Good and Bad

We had a calf that had not been doing well for a couple of days.  This morning, we spent over and hour in the rain looking for it, then another hour trying to get it to the barn.  We ended up having to haul it in the tractor loader.

I thought we were just going to run down and give it an antibiotic shot so I didn't even wear a raincoat.  Once Joe roped it and we examined him, we saw that it was theileria from the ticks.  So the plan changed to get him to the barn with the cow and do a blood transfusion.  

But it was also Camp Mimi day with Sadie and Allie.  I finally got the transfusion done but it was very complicated.   Back at the house, Allie had to have a change of clothes and I had to have my third change.  Sadie just took her clothes off and didn't want to put anything back on.  I was at least able to convince her to put on a tee shirt.  

After a late lunch, I pulled out a game from my youth,  Hands Down.  The "slam-o-matic" was a big hit.  

Then we played a game of Lego, Race to Build It.  Sadie wanted to play a second time but Allie just wanted to play with the blocks.  I ended up taking Sadie to the TV room for another surprise game.  Allie didn't last long by herself with the Legos, and she joined us.  

We spent the rest of a rainy day (almost 2 inches) playing Wii Fit.  

They had a ball.  But there was lots of reminders about how to take turns.  We sent them home after supper and probably ready for bed.

Joe and I then went back to the barn to check the calf.  It died while I was giving it more IV fluids. It was a rough day. 

 

All Night Long

We weaned our fall calving cows yesterday.

It was pretty uneventful but a long process.

After sorting off the cows, we loaded up the calves, 

15 at a time. 

It took 4 trips to haul them all to the house. 

Then we got to listen to this, all night long. 

 

Everything But The Cat

Today I photographed all the animals except for Kit Kat.  

When I walked to the barn to feed Draper, her and Golden Boy (not his real name yet) were in a perfect spot for a picture.  

We had to get some cattle up and on the way I took this photo.  I thought it looked a little like the Pacific northwest.  

The cattle when they are in this field, always pick the steepest part to go over when we have to get them up.  When I stopped to catch my breath I took this one.  

"That's not an animal" you might say.   

But I beg to differ, Maggie is one of those rocks. 

 

Last Group

Joe and I worked the last group of cows and calves this morning. 

We had 11 pairs to work and 7 for me to pregnancy check. 

It was nice finally getting the last ones worked.  Joe will be turning out the bulls out soon. 

The mud is long gone and we are back to dust. Some rain would really be appreciated. 

I did find a surprise in the barn. Luckily, it was just the skin and not the snake. 

Pretty cool how the scales over the eyes even shed. 

 

44 More

Monday we worked 10 cow/calf pairs.  These were at our farm up the road.  Since Joe is still doing the Sandhills shuffle for calving, these ten were in a different group than the rest.  (you can find out more than you ever want to know about the Sandhills calving method HERE)

It wasn't difficult to just do 10 pairs, and that meant 10 less to do later.  

Later came today.  We did 34 pairs.  

We noticed one of the cows limping.  I thought I could see something stuck between her toes.  

When she came into the chute, there it was, a stick.  Joe was able to reach through and pull it out.  

She might be sore for a couple of days.  But hopefully, that is all that was wrong with her.  

No other drama, and we got them finished and turned back out.  
 

Cattle and Mud.

Joe and I worked cattle Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.  We are barely speaking to each other now.  Anyone that has worked cattle will understand.  

There were actually no issues and everything went smoothly.  

Calves got 2 shots, ear notch, and pour on for ticks.  Cows got one shot.  

And look!  Since the first of the year we have gone from abnormally dry, to moderate drought, to severe drought.  We are now on the borderline of extreme drought according to the drought monitor.  But we finally got enough rain to make mud, over 4 inches in the last 4-5 days.  At least now the tire troughs have filled back up.  
 

Turned Out

We finally got the first group of cows and calves worked so they could be turned out. 

We had them up in a smaller field last night so they would be easier to corral. 

Cows got one shot and dewormed and calves got two shots and their ear notched. Joe has been notching ears instead of tagging. Then the heifers we keep as replacements get a tag later.

It was just 17 pairs so Joe and I whipped it out in no time. 

 Then it took three loads to take them across the road to our rented farm.  17 down, 150 or so to go.  

Transfusion Update

The video speaks for itself. 

 I guess the transfusion bought enough time for the calf’s bone marrow to catch up on making red blood cells and maybe for his immune system to help fight off the theileria. 

Cattle Work

Yesterday Mike helped us with some cattle here.

Some were vaccinate, some dewormed, some both and one dehorned.  It was nice having the extra help.  Mike being there always makes things easier for me.

After we were done, the cattle when back out where they came from.  

Today we were at it again.  Mike was busy this time so it was just me and Joe. 

We were not doing anything with the cows, so we sorted them out first.

More deworming, vaccinating and 3 to dehorn.  That is always the drawback to using a horned Hereford bull.

We we were done, the cows didn’t go back to where they came from, they went to new pasture.  You can tell how excited they were for that.

 

Transfusion

We had a 10 day old calf that had gotten off to a great start. Then he suddenly started staggering, falling and laying around. I decided he probably had theileria.  There is still no approved treatment in the US. But some people have had success giving blood transfusions. 

Might as well give it a try.  I didn’t have a large enough collection bag so I used an iv fluid bag and added some heparin as an anticoagulant. 

Another jugular catheter, and the calf got a little over a liter of blood. 

 He was stronger when we let him back out. But only time will tell. I am sure he would have died had we done nothing. 

Round Two

The calf that was on IV's then turned back out with her mother Tuesday, took a turn for the worse Thursday.   We ended up tube feeding her that night. 

She was too weak to stand Friday morning.  So she made another trip to the barn for 3 liters of IV fluids.  She also got an antibiotic injection and some steroids. 

The next morning she was much better.  

We turned her loose but there some confusion about the truck being her mother.

She eventually figured it out.  I hope this straightens her out and there isn't a round 3.  
 

One, Two, Three, Four

The goats started kidding on the twelfth. 

We have had several singles, 

A couple of sets of twins, 

And today our first set of triplets. 

Sadie’s pet goat Glitter had a nice set of twins this evening.  Eight down, 30 something to go. 

And yesterday we had to pull our fourth calf. Joe was checking the cows and this one was laying down with the feet out. Only the feet were pointing up which meant it was coming backwards. She might have had it on her own but there is always a good chance a backwards calf will be born dead.  If the umbilical cord breaks and the cow doesn’t get the calf out fast enough it will drown.  Joe got her up and came and got me.  Fortunately, we were able to pull it by hand and didn’t have to deal with the calf jack on this one. 

Kid count -12

 

Sometimes It Just Doesn't Pay To Put On Clean Clothes.

Since we had pulled a calf Sunday, I had done the barn laundry and put on clean clothes. Then yesterday I was cleaning the poop that Draper keeps generating, out of the barn when Joe came up and said we needed to get a calf with scours to the barn and a heifer that was having trouble calving to the barn.  We picked up the calf first and tubed it with some electrolytes then went get the heifer up.  

It was a little bit of a hike but she came on with no trouble.  The problem came with pulling the calf.  It was coming with just the head and the front legs folded under.  I got the legs up and out with the chains on and everything was lined up to come out, but things were tight.  Joe worked the jack and we almost didn't get it out.  But leverage prevailed.  Unfortunately, it was dead.  It was dead before we started working on her.  

It was also big, maybe close to 100 pounds.  We had a month old calf on a cow Joe is going to sell.  So he skinned the dead calf and put the hide on the month old calf.  

One trip to the chute to get the calf to nurse and by morning she was taking the calf.  

Meanwhile, the scouring calf wasn't getting any better.  I started an IV and gave her two liters of fluids before she got up and pulled out the catheter.     

We tubed her with some milk last night and this morning Joe carried her out to take her back to the cow.  

She was bawling for her. 

She is not out of the woods yet, but she was back to nursing anyway.  Now I have more laundry to do.