I Can't Believe She Is Still Alive!

It's calving season here on our farm. I would like to tell you all that every calf is born healthy and full of energy and ready to take on the world, but that would be a lie.  We have had a couple of calves that were stillborn and a few that tried to come in an abnormal position.  Here is a great post from WagNFarms on how a calf is supposed to be born.

This calf was born in the correct position naturally by her mother, but her mother (a first time mother) did not take care of her after she was born.  It was about 35 degrees the morning she was born and she was cold when we found that her mother had totally abandoned her.  We quickly moved her to the "hot box," an enclosed box with a heater that would help her warm up.

After we checked all the other cows, we went back to check on her.  She was sitting up a little, but still looked pretty pathetic.  I fed her some colostrum, the first milk of a cow that is full of antibodies and high in energy.

 She spent the night sleeping in my mudroom.  I wasn't happy with the way she acted, so we put her back in the hot box while we did chores again. 

We suspect that she suffered from White Muscle Disease which is caused by a deficiency of either Selenium or Vitamin E.  She was a little better after a selenium injection, but not great.  I gave her an injection of liquid vitamin E and she really seemed to come around.  Antibiotics really didn't seem to be necessary at the time.

When we finished with chores, I opened the box to find her standing up!!  I did a little happy dance, petted her on the neck and I think I floated through the rest of the day.  I half expected her to be dead when I checked in on her.

It was beautiful sunny day, so I set her outside in the sunshine with a calf blanket, of course.  Mom still didn't want to take care of her, so we decided it was in her best interest to make her into a bottle baby.

 She spent the next 2 nights in the garage with the dogs babysitting her and afternoons...

under my kitchen window.

Our 7 year old is currently in charge of fixing her bottles and making sure she gets fed.

We built her a little shed out of hay, that is warmer than just boards keeping the drafty winds out. She loves to lay in in.

Our little man had to go in and make sure she liked it OK.  LOL

 We are now asking for your help!  We are having trouble coming up with a name for her.  Our seven year old wants you to help us!  Give me your names here in the comments or on Facebook and he will pick her name from the list.

UPDATE: To see the list of names and the one that was selected please go to this post...And He Named the Little Heifer.

-A Kansas Farm Mom

Nesting in a Big Way Part I

Imagine with me if you will, that your home is going to be the headquarters for about 200+ babies to be born in the next 45 days.  What supplies would you need?  What would you want to have on hand in case of a late night emergency?  This is a snapshot of the checklist that I go through and make sure I have in my house before calving season starts.

Most cows have their babies without incident, but just like people somethings happen.  I had HELLP Syndrome and I have told you about Killian who has CDH.  It is always good to have experts available with supplies to keep everyone safe during and after birth.

10 Things I Get Before Calving Season for the Bovine Patients

Farmer Randy was not my willing model in this picture, but I thought you needed to see how long the sleeves really are against a guy who is 6 foot 3.

1.        Latex gloves and loonnnngggg plastic sleeves.

 Just like OB Doctors we like to keep things as sterile as possible.  If we have to go in and check to see if a calf is coming the right way or reposition the way it is coming we use these really long OB sleeves to keep us clean and so we don’t take contaminants into the cow that will cause an infection.

2.       Colostrum Replacer (usually freeze dried colostrum) and calf electrolytes (think Pedialyte or Gatorade for calves)

Colostrum is the first milk that a cow produces and is very important to keep a calf healthy.  It actually has antibodies that keep the calf from getting sick until their immune system is mature enough to produce their own.  Calves need to have a good dose of colostrum in their system in the first 12 hours to keep them healthy. 

Yes this bottle is a little bigger than the ones we used for our kids.  It holds 2 quarts.

3.       Calf bottle with new nipples and an oral feeding tube.

Sometimes cows don’t like the thought of being a mother, calves are weak or cows have twins.  These calves often need some supplemental nutrition, just like human babies.  I remember using a tube type feeding system for a couple of days with my now 10 year old son that was born 5 weeks early.  Of course, the ones for calves are much larger, but are still very similar to what we use on kids.

4.       Antibiotics and Vitamins along with syringes and bawling gun.

Just like human babies that are born in certain areas get a shot of vitamins when they are born we give some of our calves vitamins and minerals when they are born.  We also have a limited selection of antibiotics for those calves that get an infection or pneumonia.  Often these calves get sick when the weather is really bad and the roads are not fit to travel to the vet’s office.

Last summer, the whole family worked together to put straw in the barn for this winter.  Love it when 3 generations work together.

5.       Straw bedding

When the calves have to come in the barn, we like to have some clean bedding for the calves to sleep on.  Most of the calves are born outside and stay there, because in all honesty things are cleaner outside than in a dark drafty barn.  The UV rays from the sun do a great job of killing bacteria outside and that sunlight can’t get in to kill things in our barn.

Here is the link to Part II of Nesting.

-A Kansas Farm Mom