Post by Mitra on Dec 28, 2008 12:35:11 GMT -5
I've read here many times not to be alarmed by seeing slime when you think your cow is several months bred. Some cows slime throughout their whole pregnancy and others every now and then. So I read all these things BEFORE I had a cow in this situation (Helen was AI'd August 26th and 27th). Today there is slime and goo wrapped around her tail. It's clear. There is no blood. I would feel a lot calmer and cooler about this slime being pregnancy slime, if it were not for her outrageous behavior Friday late afternoon.
We only milk OAD in the morning. Around 5 p.m. every evening we put her in her stanchion and give her pellets and sweet feed and go about with the rest of our chores. On Friday, we had our family Christmas get-together here. Just as DH was putting Helen into the stanchion, our first guests (his brother and wife) arrived. DH's brother, Mark, went to the barn to say hi to Max and Helen. As soon as he walked in and said "Hello", she sprang back wards out of the stanchion (she wasn't locked in) with her eyes bugging out and pellets falling out of her head. DH quickly assured Helen, that Mark was NOT the AI guy, just a medical student. Mark decided it was probably best to go back to the house so she could calm back down. Max went about with his chores and Helen jogged out of the barn and went over to her hay feeder. When Max brought more hay out to her, she shook her head at him and danced sideways, clanging her bell loudly. DH didn't react and went about with his business. He went back into the barn and could tell from her bell clanging that she was outside running about. The clanging got louder so he thought she was coming back into the barn but instead she ran past the barn and toward Sophie (the big giant red pig's area). There was an open gate that we'd left open because of the snow. We decided this gate would probably be open for the rest of winter instead of trying to dig it out every time it snowed. We had also hoped that if Helen ventured over to Sophie's area they would just politely introduce themselves. They've been chatting over the fence for a few months now. Well Helen didn't just go through the gate. She went through and then instead of stopping outside of Sophie's pen and peering over the stile (where we feed Sophie) SHE JUMPED OVER THE STILE and into the pen!!!! Sophie didn't care until Helen sniffed her behind and tried to stick her snout into her food tub for some of the boiled barley. When Max heard Sophie woofing loudly he ran out of the barn and with his headlamp he could see two giant cow orbs staring back at him from inside the pig's pen. He jogged down there with a fiberglass fence post. As soon as Helen saw him she started racing around the pen wildly, dashing this way and that.
Meanwhile, back at the house, I'm greeting other guests and taking out a perfectly roasted turkey from the oven, OBLIVIOUS to what's going on out there. Where's Max? Oh, he's outside finishing chores...
He got Helen back to the stile but she was quite sure that there was no way she was going over it again. There was no other way out. He encouraged her with a few whacks to the rump and over she went and galloped back to the barn. He locked her in there and came back to the house sweaty and angry about her antics. I was horrified and my first thought was "heat".
The following morning, she was all sweetness and back in love with him. Her milk volume did not fluctuate at all like it does when she's in heat. We've been getting a gallon a day, down from two gallons when she was AI'd. The only other suspicious behavior was that on Friday and ever since she's been a lot more vocal than she's been the last couple of months. Not excessive bellowing like when she's in heat but some bellowing that got my attention because she hasn't been doing it at all.
So today, there's this slime.....I should have done the biotracking a couple of months ago but I had convinced myself that that she was bred because her usual heat signs (no mistaking them) were absent. So what do you think? Like I said, I've read many times about cows and their slime during pregnancy but what about berserk behavior? Is it just hormones?
We only milk OAD in the morning. Around 5 p.m. every evening we put her in her stanchion and give her pellets and sweet feed and go about with the rest of our chores. On Friday, we had our family Christmas get-together here. Just as DH was putting Helen into the stanchion, our first guests (his brother and wife) arrived. DH's brother, Mark, went to the barn to say hi to Max and Helen. As soon as he walked in and said "Hello", she sprang back wards out of the stanchion (she wasn't locked in) with her eyes bugging out and pellets falling out of her head. DH quickly assured Helen, that Mark was NOT the AI guy, just a medical student. Mark decided it was probably best to go back to the house so she could calm back down. Max went about with his chores and Helen jogged out of the barn and went over to her hay feeder. When Max brought more hay out to her, she shook her head at him and danced sideways, clanging her bell loudly. DH didn't react and went about with his business. He went back into the barn and could tell from her bell clanging that she was outside running about. The clanging got louder so he thought she was coming back into the barn but instead she ran past the barn and toward Sophie (the big giant red pig's area). There was an open gate that we'd left open because of the snow. We decided this gate would probably be open for the rest of winter instead of trying to dig it out every time it snowed. We had also hoped that if Helen ventured over to Sophie's area they would just politely introduce themselves. They've been chatting over the fence for a few months now. Well Helen didn't just go through the gate. She went through and then instead of stopping outside of Sophie's pen and peering over the stile (where we feed Sophie) SHE JUMPED OVER THE STILE and into the pen!!!! Sophie didn't care until Helen sniffed her behind and tried to stick her snout into her food tub for some of the boiled barley. When Max heard Sophie woofing loudly he ran out of the barn and with his headlamp he could see two giant cow orbs staring back at him from inside the pig's pen. He jogged down there with a fiberglass fence post. As soon as Helen saw him she started racing around the pen wildly, dashing this way and that.
Meanwhile, back at the house, I'm greeting other guests and taking out a perfectly roasted turkey from the oven, OBLIVIOUS to what's going on out there. Where's Max? Oh, he's outside finishing chores...
He got Helen back to the stile but she was quite sure that there was no way she was going over it again. There was no other way out. He encouraged her with a few whacks to the rump and over she went and galloped back to the barn. He locked her in there and came back to the house sweaty and angry about her antics. I was horrified and my first thought was "heat".
The following morning, she was all sweetness and back in love with him. Her milk volume did not fluctuate at all like it does when she's in heat. We've been getting a gallon a day, down from two gallons when she was AI'd. The only other suspicious behavior was that on Friday and ever since she's been a lot more vocal than she's been the last couple of months. Not excessive bellowing like when she's in heat but some bellowing that got my attention because she hasn't been doing it at all.
So today, there's this slime.....I should have done the biotracking a couple of months ago but I had convinced myself that that she was bred because her usual heat signs (no mistaking them) were absent. So what do you think? Like I said, I've read many times about cows and their slime during pregnancy but what about berserk behavior? Is it just hormones?