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There she stood

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burnt

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Walked through the cows today with somebody who was looking to add a few to his herd. There she stood, a cow that I'd been watching - she was late calving and showed really close for a couple of days already, huge, swollen udder and now with a dirty, kinda dried up looking water bag this afternoon.

Not good, I thought, not good.

She wasn't showing any distress, which I thought was kinda strange with all the signs on display.

The old guy with us said "that cow's in trouble, the calf's backwards sure as can be and you better help her out. What are you gonna do?"

Well, I said, I'm gonna leave her a couple of hours and see what she does.

If you don't get her help right now you're gonna have a dead calf, he says. Can you get her in? If you do it right away, the calf might still be alive!

We'll see, I said. I'll maybe get the vet to check her later this afternoon.

The vet? he said, don't you do them yourself? I do all my own all the time, he says. He had a herd of big old Chars.

Nope, I said, I wouldn't know what I'm doing. (I lied a bit there- I have done it once or twice in a lot of years. Tangled twins are the worst)

There's nothing to it! he said, just reach in and find what's there . . .

Ya, I said, but these Angus don't give me a chance to practice so it's all strange to me.

End of conversation for a bit.

And there she stood and chewed her cud, water out and all . . . not good I thought, why isn't she pushing or showing distress of some sort?

When they left, I headed to town to pick up some selenium at the vet's. Told Doc Hawkins all about her and before I finished, he threw both hands up to stop me - "what you are describing are the classic symptoms of a breach birth".

Oh. I said, what are you doing this afternoon?

Doc says, I will be at your place. Go home and get her in.

I figured I better have a coffee and a soft ice-cream to get me home and powered up for the job. So about an hour later, I got home and wifey and I mounted the 4-wheeler and headed back. Rode through the mommas and babies and no huge cow among them. Hmmmm. Where'd she go now?

Headed out back further and spied a cow, head up, head down, head up, head down. Got closer in.

There she stood, proud as a peacock, still nervous, mooing her concern, vigorously licking off a huge new calf.

Called Doc Hawkin's office - Hey Doc, it's a boy! :)
 
really glad the outcome was good, have had it go the other way as well :cry:


where you end up with a big vet bill and a dead calf :mad:
 
Yes, glad it worked out. I wouldn't have had the nerve to wait. In my experience that usually turns out bad, angus or otherwise.
 

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