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Post by shellymay on Aug 3, 2015 10:51:24 GMT
Oh so sorry Willowgirl,
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Post by willowgirl on Aug 3, 2015 11:12:25 GMT
Thanks, you guys. I feel terrible for putting her through this. Hopefully she will recover ... I don't think I'll be breeding her again; it just isn't worth the risk. That's one reason why I never bred Bitey, although I would have dearly loved to have had a calf by her.
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Post by Melissa on Aug 3, 2015 14:21:30 GMT
So sorry, I know you really put your heart into your animals. You just never know what will happen, so don't blame yourself...
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Post by willowgirl on Aug 3, 2015 14:34:16 GMT
Well, she is in pretty rough shape this morning, but we got her up for milking. She only picked at her hay, and wouldn't even touch her bucket of sweet feed ... if you've ever had a cow, you know that's a really, really bad sign! But Numb had the idea that maybe we should try giving her some fresh chop, so he mowed part of the lawn for her, and she gobbled that up. Whew! She hasn't cleaned yet and is still trying to pass the afterbirth ... We're off to TSC to get a thermometer and a bottle of LA-200 to have on hand. I don't think having a vet out at this point would do any good; from everything I've read, aggressive intervention (trying to manually remove the placenta) does more harm than good, and it hasn't even been 24 hours yet. On the farm where I work, if they're slow to clean, we eventually give them a lute shot. I am watching carefully for signs of mastitis, ketosis or milk fever ... as long as she is getting up, eating and drinking, she has a good chance of pulling through. Numb is such a good cow midwife ... when he read online that bacteria can be wicked up through a dangling placenta, he made up a bucket of hot soapy water and carefully washed her whole back end. She is a pampered cow. I so wish I hadn't bred her, though ... she could have been a happy pet here forever.
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Post by mollymckee on Aug 3, 2015 15:08:42 GMT
I'm so sorry, Willow. I hope she recovers quickly.
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Post by Raeven on Aug 3, 2015 15:20:54 GMT
There's no way to know how any animal is going to breed until... well, they breed. No animal could have had a better chance at an easy birth, because your care is exemplary. I am sorry things did not turn out as you had hoped and had every reason to expect. But Marianne is, as you have said, under the best care imaginable -- and that's saying a lot. If she makes it through, she'll live the best life a cow ever dreamed of. Best to you, and I hope she is well when all is said and done.
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Post by willowgirl on Aug 3, 2015 19:05:57 GMT
Thanks girls. We have the vet coming out tomorrow, just to see if there's anything we missed or anything further that can be done for her. She is resting quietly now, chewing her cud (a good sign). We got her a lick tub at TSC and she took a couple of swipes at it. I am going to bring some TMR ration home from work tonight, maybe we can get her to eat that.
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Post by willowgirl on Aug 4, 2015 3:45:46 GMT
Update: she ate, drank and looked a bit less gobsmacked tonight. Gave 2-1/2 gallons of milk. (The cats are singing the Hallelujah Chorus!) Still have the vet coming just to give her a look-see. The protocol at the farm where I work is to give a lute shot if they haven't cleaned after 3 days, but I figured it wouldn't hurt to get a vet's opinion.
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Post by aoconnor on Aug 4, 2015 12:26:04 GMT
Glad that the sweet girl is feeling little better today. Hope she gets all cleaned up and ready to get back to life:-)
Don't beat yourself up over breeding her, Willowgirl, you didn't do a darned thing wrong. Wanting a calf is not a bad thing, sometimes things just don't work out the way we want. You still have your beautiful girl, and that is what really matters:-)
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Post by mamahen on Aug 4, 2015 20:17:16 GMT
That sucks about your baby...glad she is feeling better.
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Post by jupiter on Aug 5, 2015 3:27:26 GMT
I'm so sorry about your calf. The loss of a animal is what sucks about farming.
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Post by aoconnor on Aug 5, 2015 3:45:36 GMT
How is Marianne today?
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Post by willowgirl on Aug 5, 2015 4:13:22 GMT
She tested mildly ketotic, and the vet felt she had milk fever, which was why she hasn't cleaned. That surprised me, as I hadn't detected the usual signs -- she was getting up and down without any trouble, wasn't wobbly, and was eating and drinking (though not eating as much as usual). S
o she got a whole lot o' doctoring -- two bottles of calcium, a bottle of dextrose, Banamine, LA-200, uterine boluses. He sleeved her and examined her uterus; didn't find any tears. When I described the calving, he said probably the only thing that saved her was that I had bred her to a Jersey -- if the calf would have been a big Holstein bull, the outcome probably would have been even worse. Yikes!
She gets more LA tomorrow and another bottle of calcium SubQ, then we watch and wait. She is still milking like a champ despite it all -- about 6 gallons a day. She was definitely perkier tonight, so hopefully on the road to recovery! Numb mowed more fresh grass for her to chow down on, and I brought her another tub of TMR home from work. We're graining her and she has a new protein lick tub to slobber on. Can't think much more we can do for her, poor girl. Hopefully this too shall pass ...
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Post by aoconnor on Aug 5, 2015 12:23:52 GMT
Aw, sounds like you guys are taking such great care of her:-) She is lucky girl! Hoping she is feeling much better very soon, and will be back to her healthy self with a long, good life ahead of her:-)
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Post by willowgirl on Aug 6, 2015 13:29:11 GMT
She is hanging in there.
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Post by shellymay on Aug 6, 2015 13:54:48 GMT
Thanks for keeping us updated, and great work with her care
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Post by willowgirl on Aug 7, 2015 4:19:39 GMT
Numb gets all the credit; he is an excellent cow nurse! Her appetite was definitely improved tonight, and she dug right into the silage I brought home from work for her. Numb said she had already eaten everything in sight for 4 straight hours. He mowed her 2 bags of lawn clippings today (we are running out of lawn to mow!) plus she had leftover silage, sweet feed and hay. (This is the first time she's eaten hay since The Disaster.) Overall, she was much brighter and perkier tonight, almost like her old self. I'll know she's back to normal when I see her scratching herself on the tulip tree again. (She makes a major production out of it, LOL.) Thanks, everyone, for your good thoughts and kind words. It has meant a lot to us. This week has been, like, my worst nightmare ... Numb just came in from checking on her one more time before bed. He says he's suffering from postpartum oppression ... the cow has made him her slave! Yeah, no doubt.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 7, 2015 8:03:50 GMT
I'm So sorry Willow,i haven't been on here in a while and just seen this. At least she is doing better now,poor girl. But you should not feel bad for breeding her,you treat your cows way better than a lot of people do.
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Post by shellymay on Aug 7, 2015 10:55:25 GMT
Slave to her every need, well she will surely milk this out longer in that case
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Post by mollymckee on Aug 7, 2015 13:56:10 GMT
Glad to hear she's improving!
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Post by willowgirl on Aug 9, 2015 4:23:19 GMT
Six days in ... we are exhausted, but she is looking pretty good!
Her ketones are still going up at night, although the morning reading is pretty close to normal. Don't know what to make of that. She's still not eating much hay, but I'm not sure that isn't because she hasn't figured out that if she holds out, we'll mow her some fresh grass clippings!
The hay we have on hand is first cutting that was cut late on account of the weather, and not the greatest. We're checking into getting some better stuff -- hopefully she'll like it, because we're running out of lawn.
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Post by willowgirl on Aug 10, 2015 2:56:19 GMT
Her ketones were pretty good AM & PM today ... only slightly elevated. She's showing much more interest in her food (getting pushy!) and acting like her old self again. Her milk "goes in the tank" tomorrow -- we had to withhold it for 96 hours following her last dose of LA-200. Now I gotta figure out what 2 people are gonna do with nearly 8 gallons of milk per day? GULP!!! Good thing we have, like, 20 cats. Thanks again to everyone who was supportive through the whole ordeal. That was one of the worst weeks of my life! I won't complain, though, as long as our pretty girl survives.
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Post by shellymay on Aug 10, 2015 12:15:28 GMT
Glad she is doing so well, Kudos to you and DH...
PSSST, that milk would go along way raising a pig on it...LOL
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Post by willowgirl on Aug 10, 2015 13:14:06 GMT
First batch of milk for our table is in the pasteurizer! And, Shellymay ... around here, a pig would turn into a pet and we'd be stuck with it forever! I'd get a couple bull calves to raise on it, but ... ditto. We're thinking about starting an orphanage. LOL
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Post by shellymay on Aug 10, 2015 13:30:25 GMT
Well with that being said, (pets) I guess you could always sell it to people who are bottle raisings livestock and such....I hear that you can do this as long as you label it not for human consumpstion, what they do with it after it leaves your farm is not your concern as long as you have a label on it
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Post by willowgirl on Aug 10, 2015 18:36:04 GMT
Numb has already made a couple batches of cheese ... YUM!
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Post by shellymay on Aug 10, 2015 19:13:06 GMT
I love cheese
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Post by willowgirl on Aug 11, 2015 3:04:52 GMT
He's going to be making another batch at midnight by the time the pasteurizer is done ... LOL!
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Post by aoconnor on Aug 15, 2015 12:25:09 GMT
Great news! Glad all is well. I love cheese:-)
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Post by willowgirl on Aug 15, 2015 14:40:36 GMT
Numb is obsessed with cheesemaking! Which is a good thing, as she's up to 6 gallons a day now, and so far we haven't wasted a drop. He makes a lot of a variety he developed from a mozzarella recipe, but it comes out more like Mexican cotija. It freezes VERY well (in fact, we still had some left in the freezer from her last lactation, arrgh).
Yesterday, he also perfected the art of making cottage cheese (yay!) and also made a crockpot of yogurt. I figure I'll be taking one or the other to work with me for lunch from now on!
Marianne is doing well now, eating heartily and acting like her normal self again -- you'd never guess there had been anything wrong with her. Whew! She really gave us a scare there. Thanks again everyone for your kind words during those dark days!
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