I Tried to Call in Sick, But No One Answered

Some days I just want to call in sick.  Like today.  I went to bed with achy joints, a congested head and was in a hoody and wind pants(it was at least 75* in the house).  I tried to call in sick, but no one answered.  Now, let's be honest as much as The Farmer and I like to say we are in charge, we aren't.  Mother Nature and the cows are in charge.  Whether we want to go to work at not, the cows still NEED to be fed.  The ones that haven't had their babies yet still need to be checked on.  The new babies need to be checked on to make sure they aren't getting sick.  The new bottle calf still needs his bottle two times a day.

Since I drug my happy rear end out of the house, I got to see this when I arrived at the last pasture.

 

We fed the other cows on the other side of the paddock hoping she would lay down, have a few contractions and we could see the calf.  I was concerned that the placenta was still totally intact.  If a cow does not get up quickly, an intact placenta can suffocate a calf.  We actually lost one calf to a placenta not getting removed earlier this year.

We came back in a few minutes and she had pushed the calf out a little bit more.

We thought we would help her out, but she didn't think she needed it.  The calf was stuck in her pelvis and was pinching a nerve making it hard for her to walk.  We really tried to refrain from the commentary that we were sure the calf was giving...at least we knew his lungs had drained all the amniotic fluid out of them.

We decided that we would give her 5 minutes of peace hoping she would lie down and have a big contraction and deliver a calf.  We watched from the other side of the pasture with binoculars.

We came back and lo and behold...she didn't need us after all.  I guess I could have called in sick.

-A Kansas Farm Mom