Not All Peaches & Cream

I don't want this blog to be a place where I post depressing stories or unhappy pictures. I do however feel like you are getting a glimpse of our life through rose colored glasses and that's not quite right either. So here goes...a reality check.

The calf that I posted about earlier today never did nurse. We finally put the cow in the squeeze chute after dinner, milked her and got the calf a bottle. For what ever reason he had an aversion to the udder. He has since been convinced that good stuff comes from the udder and that it's his friend. When I checked tonight all was well with the pair.

In the meantime the cow's older daughter (a bred heifer) went into labor. I didn't see her and think maybe I was so preoccupied with getting the calf to nurse that I missed it. About 10:30 pm I went out to check the cows and when I found her my heart sank for the second time today. She had prolapsed and was a mess. I called Ben and had him get dressed so we could go out and asses the situation. This heifer was uncomfortable and doing poorly. I wanted to put her down because she was in so much pain, but Ben suggested we try to put her back together. If you have never seen a prolapse you can click here. I have purposely spared you the pictures.

I gathered some supplies and we worked to push her uterus back into place. Amazingly we put a relatively clean uterus back into the heifer and it stayed. Only one thing was missing...a calf. I had scoured the pasture before coming upon the heifer and didn't see a calf. We decided to look some more and then come back to check on the heifer. We found the calf, which had gotten through the fence and was in another pasture. I scooped her up and threw her in the back of the pickup. We went back to check on the heifer and in less than five minutes she had died. I was disappointed I hadn't gotten to her earlier in the day. We have been working to build a purebred herd of cattle and this gal would have been a nice addition.

Right now her calf is resting in the mud room in the house. Thankfully I was able to teach her to take a bottle in a relatively short amount of time and she seems to be doing well. There's work to be done tomorrow. Colostrum to be hunted down, a place for the calf to set up, and dead heifer to be taken care of. Some people envy farm/ranch life, but it's not for everyone. Some years it seems like things are smooth sailing. And then some years is feels like the bovines hand you every trick in the book. But it seems there's always a bright spot in everything if you just look for it. I think the girls will absolutely love bottle feeding a calf. I hope I can learn to love it as much as they will. :) I'm off to bed to rest up from today's excitement and prepare for tomorrow's.