Last week, if you’ll recall was a reckless week of activity and rotten weather. There was snow and rain and mud and that made for well, a mess. There was death and life and mess, after muddy mess. But in the end, it’s all worth it. I’m going to show you why.
I thought, or I hoped anyway, that I wouldn’t have any more calves in my house after our success story as the weather thought about behaving. But low and behold, Friday had Bud bringing me a big, bull calf.
At about 2pm I wind up with a big, bull calf in my bathroom, again! I hadn’t completely cleaned from the calf the day before, and wouldn’t you know, this calf had been born in a creek, so he was a muddy mess! We got him in the bathtub, washed him off with some warm water, to get all the cold, icky mud off of him and then put him on a bundle of dry towels, and went to drying him off. Needless to say, the bathroom was in quite a state after this muddy calf.
Bud left once he was out of the tub, to finish going through the herd.
Not more than 90 minutes later, he shows up with this little dude:
He was certainly a cutie! We put him in the mud-room. Which is really dirty. Please don’t mind my dirt.
Did I mention that I had just painted my fingernails, before any of this started? It’s hard to be a pretty, coifed cowgirl during calving, I tell you!
I worked on drying him off with a towel and a blow dryer.
Y’all can thank Bud for these photos!
Isn’t he adorable?
This doesn’t look like the prairie does it, kid?
Once he got dry and warm, it didn’t take too long for him to decide to get up. Maybe 90 minutes. Meantime, I’ve got a big bull calf in the bathroom, that was still just kicking it “nap” style. He had been really cold, so it took him longer to warm up.
Bud came back just in time, as the little bugger was really getting lively!
We got this calf gathered up and put him in the shop at Bud’s house and Bud gave him a bottle since we didn’t have his mama in just yet. His mama was very confused. She was all lovin’ up on another cow’s calf, just certain that it was her calf, and she’d completely left this one on his own. I have more pictures and video, but I’m feelin’ lazy right now. So you’ll just have to use your imagination and know that there’s a 10×10 spot in the shop that’s bedded with lots of hay and made to be extra cozy for the babies!
Once that calf got settled in, Bud ran me back to the house to check on the big’un in our bathroom. He still hadn’t moved, so we let him keep resting and getting warmer. We did give him a couple colostrum pills, however to get his belly working. At about 6:30 that evening he really started to try to get up. I did my best to keep him from getting up, because there was no way to get him to the stall in Bud’s barn since he was out checking the herd again, and Zach still wasn’t home. At about 6:45 he managed to get to his feet and walked down the hallway so I could at least get him into the mud room.
Those legs don’t really wanna work quite right, do they?
About the time we made it to the kitchen Zach got home and rescued me. We took the calf down to the stall in the shop and gave him a bottle and called it a success! Both calves are doing well.
And that my friends, is a day in my life. Wet nails and all!
Happy Trails!
I love calves! We had a little guy with the same problem and had to wrap his “ankles” for a couple of days – then he was good as new 🙂
As messy as it can be, that is such a great part of calving season when they get up and you know you’ve played a part in getting them back to where they need to be. It helps make up for the ones that just can’t pull through. Thanks for the pictures. They’re great.
Yay for success! He is a cute little guy and quite determined from the looks of the pictures!
Love the pictures! Can you just imagine some stranger walking in your house and being soooo surprised to see a calf in there?! That would be hilarous! 😀