Post by shannon on Mar 2, 2010 11:11:24 GMT -5
Fern finally calved a little bull last night, and he was up and moving within 45 minutes. Fern drank 15+ gallons of warm molasses water right away. I got to the barn just after he was born (after waiting for hours, I went back to the house to warm up, and of course, that's when she had him.) When I got there, he was facing towards Fern. Is it possible he was breech, or could one or both of them have turned enough to make it look that way?
This has been an exhausting and frustrating experience, so far. It doesn't help that my kids have all been sick with a stomach virus for over a week...one gets better and the next one gets it. I've been running on empty for a couple of days, and my dh is not available to help because he's working 12 hour days.
I can't tell if he's nursed at all; last night he was having trouble latching on to Fern's extremely swollen teats. I milked some colostrum and tried to bottle feed him, but he only took a cup or two at most. He looks fuller today, so I'm assuming that he's nursed at some point, but I don't know how to tell.
I tried to give Fern calcium paste last night because she seemed to be shivering a little, but was unsuccessful. I finally gave up trying to get the tube in her mouth, and just squirted some into my hand and shoved it in her mouth. She was really unhappy with my effort.
I was only able to milk out about 1/2 a gallon this morning. Her udder is so full it's nearly impossible to milk, since her teats are pretty short. And as a bonus, she tried to rip the stanchion out, pooped all over the place, managed to whack me in the face with a bloody string of mucus, and generally made a nuisance of herself.
Should I try again? I know she's got way more than 1/2 a gallon in her. I just don't know what I'm doing...I thought I'd read up on everything, and had it under control, but I'm overwhelmed. I don't want to kill this baby because of my ignorance. Can someone save me from myself?
Here's our little guy:
This has been an exhausting and frustrating experience, so far. It doesn't help that my kids have all been sick with a stomach virus for over a week...one gets better and the next one gets it. I've been running on empty for a couple of days, and my dh is not available to help because he's working 12 hour days.
I can't tell if he's nursed at all; last night he was having trouble latching on to Fern's extremely swollen teats. I milked some colostrum and tried to bottle feed him, but he only took a cup or two at most. He looks fuller today, so I'm assuming that he's nursed at some point, but I don't know how to tell.
I tried to give Fern calcium paste last night because she seemed to be shivering a little, but was unsuccessful. I finally gave up trying to get the tube in her mouth, and just squirted some into my hand and shoved it in her mouth. She was really unhappy with my effort.
I was only able to milk out about 1/2 a gallon this morning. Her udder is so full it's nearly impossible to milk, since her teats are pretty short. And as a bonus, she tried to rip the stanchion out, pooped all over the place, managed to whack me in the face with a bloody string of mucus, and generally made a nuisance of herself.
Should I try again? I know she's got way more than 1/2 a gallon in her. I just don't know what I'm doing...I thought I'd read up on everything, and had it under control, but I'm overwhelmed. I don't want to kill this baby because of my ignorance. Can someone save me from myself?
Here's our little guy: