Wednesday, January 09, 2008

Doctor Bob to the Rescue

We had been expecting that one of our cows was about to calve so we weren’t surprised to hear much bellowing from the herd the other night.
Normally Murray Greys cows give birth quite easily and I have not had too many worries over the years especially since the bulls put over them have never been too large.
All day I noticed one cow was missing so in the afternoon I went looking.
I found her in quite a distressed state with two additional legs hanging out the back.
I could not see a head so suspected a breech birth.
Winning Trainer Bob is a cowman from way back so I went in search of his expertise.
He had a look and was sure that the calf was in the correct position but decided that the cow looked a little exhausted needed some "help".
So we enticed her up into the yards where we attached baling twine to the two additional legs and pulled out a quite big and breathing bull calf much to the relief of its mother and us.
She was soon doing all the motherly things and he was up and standing within 30 minutes. We just had to make sure she would allow him to suck. And it did seem like she was ok with him.
I kept them in the yards overnight just to make sure both are ok and this morning it would appear she is still allowing him to drink. She is eating well.
This is good as we have had to hand rear two calves in the past, one whose mother died and another whose mother would at first have nothing to do with her offspring. Not only is this time consuming but also these two calves matured with considerable behavioural problems. I have heard this is common result of hand rearing.
I will give them another 24 hours under surveillance and then let them back with the others.
I don’t think it will be too long until another one turns up as well.
Winning Trainer Bob will now be known also as Doctor Bob.

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