Post by Lannie on Jun 13, 2010 21:10:57 GMT -5
I WANT A MEDAL. I'm not injured, so not a Purple Heart, but SOMETHING! OMG, what a ruckus she made! It took Rich and I almost half an hour to get her and Samantha into the barn. (Cricket used to be lead-trained, but today she forgot ALL about that stuff! LOL!)
Naturally, Samantha was born knowing about the fall-down-and-pretend-you're-dead trick that all calves know, however, I guess Cricket forgot that she herself used that trick on us many times. She thought we KILLED HER BABY! Oh, you should have HEARD her going on and on about it. Rich tried to pick her up and carry her a couple of times, but every time he did, she magically came back to life and wiggled loose. THUMP! She hit the ground. MOOOOOOOO!!!!!! said Cricket. Samantha played dead again. Oy vey.
I told Rich to just let her lie there for a while and maybe Cricket would calm down a bit once Samantha got back up, but that little fart just laid there with her head twisted back and her eyes rolled up (she's good, this one). After several minutes of this, she even had ME worried. But then one back leg twitched, and then the other one, and then POOF - she was back up again and bouncing around. Anyway this went on way too long, and there was a little confusion getting all four of us through the gate at the same time, but we finally made it into the barn. Rich steered Samantha into the calf stall and I led Cricket into the stanchion, at which point, she immediately charged back OUT of the stanchion and into the calf stall. We took another breather while she checked Samantha over in GREAT detail, only to discover that she was completely fine.
I'm cutting Cricket a lot of slack because her world has just been turned upside down and her hormones are raging, and besides, she doesn't know what's happened today. So I petted her and talked softly to her, and finally she seemed a little better, so I led her back out of the stall and around to the stanchion. She followed that time. Once in, I locked the headlock on her and the RODEO began!
She hauled back on the boards, she lunged forward, she fell to her knees, she got back up, she hauled backward again, over and over and over and over... I just stood there and waited. She can see Samantha in the calf pen, so I just waited for her to realize she was stuck and quit fighting. It took about 10 minutes (and some pooping and peeing ) but finally, she took a bite of hay. "Aha!" thought I, maybe I can get somewhere now. So I got my now lukewarm washwater and cleaned up her udder. It wasn't very dirty, but we went through the motions anyway. I did this standing. I'm not completely stupid.
Next, I grabbed my pail and (still standing, mind you) leaned over with my other hand and put it on Cricket's hind leg and said, "Foot back." That's her cue to move her foot back, which up until today she had been doing. Not today. Today she lashed out with a not-very-well-aimed kick. So I slapped her and tried again. Same thing. OK. You wanna play this little game? Fine. So I set the pail aside and got my broom. It has a fiberglass handle on it. I rapped the front of her shin and said, "Foot back." She kicked. I kicked her back, HARD, with the broom handle. She kicked again. I kicked back. We continued this "discussion" for several minutes, and then she put her foot back and stood still. YAY!
(I never did have the guts to actually sit on the chair beside her, so just get over it and don't give me any grief, OK? I value my knees! LOL!)
I bent over and tried milking her TINY BABY TEATS (oh, they're so SMALL compared to Bandit's!), and got a little bit of very yellow colostrum out, but not much. She was holding up. She's pretty smart, too, she figured that out right away. It took Bandit a couple of days after her first milking to figure out how to hold up. I knew Samantha had just nursed, because she had milk in her nose when we showed up to get them, so I knew that would be futile, and besides, with the way Cricket's hormones are raging, I figured we should end on a good note. I got *almost* a whole quart out of her! LOL! I decided to quit while I was ahead, and put the pail aside again, told her she was a VERY good girl (well, she'd been good for exactly three minutes, but that's better than nothing), and unlocked the headlock.
We brought Samantha back out, and ushered them back out of the barn and into the cow pen for the night. Rich is coming out with me tomorrow morning and we'll give it another go and see how she does, but I think she'll be much better than she was tonight. She just wasn't herself today, at all.
And the calf pen is cleaned out and all bedded down in the event that Miss Cricket decides to continue holding up badly. If she doesn't give me at least a gallon in the morning, Samantha will have to go in her room for a while until she gets hungry and then we'll try again.
So, all in all, it was a success, I think. Neither Rich nor I got hurt, and I DID get a little milk out. And Cricket now knows that she can come into the stanchion and be milked and then go out again afterward and everything will be fine. May tomorrow's milkings be less stressful!
~Lannie
Naturally, Samantha was born knowing about the fall-down-and-pretend-you're-dead trick that all calves know, however, I guess Cricket forgot that she herself used that trick on us many times. She thought we KILLED HER BABY! Oh, you should have HEARD her going on and on about it. Rich tried to pick her up and carry her a couple of times, but every time he did, she magically came back to life and wiggled loose. THUMP! She hit the ground. MOOOOOOOO!!!!!! said Cricket. Samantha played dead again. Oy vey.
I told Rich to just let her lie there for a while and maybe Cricket would calm down a bit once Samantha got back up, but that little fart just laid there with her head twisted back and her eyes rolled up (she's good, this one). After several minutes of this, she even had ME worried. But then one back leg twitched, and then the other one, and then POOF - she was back up again and bouncing around. Anyway this went on way too long, and there was a little confusion getting all four of us through the gate at the same time, but we finally made it into the barn. Rich steered Samantha into the calf stall and I led Cricket into the stanchion, at which point, she immediately charged back OUT of the stanchion and into the calf stall. We took another breather while she checked Samantha over in GREAT detail, only to discover that she was completely fine.
I'm cutting Cricket a lot of slack because her world has just been turned upside down and her hormones are raging, and besides, she doesn't know what's happened today. So I petted her and talked softly to her, and finally she seemed a little better, so I led her back out of the stall and around to the stanchion. She followed that time. Once in, I locked the headlock on her and the RODEO began!
She hauled back on the boards, she lunged forward, she fell to her knees, she got back up, she hauled backward again, over and over and over and over... I just stood there and waited. She can see Samantha in the calf pen, so I just waited for her to realize she was stuck and quit fighting. It took about 10 minutes (and some pooping and peeing ) but finally, she took a bite of hay. "Aha!" thought I, maybe I can get somewhere now. So I got my now lukewarm washwater and cleaned up her udder. It wasn't very dirty, but we went through the motions anyway. I did this standing. I'm not completely stupid.
Next, I grabbed my pail and (still standing, mind you) leaned over with my other hand and put it on Cricket's hind leg and said, "Foot back." That's her cue to move her foot back, which up until today she had been doing. Not today. Today she lashed out with a not-very-well-aimed kick. So I slapped her and tried again. Same thing. OK. You wanna play this little game? Fine. So I set the pail aside and got my broom. It has a fiberglass handle on it. I rapped the front of her shin and said, "Foot back." She kicked. I kicked her back, HARD, with the broom handle. She kicked again. I kicked back. We continued this "discussion" for several minutes, and then she put her foot back and stood still. YAY!
(I never did have the guts to actually sit on the chair beside her, so just get over it and don't give me any grief, OK? I value my knees! LOL!)
I bent over and tried milking her TINY BABY TEATS (oh, they're so SMALL compared to Bandit's!), and got a little bit of very yellow colostrum out, but not much. She was holding up. She's pretty smart, too, she figured that out right away. It took Bandit a couple of days after her first milking to figure out how to hold up. I knew Samantha had just nursed, because she had milk in her nose when we showed up to get them, so I knew that would be futile, and besides, with the way Cricket's hormones are raging, I figured we should end on a good note. I got *almost* a whole quart out of her! LOL! I decided to quit while I was ahead, and put the pail aside again, told her she was a VERY good girl (well, she'd been good for exactly three minutes, but that's better than nothing), and unlocked the headlock.
We brought Samantha back out, and ushered them back out of the barn and into the cow pen for the night. Rich is coming out with me tomorrow morning and we'll give it another go and see how she does, but I think she'll be much better than she was tonight. She just wasn't herself today, at all.
And the calf pen is cleaned out and all bedded down in the event that Miss Cricket decides to continue holding up badly. If she doesn't give me at least a gallon in the morning, Samantha will have to go in her room for a while until she gets hungry and then we'll try again.
So, all in all, it was a success, I think. Neither Rich nor I got hurt, and I DID get a little milk out. And Cricket now knows that she can come into the stanchion and be milked and then go out again afterward and everything will be fine. May tomorrow's milkings be less stressful!
~Lannie