Meet "Sunday."
She's named Sunday because she had the audacity to start dying on a Sunday.
Her mom is a 1st calf heifer and doesn't really know what to do with her, so she mostly abandoned this little calf in the weeds.
Which meant we spent most of our Sunday doing....
... this. Pumping electrolytes and milk replacer into this little one on our ONLY day of rest.
But, after all, who among us would let our ox die if he fell in a ditch on the sabbath?
Definitely necessary labor, and kind of fun labor at that, but these every-few-hour-feedings when she lives a 15 minute drive away make for a very unrestful day of rest.
Who can resist that sweet face?
This morning her mother rediscovered her. She's still far from out of the woods (she might have scours and we still haven't seen her nurse), but we'll be watching her closely.
Good luck, little Sunday.
Our Daisy had her first calf last summer and she was SUCH a BAD MOTHER! Maybelle was on her second calf, and quite good at it, when we got her, so we were unprepared for that. And then, also last summer, Maybelle didn't nurse her little one right away because she had painful edema, and we found the calf unresponsive in the grass the next morning. It took us a lot of weeks of diligent care to get her going, but she's a great little heifer now. And the message I'm beginning to take away from all this is:
ReplyDeleteDon't leave the calves with their mothers, even for 24 hours. Just pull the calves, get the mamas back on the milk line, and bottle feed the little gals.
We bottle feed anyway, since those cows don't give up the milk if they're nursing, so it's one extra day of work, and a lot less worry and trouble.
Hi Jennie!
ReplyDeleteWell, our cattle are beef not dairy (sigh, someday I'll have my dream Jersey again!), so bottle feeding isn't terribly appealing except in an emergency.
But I've often wondered what we'd do with our dairy babies... milk sharing with the calves or bottle feeding and twice a day milking... I suppose we'll cross that bridge when we come to it, but I sure don't want to CREAM share which is what I hear milk sharing usually ends up as.
Love checking in and seeing what you are up to way out west! Can't tell you how many times our daughter gets complimented on how pretty her name is and I share about a college friend we loved (and who gave my husband a verbal kick/wake up:) and honor in our girl. She's turning out to have some sweet spunk like someone else we know! It's a welcome chance to say a prayer for you and your husband. If we are ever your direction, we would love to say hi! ~Colleen, Jesse, & girls, in Ohio
ReplyDeleteOh goodness, Colleen, you've made my day!! :) Thank you so much for your sweetness As adorable as your eldest is, I must admit I'm greedy for pictures of your 2nd ;).
ReplyDeletePlease please please do make a trip out west sometime! The Summer and Fall are teeming with fresh produce from the gardens, and there's a lot of activity (although the late winter has a lot of calves).
Hello to you and yours!
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