Foster adventure--Holstein the Abomination
Sept 10, 2023 8:16:24 GMT -5
lew92, elnini, and 4 more like this
Post by thystledown on Sept 10, 2023 8:16:24 GMT -5
I finally got a call last evening that a farm had a 2 day old bull calf. $250 because the last bull calf sold for $2.85 a pound at the sale. (I heard this from all the farms. Who is buying them and for what?) My cow Esther is a second calf Jersey heifer who is strange. She's been pawing the grass since her 2nd calf was born last Sunday. I see that as a sign of agression or agitation. Anyway, edema and let down have been issues, probably because I tried OAD right from the start with the calf on 24/7. I did it with her mother, but this cow is not her mother. So she's been on Salix (Lasix) now for 24 hours. Last night I also used a dose of oxytocin part way through milking after I got no let down at all and had a bellowing thrashing mess on my hands. She had seen the new calf! Anyway, the oxy worked and I got the milk out last night. We were on the edge of getting mastits, so it was necessary. This morning I was determined not to use oxy. I got about a half gallon of milk all from the rear quarters by the feel of things. I was alone because Hubby had to give a message at church this morning at 8:00. I decided to try the hungry foster. Now that is usually a kicking thrashing mess as Esther's mom Heiferlump always wanted to kill the new calf at first and I expected the same of Esther. This is her first foster. Her Mom Heiferlump eventually accepted all her fosters--but it was always like a terrible foster parent that keeps the kids clean and fed, but slaps them around. She would protect them, allow them to nurse with her own calf, and lick them and clean them up, but then bunt them away. No real affection. And a two person job to get the whole process started.
So things were so bad this morning, I figured the foster couldn't be any worse at this point. Now Esther had sniffed him all over after milking last night. She was very interested and I'd smeared some of the cream from her colostrum (saved) on him. But then she sniffed the horse lead rope he was tied with, turned her head and sniffed the horse halters hanging near by (he was in a horse stall) and clearly decided she was mistaken and he wasn't a calf after all, but a horse abomination. That did it for her. She left. So his name is Holstein the Abomination. I totally expected her to kill him this morning. But blessings! He knew what an udder was and she didn't kick. I held her tail at a 45 in case. He didn't get a foamy mouth and I fed him later, but we did get the tail swing, so he got some. Then her own calf, Hamburger (this is the H year for names) decided he could nurse again since this was all taking so long. Esther was pawing in the stanchion even while her own calf was nursing. When he quit I put the machine back on. I'd left it running this whole time. Between the 3 of us, we got most of the milk out of her. I gave her some sweet feed (the good stuff, not the non-soy organic stuff she usually gets), another shot of the Salix just on principle, and put her out with her calf, who did more nursing in the pasture. I pail fed Holstein the Abomination some more of her milk from the machine and almost put him out with them, but then decided I didn't want to give Esther a chance to teach him to never ever touch her and I don't think he's on-line enough to learn to nurse only when her own calf does. We will give it a bit longer. Cleaned everything up and it only took me 1 hour and 45 minutes. But the milk filter was clean!
So things were so bad this morning, I figured the foster couldn't be any worse at this point. Now Esther had sniffed him all over after milking last night. She was very interested and I'd smeared some of the cream from her colostrum (saved) on him. But then she sniffed the horse lead rope he was tied with, turned her head and sniffed the horse halters hanging near by (he was in a horse stall) and clearly decided she was mistaken and he wasn't a calf after all, but a horse abomination. That did it for her. She left. So his name is Holstein the Abomination. I totally expected her to kill him this morning. But blessings! He knew what an udder was and she didn't kick. I held her tail at a 45 in case. He didn't get a foamy mouth and I fed him later, but we did get the tail swing, so he got some. Then her own calf, Hamburger (this is the H year for names) decided he could nurse again since this was all taking so long. Esther was pawing in the stanchion even while her own calf was nursing. When he quit I put the machine back on. I'd left it running this whole time. Between the 3 of us, we got most of the milk out of her. I gave her some sweet feed (the good stuff, not the non-soy organic stuff she usually gets), another shot of the Salix just on principle, and put her out with her calf, who did more nursing in the pasture. I pail fed Holstein the Abomination some more of her milk from the machine and almost put him out with them, but then decided I didn't want to give Esther a chance to teach him to never ever touch her and I don't think he's on-line enough to learn to nurse only when her own calf does. We will give it a bit longer. Cleaned everything up and it only took me 1 hour and 45 minutes. But the milk filter was clean!