Post by kimmie on Apr 29, 2012 23:26:46 GMT -5
I am new to owning cows and to this board but I thought this may be good information. It is not a 911 situation since it occurred and has been dealt with. But it could be a 911 situations for others.
I thought posting it here may help others and I hope I am not breaking any rules. I am sorry if I am.
We had a calf born ahead of a nasty storm. The temp dropped drastically, a lot of wind, rain, hail, snow etc. for a good 24 hrs. We, like many others in our area do not have shelter for our cattle because generally our temps & weather are very moderate year round. Storms roll in and out pretty fast. This calf being born just ahead of it developed pneumonia.
After the storm the temp raised 20 degrees to warm. I noticed her panting. I called a few cattle expert friends of mine and they told me she was probably getting acclimated to the increased temperature. I listened to them but all the while, pneumonia was going through my head.
The next day, I noticed her panting again. I called the vet and sure enough she had pneumonia. She was pretty sick but we were able to save her with anti-biotics, and lots of fluids. Thank god she is doing well now.
But, my most experienced cattle friends had never seen panting....all they had ever seen is listless at best. These are people that are in the cattle business.
So I hope this helps anyone who see's a newborn calf panting and is not sure what it could be, and what to do. People in the 'cattle business' would not have done what we did. They would have just let her die, let nature take its course. We could not do that. We waited nine months for this little one, our first calf, and we opted to try to save her.
I thought posting it here may help others and I hope I am not breaking any rules. I am sorry if I am.
We had a calf born ahead of a nasty storm. The temp dropped drastically, a lot of wind, rain, hail, snow etc. for a good 24 hrs. We, like many others in our area do not have shelter for our cattle because generally our temps & weather are very moderate year round. Storms roll in and out pretty fast. This calf being born just ahead of it developed pneumonia.
After the storm the temp raised 20 degrees to warm. I noticed her panting. I called a few cattle expert friends of mine and they told me she was probably getting acclimated to the increased temperature. I listened to them but all the while, pneumonia was going through my head.
The next day, I noticed her panting again. I called the vet and sure enough she had pneumonia. She was pretty sick but we were able to save her with anti-biotics, and lots of fluids. Thank god she is doing well now.
But, my most experienced cattle friends had never seen panting....all they had ever seen is listless at best. These are people that are in the cattle business.
So I hope this helps anyone who see's a newborn calf panting and is not sure what it could be, and what to do. People in the 'cattle business' would not have done what we did. They would have just let her die, let nature take its course. We could not do that. We waited nine months for this little one, our first calf, and we opted to try to save her.