We had a bred cow go down on Mothers Day. The vet was here two days in a row, taking blood and doing everything she could, but she wouldn't get up. She checked for a calf and said it was there, but wasn't up in the pelvis yet, so she likely wasn't a long ways along. She left some Lutalyse and a steroid, said if the cow took a turn and I wanted to do a terminal C section, give the shots and call and she'd take the calf 24 hours later. We nursed her along, but over the weekend, she started going downhill. I gave the shots Monday morning and they scheduled her for Tuesday afternoon for the C section. She said she might go in to labor and have it on her own after the shots, fingers crossed.
Tuesday morning she hadn't done anything yet. I broke a belt on the sprayer pump and had to run all over to get one. The vet wasn't here yet at 1:30 and it dawned on me that I'd better check the cow. There was two hind feet sticking out of her, cold as ice. Great, pretty fair sized feet, we probably could have save it if somebody had gotten here sooner. I had my OB chain with me, so I put it on and tried to pull it by hand but couldn't move it. I came up and got the tractor, hooked on to it and pulled it put slowly and the little devil started flapping her ears and her sides started heaving. I jumped off and dragged it up in front of the cow and she started licking it.
An hour or so later, I mixed up some powdered colostrum and she sucked the bottle a little. I fed her two more times that day and she took a little each time. I tried standing her up but she was pretty wobbly. She sucked some again yesterday morning and stood a little longer. It started raining about 11, didn't look like it would last long, but it went on until 3. I went back and tried to feed her again, but she didn't have much ambition. I brought her up and put her in the barn. She wouldn't suck last night.
I didn't have much hope that she'd even be alive this morning, but I warmed up the milk in the bottle, went to the barn and she was up. She almost knocked me over. Went right after the bottle like she'd been doing it for a month. She's not a very big calf, maybe slightly smaller than an average twin, but she's alive after all that, and seems to want to stay that way. Sad part is, now we have to put the cow down.
Tuesday morning she hadn't done anything yet. I broke a belt on the sprayer pump and had to run all over to get one. The vet wasn't here yet at 1:30 and it dawned on me that I'd better check the cow. There was two hind feet sticking out of her, cold as ice. Great, pretty fair sized feet, we probably could have save it if somebody had gotten here sooner. I had my OB chain with me, so I put it on and tried to pull it by hand but couldn't move it. I came up and got the tractor, hooked on to it and pulled it put slowly and the little devil started flapping her ears and her sides started heaving. I jumped off and dragged it up in front of the cow and she started licking it.
An hour or so later, I mixed up some powdered colostrum and she sucked the bottle a little. I fed her two more times that day and she took a little each time. I tried standing her up but she was pretty wobbly. She sucked some again yesterday morning and stood a little longer. It started raining about 11, didn't look like it would last long, but it went on until 3. I went back and tried to feed her again, but she didn't have much ambition. I brought her up and put her in the barn. She wouldn't suck last night.
I didn't have much hope that she'd even be alive this morning, but I warmed up the milk in the bottle, went to the barn and she was up. She almost knocked me over. Went right after the bottle like she'd been doing it for a month. She's not a very big calf, maybe slightly smaller than an average twin, but she's alive after all that, and seems to want to stay that way. Sad part is, now we have to put the cow down.
