PQVT Calving Thread

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WOW! What a surprise! How awesome is that?! Congrats!
 

purplequeenvt

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Baby Moo Two arrived this morning. It's a boy and he is not very bright. I was at work (out the door by 4:15am) and the rest of the humans at home able to deal with dumb calves were all late for work. So by the time I got home, it was unclear if he'd nursed or not. Carly (mom) is touchy about her udder and he was parked out in the field in the sun and seemed to be overheated.

I spent a long time trying to get him to nurse. Between Carly's stupidity about her udder and his stubbornness, we didn't get anywhere. I hand milked about 3 pints (which is quite an amazing feat considering she kept trying to take my head off with her foot). He took a bit from the bottle, but mostly let the milk dribble down his chin.

Finally I decided to put Carly on the machine and milk her out so I could tube the calf. After a very long time of avoiding kicks, etc... we weren't getting anywhere. She wasn't milking out at all. Talked to my dairy farmer friend and she said to try oxytocin, but when that didn't work, we decided that her milk probably just hasn't fully come in yet. I did get a full bottle worth though so we decided to tube him. I was shutting everyone in for the night as I was waiting for my friend to come with tubing kit and just as she pulled in, what do you think happened? Yeah, the dumbo finally started nursing. :barnie

Anyway, here he is. His name might be Duncan, but I haven't spent a lot time thinking about it yet. Still haven't named Cricket's girl.



 

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