So I called Todd to come home from work. (I normally wouldn't call him so fast, but we had a funny feeling that Ally's calf was going to be larger than normal sized, and I didn't want to deal with that. And Psycho is a first calf heifer and more apt to run than let us help her if she was having trouble).
I got there at 3:30, right behind the guy who brought the water bed. And as we were loading it in his truck, within about 15 min. of me getting there, Ally spit out a good sized bull calf (90 lbs.) as if it were nothing.
Which calf then jumped right up and started nursing, all within about 10 min. of birth. I love it when that happens.
And then he started to run around the pen like a raving lunatic trying to buck and jump on legs that weren't even an hour old.
And Psycho? She lost her calf. After about an hour of nothing happening, Todd reached her and she wasn't dialated. So we called the vet, who came out and helped Todd pull the calf. It was a big one, and a bull calf, but it had been dead for about 12 hours by that point, which may be why she wasn't progressing. But she stood through the ordeal like a trooper, and didn't put up much of a fuss (other than kicking Todd about 3 times while he was trying to reach inside her the first time) so we are giving her another chance. The vet wasn't sure why the calf died, other than maybe either she is just to small yet (she is a very tiny heifer) or it was in the wrong position and she had been in the very early stages of labor without showing any signs for too long and had trouble. Depressing yes, but it happens sometimes.
We have 3 more to go, which hopefully will all come by the beginning of next week. We are going to PA the first weekend of May to pick up Jessie's 4-h pigs.......I cannot wait!
1 comment:
holy cow! or calf as the case may be, there is NEVER a dull moment at your place!!!
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