Nellie calved this morning in -4F temps - Update w/ new pics
Mar 18, 2014 12:02:57 GMT -5
tassie, mollymoo, and 9 more like this
Post by Mitra on Mar 18, 2014 12:02:57 GMT -5
The blessed day was supposed to be Sunday 3/23/14. Nellie always calves on her exact due date so I was SURE I had until Sunday. This morning's barn check revealed otherwise. My DH Max, went in the barn and said out loud, "HOLY COW Nellie you've gone slab-sided!" Nellie let out a low long quiet Mama moo and looked down. DH followed her gaze and saw an ear twitch down in the hay. That's all he needed to see. He ran from the barn to the house and yelled something in the door and took off running back to the barn. Neither my daughter nor I had ANY idea what he'd said except that we both thought he'd seen a weasel, came to get his gun and was headed back toward the barn to kill it. My daughter yelled to him from her bedroom window to repeat what he'd said and when he re-bellowed his message, we (me DD, and my 15 year old nephew) all heard it right. It was -4 degrees so there were the three of us in the entryway scrambling to get our layers on and chore boots and what-nots on fast so we could get to the barn. It's about 100 yards of icy path to the barn with four foot berms of snow on either side, so really a four foot trench of snow.
What greeted us, as we huffed and puffed into the barn, was a beautiful little heifer calf (pure Jersey) with white marks on her head, back, and tail. She was 3/4 of the way dried off by Nellie by the time we arrived but she was shivering. The barn thermometer said -4. We had brought a fleece sweater to put on her but I ran back to the house to warm some towels in the dryer to stuff the sweater with. While I was gone DD and DH rubbed her vigorously while Nellie continued to lick her head which was still wet looking.
After about 15 minutes of that, Max led Nellie to the stanchion and I gave her some grain. Then he picked up the baby and tried to set her up to nurse but she could not stand. She's on her tip toes and the front hooves keep folding under. With her on her knees, she's at the perfect height to nurse from Nellie's super low udder. It took about 30 seconds for her to latch on and off she went, nurse nurse, slurp slurp. As soon as her tummy was filled, she stopped shivering. We guided her to the two teats on Nellie's right side and she nursed from both. She's nursed at least four times in the last five hours but still can't stand for very long. She takes good little naps in between the exertion of nursing. She's also already pooped twice. I am concerned about the tippy toes thing but I'm leaning toward tight tendons that will work themselves out vs. the low Selenium factor, or white muscle disease. We are in a low-selenium area but I've been supplementing Nellie with selenium for the last 6 months of this pregnancy (plus her dairy minerals have selenium) so I'm really hoping it's not that. I could get her BoSe anyway just in case - what do you think?
We're keeping a close eye on Nellie too. She's 8 years old, a huge producer, and all those things that make me nervous.
This is what they looked like during the 11:30 am barn check. It was 20 degrees by then.
Nellie says "I'm trying to keep the drafts off my baby!"
Here she is snuggled up to Mama
Time for a nap
What greeted us, as we huffed and puffed into the barn, was a beautiful little heifer calf (pure Jersey) with white marks on her head, back, and tail. She was 3/4 of the way dried off by Nellie by the time we arrived but she was shivering. The barn thermometer said -4. We had brought a fleece sweater to put on her but I ran back to the house to warm some towels in the dryer to stuff the sweater with. While I was gone DD and DH rubbed her vigorously while Nellie continued to lick her head which was still wet looking.
After about 15 minutes of that, Max led Nellie to the stanchion and I gave her some grain. Then he picked up the baby and tried to set her up to nurse but she could not stand. She's on her tip toes and the front hooves keep folding under. With her on her knees, she's at the perfect height to nurse from Nellie's super low udder. It took about 30 seconds for her to latch on and off she went, nurse nurse, slurp slurp. As soon as her tummy was filled, she stopped shivering. We guided her to the two teats on Nellie's right side and she nursed from both. She's nursed at least four times in the last five hours but still can't stand for very long. She takes good little naps in between the exertion of nursing. She's also already pooped twice. I am concerned about the tippy toes thing but I'm leaning toward tight tendons that will work themselves out vs. the low Selenium factor, or white muscle disease. We are in a low-selenium area but I've been supplementing Nellie with selenium for the last 6 months of this pregnancy (plus her dairy minerals have selenium) so I'm really hoping it's not that. I could get her BoSe anyway just in case - what do you think?
We're keeping a close eye on Nellie too. She's 8 years old, a huge producer, and all those things that make me nervous.
This is what they looked like during the 11:30 am barn check. It was 20 degrees by then.
Nellie says "I'm trying to keep the drafts off my baby!"
Here she is snuggled up to Mama
Time for a nap