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

One Thing is For Sure: Every Living Thing Will Die

A couple of weeks ago I received this question in a message from one of my Facebook followers, “Hey I have a question for you. We had a calf that died 2 weeks ago and I am trying to figure out a way to let H know that he is dead and so I am needing help on how to tell him. How do you let a 2 year old know that a cow is dead? We have about 8 head of cows and we have a long horn heifer that we bought at a sale. She is registered. I would love to bring H over to see your cows an all. Hope all is going well.”

This got me to thinking that maybe several moms out there have the same question.  When you raise animals whether it is as many as we have or just a few backyard chickens, death and dying is something that we all have to deal with and if your kids are involved with chores they will notice if an animal is missing.

Calving season is rapidly approaching on our farm.  Like it or not, some calves aren’t meant to make it without a miracle and some cows are going to have problems.  Just like some people have problems.  Our family has been praying for a year for the CDH Cherub Killian who was born with a huge hole in his diaphragm.  You can follow the story of this little fighter who was given a 5% chance of survival and just celebrated his first birthday last week here.  I am sure there are probably calves born with a similar problem and we never know it.  

When our oldest son was probably 2 years old, we had a cow die suddenly in one of the pastures.  Instead of taking him to that pasture and listen to the why, why, why questions, we sent him to feed in another pasture with grandpa while we disposed on the dead cow.  We were given a hard lesson in don’t try to avoid the situation when we got the phone call from grandpa that THREE heifers had fallen through the ice on the pond and drowned.  Needless, to say we still had to answer the questions of why, why, why.  Ever since that day, we have been totally honest with the kids if we have had a calf or cow that is really sick that they may die.  We are also honest when they do pass on.

When the boys were both older, some of our neighbors left for spring break only to have a ewe have twins in the rain.  The ewe had the smallest one in a barrel that was holding water, so he was very cold and almost hypothermic.  We took him to our house and tried to keep it warm and fed for several days.   One morning, the boys came into the kitchen and asked if the lamb was still alive.  When I told them yes, they were excited and went off to see him.  At that point, I realized that I had exposed my kids to more death that most kids their age and they could deal with it.

I have found that my kids can deal better with a calf that has died than when we sell one.  They know that God made the decision to take that calf from us.  They don’t like it when mom and dad make that decision and always try to question us.  

I know I don’t have any cut and dried answers that are always right all the time.  I have just found that kids like their parents to be open and honest with them and don’t like things sugar coated.  In fact, I think my kids respect me for it.

-A Kansas Farm Mom

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