Calf

Last week, a family friend called late in the evening to let us know that one of his young heifers delivered a calf and rejected her. She was two hours old, and our farmer friend wanted to know if we were interested in taking her in as our own, but warned us that she might not survive. She was very weak and she was unable to stand.

It was the kids bedtime when we got the call, so without saying a word to the kids I went ahead and tucked them in for the night, while Mitch ran out to pick up the calf. She was small enough to fit comfortably in the back of our suburban.

I was excited to have her! And we were cautiously optimistic that she would make it with some love and care from us. We rubbed her down, cleaning off the after birth fluid, trying to stimulate blood flow, and encourage her natural instincts to stand up. We piled up hay on our back porch underneath a heat lamp to keep her warm. We fed her a bottle of colostrum, and stayed up around the clock with her. Around mid-night she started to show real progress towards standing up. We were so excited that we decided to wake the older kids up so they wouldn't miss out on our new baby calf's first steps. It almost felt like Christmas waking the kids up to surprise them with a new born calf. By this time she was a fluffy baby to pet. We kept working with her, rubbing and petting, doing our best to encourage her to stand up. She would try, but was never able to stand. Eventually our sleepy kids headed back to bed, and I stayed up with Mitch and the calf until around 1:30 am before I went to sleep on the couch. I wanted to stay close enough in case anything new happen. Mitch stayed up by her side all night.

By 6:30 am she was 12 hours old and still hadn't made much progress. Her head was still up, she was still trying to stand here and there, and she had made a few bowel movements. She wasn't however taking a bottle. Mitch called several vets, and per their recommendations we gave her a B-12 shot and bought an esophageal feeding tube. Even with a full belly, some electrolytes, and a B-12 shot, her energy and will seemed to decline by lunch time. We started preparing our hearts for the worse, all the while hanging on to hope. Our entire day seemed to revolve around this calf.

We stayed up late again that second night. Mitch set his alarm to go off every couple of hours to check on her. By the next morning she seemed to show some improvement, trying to stand again. My hope was renewing, but just as she did the day before, she seemed to have lost energy and will by lunch. Late in the afternoon Mitch went out to buy her a calf probiotics. Just as he returned, the calf started to moo for the first time, but gave her final breath, and passed away at 7 pm. She was just over 48 hours old.

It was a heart breaking sight, and a heart breaking experience, but I would do it all over again if given the chance. We enjoy doing what we do on our self proclaimed homestead. These past 3 years have been an amazing learning experience with raising animals, witnessing new birth, collecting eggs, learning how to grow a garden, and working towards being a little more self sufficient. We have developed a passion for raising livestock, and on any farm or with any animal there will be joy and there will be heartache.