same or improves, we're moving him and his mother back with the herd. He'll be able to run and play with the other calves!
It's a small thing, and not much in the way of a miracle, but we're happy. It will mean a few hundred more dollars in our pockets, and a much easier time for us these next few months.
Maybe our luck has changed for the better.
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