Not a Happy Day

One of the downsides to living on a farm is that at times things go wrong, and sometimes they go horribly wrong. We've had 24 hours of that this weekend. My favorite cow, Bella (so named because she is half Piedmontese and gorgeous), went into labor yesterday. After dinner it became apparent that even though she'd never had trouble calving before, she was having a hard time. Dan decided he'd have to pull the calf. Fortunately for him, our friends Chris & Beth were here and they wanted to help. Even with three of them, they had a really hard time doing it. Usually getting the shoulders out is the hardest part, but this calf's hind quarters were huge. It was the largest bull calf Dan has ever seen.

The calf was having difficulty breathing, so Dan & Beth massaged his chest, and he seemed to be doing much better. Dan fed him colostrum before he went to bed, and was up several times throughout the night to check on him. He seemed okay this morning, so Dan started feeding him milk replacer, because Bella was still exhausted from the delivery and not her usual attentive self. When Dan went out after dinner tonight, however, he discovered that the calf had not made it after all. We are hoping Bella makes a full recovery.




Bella, in happier times