Calving

Mr. Potato here, was born today and was having a rough start at life. His mom, a new mom, took a little to long getting up after giving birth. Plus it was cold and snowy. So he didn’t get licked off right away (which is how they get dry). Initially I put him on some dry clean straw and gave him some hot water, with just a little bit of milk replacer (for energy). But even after that, he didn’t get better. Eventually mom walked off, and didn’t return. So I stepped in after assessing his condition again.

I'm here with Mr. Potatoe, showing some tricks on how to give a weak puny calf a bottle.

A heifer had been in active labor for over an hour, and not progressing. Upon inspection, her baby was sideways, and his front legs were to far back (so his head and feet were trying to come through her vagina at all once, the wrong way). Pushed his head back, turned him, and tried to pull his front feet a little more forward (as best I could). The time it took leading her up to the corrals, and the time she was in active labor, plus the time it took me trying to fix and then pull this calf; he very well coulda been dead. I’m my biggest critic. Rewatching this video I see many mistakes. But, after spending so much time being wet and cold, sometimes not only does you mind not work right, neither do your muscles. So I’m trying to give myself grace, lol. Biggest tips I can give you for helping a cow with her baby: 1) calves come out diving. Their front feet lead, and their head is between the legs. Like someone driving into a swimming pool. Anything else isn’t normal and a cow may need help. 2) pull with her contractions. You want to give her enough time to stretch, so other bad stuff doesn’t happen. But when your not pulling still apply enough tension that the calf doesn’t go back in. 3) chains or straps are supposed to go above and below the fetlock (I just did a clove hitch, not ideal). Anyways, sorry for the language. But mom and baby are super healthy and doing good :)

Me, Paleface, and hornet were out taking a ride to check on a heifer having some calving problems. We had some little helpers following us most of the way, lol (part 1)

I named him Lucky! Just for reference, my first video riding out to check her was taken around 7 (who knows how long she’d be in labor for). And Lucky wasn’t born till after 11! He was super lucky indeed, but he has a very good mama and is still doing good. The thumbnail picture was taken of them the next morning. I just wanted to keep them in there close to my trailer so I could keep an eye on em for a while. I had both my arms in his mama moving his back feet around as carefully as I could, but I coulda cut her with his hoofs or tore something, so better safe than sorry. Maybe someday I’ll do a video explaining beech position and some of the other calving difficulties / what to do about em.