OKshorthorn
Well-known member
I'm struggling with this one more than I have in the past. For some reason I just really thought he would pull through.
We had a Fringe calf born Friday night / Saturday morning. He was big, really big and it was a difficult pull. I think it has something to do with the heat, we have had 3 calves so far, 2 were 8 and 10 days early, both in the low 80 BW range. This guy was 2 days past due, his mom is always a couple days late, and was 118 pounds. Our neighbor pulled a giant and lost the calf from a heifer bred to Northern Improvement the day before. Anyway, after the pull mom was worn out completely and couldn't get up, but he sucked down 2 quarts of colostrum within the hour. The next morning at 7 he was up and seemed to be doing well but I didn't see him nurse but thought he may have. At 8:30, 8 hours after he was born, he was limp and couldn't even lift his head and had his tongue sticking out. We gave him 6 cc of Baytril and tubed another 2 quarts of colostrum in him. We figured his head and tongue were swollen from the hard pull and would go down in a couple days. It is still so hot, 109 that day, we had him under a fan and mister and was able to get a quart of milk down him every few hours Saturday. Sunday he seemed to be doing better, was able to get up and walk around a bit and actually nursed from the bottle but still had his tongue sticking out most of the time and seemed to be struggling to breathe some, we figured the heat sure didn't help any. Sunday morning about 3 am he had a pretty big fever of 105.5. We decided to give him 1 cc of Draxxin to try and bring the fever down, which it did. Monday was even better, early that morning about 2, he drank a quart of milk and his tongue wasn't hanging out, he was breathing normal and I thought he might come out of it, the same most of the morning yesterday, was able to drink a quart every 3 hours and wasn't laboring to breathe. Yesterday afternoon and evening, the tongue came back out, as well as the difficult breathing but was still able to drink a quart of milk, it was 105. Last night we milked the cow again and he wasn't doing very good, checked his temp again and it spiked to 107. We gave him some banamine to help him a little as we weren'y really able to give another shot of draxxin. When we checked him in the middle of the night he had died.
I know death is a part of this and we have all had to deal with it more than we would like. But dangit, we aren't a real big herd and all of those cows are our pets, and it sure doesn't get easier every time you lose one. I feel horrible for the cow, she is just becide herself. She is always extremely protective of her calves, and with this one, it was almost like she knew he wasn't ok, and she would let us be all around him, doctor him, pick him up, do whatever we needed to do with him and she would stand by and watch.
Sorry for the long story, I guess it just helps me to get it out.
We had a Fringe calf born Friday night / Saturday morning. He was big, really big and it was a difficult pull. I think it has something to do with the heat, we have had 3 calves so far, 2 were 8 and 10 days early, both in the low 80 BW range. This guy was 2 days past due, his mom is always a couple days late, and was 118 pounds. Our neighbor pulled a giant and lost the calf from a heifer bred to Northern Improvement the day before. Anyway, after the pull mom was worn out completely and couldn't get up, but he sucked down 2 quarts of colostrum within the hour. The next morning at 7 he was up and seemed to be doing well but I didn't see him nurse but thought he may have. At 8:30, 8 hours after he was born, he was limp and couldn't even lift his head and had his tongue sticking out. We gave him 6 cc of Baytril and tubed another 2 quarts of colostrum in him. We figured his head and tongue were swollen from the hard pull and would go down in a couple days. It is still so hot, 109 that day, we had him under a fan and mister and was able to get a quart of milk down him every few hours Saturday. Sunday he seemed to be doing better, was able to get up and walk around a bit and actually nursed from the bottle but still had his tongue sticking out most of the time and seemed to be struggling to breathe some, we figured the heat sure didn't help any. Sunday morning about 3 am he had a pretty big fever of 105.5. We decided to give him 1 cc of Draxxin to try and bring the fever down, which it did. Monday was even better, early that morning about 2, he drank a quart of milk and his tongue wasn't hanging out, he was breathing normal and I thought he might come out of it, the same most of the morning yesterday, was able to drink a quart every 3 hours and wasn't laboring to breathe. Yesterday afternoon and evening, the tongue came back out, as well as the difficult breathing but was still able to drink a quart of milk, it was 105. Last night we milked the cow again and he wasn't doing very good, checked his temp again and it spiked to 107. We gave him some banamine to help him a little as we weren'y really able to give another shot of draxxin. When we checked him in the middle of the night he had died.
I know death is a part of this and we have all had to deal with it more than we would like. But dangit, we aren't a real big herd and all of those cows are our pets, and it sure doesn't get easier every time you lose one. I feel horrible for the cow, she is just becide herself. She is always extremely protective of her calves, and with this one, it was almost like she knew he wasn't ok, and she would let us be all around him, doctor him, pick him up, do whatever we needed to do with him and she would stand by and watch.
Sorry for the long story, I guess it just helps me to get it out.
