I've Gone Country A blog about a city girl learning a whole new world

This past summer was our first year of having cows and going through their pregnancies with them.  I get sooooo excited when I know the time is near!  When I first started this blog Cupid had delivered Chuck.  

This is them about 3 days I think after delivery.

This is Chuck now.  I took this picture about a week ago.  He has grown a lot over the winter.

I didn’t go into a lot of the details last year, but Chuck was a twin.  His mother Cupid is a small cow.  She looked big while pregnant, but then again she is small built.  She delivered Chuck with absolutely no problem.  He was beautiful.  We were there and got to see the whole thing.  However, she walked away as soon as she delivered him and went further into the tree line.  We immediately started rubbing the calf and wiping it off, making sure it was breathing.

We lost a calf  back in May from our cow Punkin.  I had no idea she was that close to delivering, she delivered the calf and it was still born.  It broke our hearts.  She cried for days.  She would go to the place she had delivered and cry…just bellow.  Oh, we just about couldn’t stand it.  We even thought about going and buying her a baby calf to ease her pain.

So, after that sad sad day, I watched those cows like a hawk.  Then this day had come for Cupid to deliver.  Chuck was here…we made sure he was breathing…but why was Mama walking off.  Sometimes they do that if they are young cows, having a baby for the first time.  I watched her all day long, she struggled.  I asked everyone I could think of about how she was acting.  We all thought she was just trying to deliver the afterbirth.  It can take a while for them to deliver afterbirth so I was told to just wait until morning to see how things were.

Meanwhile,  I tried to take care of Chuck that day….leading him to his mother.  He followed me around, we would walk through the tree line and find her.  She would let him nurse, but just for a little while, she was at that time still trying to deliver.

Later that night we had to feed Chuck.  We had to make sure he had enough colostrum or he would die.  So, we loaded up on the golf cart, I was driving Billy and I searched for  Chuck, he would hide in the weeds.  Billy loaded him up on the cart in his lap and I drove us to an area where we could feed him close to some light.  It takes a baby calf a little while to find the nipple and to learn how to suck.  They of course would prefer Mama, so this bottle was not very exciting to him.  It took about 45 minutes to get just a little bit of the colostrum in him.

We carted him back on the golf cart there again Billy holding him carefully in his lap and I driving.  We placed him back into the field near his Mom and headed home for the night.  Well, wouldn’t you know that Billy had the tail end of the calf facing me.  I felt something warm…but you know…I really never thought about it that much….

So when we got to the house…this is what I looked like.  I was a little shocked but I was glad Chuck’s plumbing was working alright.

Once you start feeding a calf you have to feed them twice a day, everyday.  I really hoped that the Mama was going to be well enough to take care of Chuck.

I called a vet the next morning and he came to check her.  She did in fact have a second baby.  The baby was dead.  Oh….I couldn’t believe it.  Even the vet told me though that there was nothing we could have done.  The baby was not in a good position and as I watched him pull the calf, having to use a calf puller, I realized that I really couldn’t have delivered it.  The vet was even shocked that she had a second calf.  Twins really are not that common.

Sure enough we only had to feed him that one time.  The very next day, she took her baby in and fed him like a good Mama should.  I about cried when I heard him cry for his mother and she cried back.  She crossed the field and all was well from that moment on.

It was sad though as we watched Punkin…she wanted a baby…Cupid even had to put her in her place a few times letting her know that the baby was hers….. not Punkins.

So….It is about time for some more babies to be born.  I am monitoring them now.  I keep a list of when I think the cows will be due.

I will be in the pasture a lot this Spring and Summer.  Billy has already teased me about making some sort of sleeping arrangements in the pasture for me.

I believe Punkin will be our first one this Spring!  I will be very happy for her to be able to have a new baby this year.

Although she is already getting tired of me walking around her checking her behind to see if she is showing signs of labor.

That’s ok….she can just thank me….. with a healthy baby calf!  I am sooooo excited.