Post by Mitra on Jun 12, 2014 7:10:35 GMT -5
This morning at 5:45 am just as my DH and I were getting ready to go out to do chores, he saw her fall. She seemed to have gotten tangled up with her three month old bouncy calf who was exiting the barn at the same time. This tangling caused her to go a few feet over from where her path is and that area, where we toss manure, is very soft. It seems she went into that soft area, sank in with the back legs, and got her legs twisted and fell onto her left side. I heard my DH yell an expletive and looked out the window to see her down. I yelled her name to her and she looked toward the house and immediately tried to get up. She went up onto her knees and then paused for about ten seconds before she could get her back end up. By this time, my DH had made it to the barn and was inspecting her. He said she was quivering all along the left side but mostly the area around her hip and back left leg.
I got out there five minutes later after calling the vet and getting the milking machine and buckets all put together. With the help of her favorite treat, whole wheat tortillas, and DH steadying her on the left side, we got her to mince her way back into the barn and into the stanchion. She was at such a crooked angle in the stanchion, that I couldn't lock her in. Plus I was afraid that if she fell, she'd be hurt worse if it was closed. So while she munched on her grain, I got ready to milk, hooked her up, and milking proceeded almost normally. About seven minutes into it, she was done and started backing out of the stanchion with the machine attached. I couldn't think fast enough to try and get the machine off of her because she was so wobbly I didn't want to risk her falling on me. I got out of the way. She backed up until the teat cups pulled off and then kept going 'til she was standing in her stall. By some miracle she did not fall and by an even bigger miracle, the teat cups came off in such a way that they did not suck up ANYTHING from the barn floor! There were four gallons of milk in the bucket and no shavings!
Dr. Patterson just left and he says she's pulled a muscle and will be even more sore tomorrow. If she's feeling terrible tomorrow, he said he'll give her a shot of steroids but for now to just give her some aspirin boluses. My DH is in the barn trying to do that now.
He just came in and said he got 1.5 boluses into her pretty easily. She was half way across the barnyard when he got out there so he just did it right there and then opened the gate to the pasture for her. He said, she walked over to the grass very carefully but she's not limping and now she's grazing. No fun when the day starts like that
I got out there five minutes later after calling the vet and getting the milking machine and buckets all put together. With the help of her favorite treat, whole wheat tortillas, and DH steadying her on the left side, we got her to mince her way back into the barn and into the stanchion. She was at such a crooked angle in the stanchion, that I couldn't lock her in. Plus I was afraid that if she fell, she'd be hurt worse if it was closed. So while she munched on her grain, I got ready to milk, hooked her up, and milking proceeded almost normally. About seven minutes into it, she was done and started backing out of the stanchion with the machine attached. I couldn't think fast enough to try and get the machine off of her because she was so wobbly I didn't want to risk her falling on me. I got out of the way. She backed up until the teat cups pulled off and then kept going 'til she was standing in her stall. By some miracle she did not fall and by an even bigger miracle, the teat cups came off in such a way that they did not suck up ANYTHING from the barn floor! There were four gallons of milk in the bucket and no shavings!
Dr. Patterson just left and he says she's pulled a muscle and will be even more sore tomorrow. If she's feeling terrible tomorrow, he said he'll give her a shot of steroids but for now to just give her some aspirin boluses. My DH is in the barn trying to do that now.
He just came in and said he got 1.5 boluses into her pretty easily. She was half way across the barnyard when he got out there so he just did it right there and then opened the gate to the pasture for her. He said, she walked over to the grass very carefully but she's not limping and now she's grazing. No fun when the day starts like that