TheKindaFarmGal's Journal - Long overdue updates! Cow calved

LocoYokel

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Just found your journal... :frow Wow, Brazil? It is so neat to find folk from all over here at BYH but I understand wishing more of them lived closer. Kinda feel like that myself up here in North ID but hey, BYH sure cuts down on the travel time and expense... Maybe it's a good thing, I'd have 20 more animals if I lived close to some of the people here! :hide
What beautiful critters! Noses and all...:love

Keep those pics coming, you do a beautiful job. Noses and all...;)
 

TheKindaFarmGal

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Just found your journal... :frow Wow, Brazil? It is so neat to find folk from all over here at BYH but I understand wishing more of them lived closer. Kinda feel like that myself up here in North ID but hey, BYH sure cuts down on the travel time and expense... Maybe it's a good thing, I'd have 20 more animals if I lived close to some of the people here! :hide
What beautiful critters! Noses and all...:love

Keep those pics coming, you do a beautiful job. Noses and all...;)

Yep! Exactly...lol, I'm sure I would have much more than 20 more. Is that bad, though? :hide

Thank you! :D =D
 

TheKindaFarmGal

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Well, I haven't really posted much on here because not much has happened. On June 19 (which was also Leslie's first birthday), I put my buck and a doe together! So hopefully kits coming in a month.

It's not the best pic, but it shows them. Buck left, doe right. I'm pretty excited! A little worried it didn't work, but we'll see. The buck has some big pus filled infection on his side. We've been treating it, really hoping and praying he doesn't die. He's doing pretty well.

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A duck's nose - er, bill. lol

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A 'dancing' tilapia one of my brothers caught.

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TheKindaFarmGal

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It's been busy around here! Recently we got three kits, a male and two females, that will be breeders. I've got a few pictures for you guys, but they're not very good because bunnies are - well, bunnies! Nose pics included. ;)

The male.

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The following are the girls.

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Bunny nose!

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The hair and shirt (and wabbit!) are mine. lol

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The cows are doing great! Pitita is looking VERY pregnant now...she's due in a little under two months! I'm getting pretty excited to have an adorable baby around again.

The buck is healing well - it seems to be almost normal again. However, the doe now has a similar thing up by her shoulder/neck area, so that's not good. I don't *think* she is preggers, but if she did take she'd kindle in a week or so.

Oh, and here is a chicken "nose" pic! He looks vicious, but he's a very friendly, curious little cockerel. Really! :D =D

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TheKindaFarmGal

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It's been way too long since my last update! Life has been pretty busy. I'll try to recap some of the last few months...

On September 12, Pitita went into labor. She was about two weeks past her due date, so we were getting pretty anxious and a little worried. At 11 am her water broke, so I was expecting a calf really soon. But nothing happened - no hooves, nothing. Hours went by with no calf or sign of one, though she was obviously trying.

We tried to get the vet and our neighbor who has a lot of experience, but there were some problems and they didn't show up on time.mSo at 3 or 4 pm I decided we couldn't wait any more and risk more than we had. It was my first time actually doing something like that, and it was sorta fun, AFTER it was over. At the time though, I just was pretty much crying and praying and telling her to push because that calf was in there and he was a true breech. I know, telling her to push was dumb, since he couldn't move anyway...but yeah. Lol

I was able to get my hands/arms pretty far in there, far enough to get his back hooves and legs. I was terrified that I would tear the cow, and I was terrified she'd die if I didn't try harder, so it was a mess. I was trying for about 30-40 minutes, but I just couldn't get his legs out. :( When the vet finally arrived, he was able to get the legs and get a chain on them, then he and our neighbor who also arrived at the same time pulled.

We just assumed that the calf would be dead after all that time. So one of the most beautiful things I've seen was when they pulled him out and he gasped for his first breath. It was pretty amazing. <3

And yes - it was a beautiful little bull calf. Her first.

Pitita was doing wonderful. She got an antibiotic shot, drank a few gallons of water and was eating. The calf seemed good too at first. But the hours went by, and he wasn't standing. We thought maybe it would just take more time since he'd had such a hard birth, but he needed colostrum soon. So, it was around 10 pm when I told my dad that we were gonna go milk the cow and get some into the calf.

Pitita is a VERY protective mother. She and the calf were still out in the field where she'd given birth, so we went out there with a flashlight, rope and bucket. I roped the very uncooperative cow to the fence and had Dad hold that and the flashlight, then tied her legs and got what I could. She was hating every second. Angry mother cows aren't very fun! After that I carried the calf back to the house, where we tried warming him up and tube feeding the colostrum since we didn't have a bottle and he wasn't taking anything anyway. Then we gave him back to Pitita and hoped for the best.

Next morning I went outside and he was still alive, but not standing. So then started a few long weeks - the cow got on a good milking schedule, the calf was tube fed until he started taking a bottle, he got different vitamins, we tried standing him up, moving his legs, he tried standing up, vet saw him...he seemed to be improving, and he tried so hard, then everything went downhill. He used to kneel on his front legs and try to stand from there, but as a result his knees got all raw. So he stopped trying. He wasn't taking the bottle well, and then he started scouring.

He died on October 8. I'm glad he's not suffering, but it's sad. We did our best, and he was a real fighter. It was a very good learning experience.

Since then, Pitita has already gone back in heat, and we plan on breeding both her and Leslie to a Girolando or Jersey bull. Hopefully it will go better this time! I'm still milking Pitita, but her production has dropped.

Okay, so that was more of a very long and overdue cow update! :hide I'm going to try and post some pictures and update other stuff in a bit. ;)

And congratulations if you actually read all that.
 
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