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My baby calf!

jlindp

jlindp

Ophidiophile.
Okay, well this baby isn't mine, but I helped birth her. :rofl:

My grandfather noticed Christmas evening that the cow (seasoned mother) was showing signs of labor and decided to give her overnight before checking on her again. Well, that next morning he found her in the pasture with a little calf butt sticking out! He tried calling around to the 2 closest vets, but neither were available for several hours, if at all. My grandfather lives out Middle of Nowhere, LA, so sometimes you're just on your own. He tried to get the cow into one of his round up pens, but she wasn't having it. Finally, he called my cousin who's a roper and together, him on his horse and me on mine, were able to corner her and get her roped and restrained. Since the baby was a breech, we knew we had to work pretty quickly if we wanted her to survive. I've never helped birth anything, but did remember that for cows, the calf's legs had to enter the birth canal in order to be born, so I just did one thing--pulled! I started gently and slowly, but as soon as her rib cage was free, my grandpa told me to start pulling quickly! It was all very crazy and stressful, but the calf made it out okay and mom quickly ran off. With mom gone, and not likely to come back, we dried the baby off, loaded her up, and took her to a warming pen. Got her full of colostrum, which is pictured below, and had her to a new home the next day, since mom had no interest in caring for her kid and my grandfather didn't have the energy or strength to feed a calf for 6 weeks.

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Thanks for looking! :}
 
Thanks, Nanci! I'm just glad my grandpa noticed something was amiss. And she is indeed lucky, and she's now the pet of a little girl (late X-Mas present) who insisted that she be taken home in the backseat of the truck. Her dad happily complied. That little calf is gonna be very, very spoiled, I think. xD
 
lol, thats cute. where in the middle of nowhere LA does your grandfather live? my parents live on the mississippi side of LA.
 
Thank you! She was a frisky little one. I'm glad she's gone to a good home. And he literally lives on the state line between Louisiana and Arkansas. My brother and I used to have races between the states. xD
 
Did you get the colostrum from another recently-gave-birth mom, or do you have it frozen?
 
Nanci said:
Did you get the colostrum from another recently-gave-birth mom, or do you have it frozen?
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It was actually a powder that you mix with warm water. My grandpa also mixed a little whole milk in with it. It took her no time to figure out that good stuff came from the bottle!
 
dionythicus said:
Do you know what breed she is? She's so red!
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I believe she's a red Angus.

Tim66/corns said:
So cute!! And how exciting to be part of it all!! I wish I had a pet cow.:)
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Isn't she?! I was so glad she survived. I'd heard that a breech baby surviving is 1 in 10, though I'm not sure how accurate that number is. From the ages of 5 to 13, I always hoped to wake up Christmas morning to a baby calf with a pretty red bow tied around her neck and now that it actually happened, she goes off to another little girl! :rofl: Oh, well. It's for the best.
 
Thank you! I am, too. My family was joking that the mother cow was just playing us for the fool, since she was happily chewing cud the next morning. If she could talk, we thought she'd say something like,

"Suckers! Your problem now!"
 
Congrats on the successful delivery!! I think calves are just too dang cute. I can only imagine that little girl was beaming when they came to pick her up. Thanks so much for sharing your experience with us.
 
Thanks, guys! I was actually a little sad when the girl and her dad came to pick her up. Then when he girl demanded that the calf get to ride in the backseat of the truck (actually INSIDE the truck), I knew she was going to a good home and was happy. :}
 
nice!

You had to give it the colostrum formula? it wasn't taking to the cow? I'm surprised you didn't have to tube it! And i am suprised you didn't have to use the pull set. We have a big iron bar with chains to go on the legs then we all give it a HEAVE HO!!

What breed is it? brangus? Red angus? Simmintal?
 
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