Hypothermia and a calf - never a good thing. However, when you are born at -10 and your mom is a 1st calf heifer who doesn't want anything to do with you - life can really be tough. She was good the first 24 hours, but the last 18 have not been good.
Baby calfy looked about dead, but she is coming along - warming her up slowly this is an hour or so after bringing her in. We found her laying out flat in the field, away from the rest of the herd. She wasn't frozen, but she was not very responsive either, and the inside of her mouth was cold. In the photo, she has a vest (heated in dryer for 10 minutes first) on her, then a heating pad, then another pad and finally the kitty blanket to keep out any drafts.
3 hours later - when offered a bottle again - she got right up to eat!!! That is a wonderful sign! She is still shivering - but after walking around (very limited area - boy am I glad I said no on the new flooring for now :)) - she found the same spot as the lamb - in front of the warm air from the fireplace. We can't leaver her alone in the basement, but she is beginning to recover. After a meal, she is now wearing just the calf pad (Udder Tech, Inc.)
and now it is back to nap time - still no where near 100%, but after a full tummy - get back in a nice warm spot for a nap.
Oh - and Izzy (the lamb who went through this a few weeks ago) is doing much better, though not amused that she must remain in her kennel and that the small pen has been given to the calf
Queen Izzy, chewing her cud, after removing the dog from a chair - she is afraid to be on the floor with the calf (who is too busy sleeping to even consider the lamb)
No comments:
Post a Comment