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Beating the Grime Reaper, But Not Winning the Game..

katrina

Well-known member
We had a calf that we thought didn't get collostrum like he should of. We got the cow and calf in two weeks ago and tried to get him to nurse. He never had the ambition. I have tubed and feed him on the bottle for the last ten days. He has slowly gone down hill and as I type I am quite sure he has expired. Something was wrong I think with his brain. He would do all the bodily functions of a normal calf, never got the scours on me. His eye on one side clouded over and if you scratched his ear he would kick his hind leg like a dog does if you scratch his ear... We turned the cow out last week as she was in the way with all the weather and if he had lived we would of probally been a bucket calf as to the fact we were tired of milking the cow out.... Every morning the cow would come back to the barn and want in. When we were done with the other cows, I would let her in with her calf. I was thinking that maybe motherly love would help. It didn't..
I was feeling pretty cocky about beating the odds. But in turn today I am humbled by mother nature... Where do you draw the line? I would of been money ahead and time to just let him die two weeks ago..... He always looked good was putting weight on and a nice coat of hair.... Some days life really sucks........
 

Soapweed

Well-known member
The cow is wanting a calf. If she is worthy, skin the dead calf out and find another calf to put on the cow. Good luck.
 

Faster horses

Well-known member
I understand your pain, Katrina. I think we've all been there...done that, and it hurts. Sometimes we win and sometimes we lose. But what you have just posted is the real reason we do what we do. When you were working with that little fella it wasn't because of money, it was because you CARED!! Never feel bad about caring that much. That's who we are. It doesn't always turn out the way we want. But would you rather be an uncaring person who only thinks of the dollars? You see a calf needing help and you calculate how much it is going to cost and decide not to
do anything? I don't think so.

We have a banker and an accountant that believe in having good
equipment to do our work. If you can't have good equipment to enjoy what you are doing, why do it? Same with this calf, if you can't at least TRY to help it, when your heart tells you that is the right thing to do, why be in the business?

All we can do is the do the best we can do. You did that. Now go foreward
knowing you did your best. This calf didn't make it, but how many have,
just because YOU CARED!!

Smile...it's gonna be a gorgeous day!!!
 

the_jersey_lilly_2000

Well-known member
Don't beat yerself up for tryin. That's what we do, if there's somethin in need of help we do our best to see that we do all we can, sometimes it works, and sometimes all our efforts don't seem to do any good. But you've done what you felt you had to do. Feel good about that, think how you would feel if you hadn't tried.
The few times I've ended up with a bottle calf, Mr Lilly just shakes his head at my efforts. But I can't just NOT do anything for the lil critters.
 

Mike

Well-known member
I was feeling pretty cocky about beating the odds. But in turn today I am humbled by mother nature... Where do you draw the line? I would of been money ahead and time to just let him die two weeks ago..... He always looked good was putting weight on and a nice coat of hair.... Some days life really sucks........

If you don't try these things, you will never know how they will turn out in the end.

You should feel good in knowing that you did everything you could to save this calf. Had you put him down two weeks ago you might have always wondered if you could have saved him.

You draw the line in doing your best, however it turns out.
 

Faster horses

Well-known member
Reminded me of a little story.

In 1973 we moved to the Powder River country of Wyoming. We had
Hereford cattle from a popular bloodline at that time. We were young and had been on a place with irrigated hay meadows, so our cows had lots
of good hay. We never had a problem with them milking good, so weren't aware that problem existed. The son-in-law of the fellow who owned the
ranch we were to mange mentioned something to us about that line
of cattle were short on milk. I didn't understand what he was saying and
didn't give it much thought.

We went from feeding our cows hay to feeding them cake. They didn't know what cake was, and what a shock to those ole cows to winter on grass and cake. That spring we had lots of Herefords that didn't give enough milk for the calf. So we would trail them in so I could feed them. I remember following one pair horseback and that calf was so weak he
was wobbly. I felt so sorry for him and for the others.

Well, we got them in and I fed them on a bottle, even though they were still on their mothers. Finally, green grass brought the cows up on their milk and we turned them in the summer pastures. All summer long, I could ride through those cows and call the calves, and they would come
running to my horse, with their tongues out like they do. It was so funny. They were so cute.

I might mention that those calves weighed about 320 lbs. in the fall and we got 30 cents for them. That was 1974 when the market broke. We didn't even have $100 calves that year.

(I'm not picking on Herefords here, it is just that was what we had at
the time. It was not fair to them to change them to grass and cake
when that isn't what they were used to. He was sure right about the milk in that line of cattle though. It was a lesson I never forgot.)
 

katrina

Well-known member
Thanks for the advice....... Drats!!!!!! Went and checked on him and he is still alive...... So I tubed him and gave him medicine.... Called the vet and he said to keep feeding him and Ya, he'll probally die, but you never know.. So here we go....... Moral support replenished.... and it is a beautiful day..........

Soap..... No spare calf this year... No twins....I really don't like twins anyway.... And I really hate loosing a calf.... It is a beautiful day.......
 

Jason

Well-known member
Katrinas calf story reminded me of the only time I saw Baxter Black perform. He told a tale of 2 steers that were on the sickly side and how he nursed them day and night for ages.

His way of telling it could only be appreciated by someone who has actually done it.

By the end of the story he had saved one but the other was clearly not getting better. He made the hard descision to shoot him...aimed his gun and shot the wrong one!
 
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