A Close Call for Clarabelle

Here is Clarabelle.  She and Rosie were just led back into the pasture after eating more grass, clover, and wild geranium in the back yard.  She is pregnant (we're 90% certain) and she should be calving in mid-April.  She looks fat and happy.  Well, fat at least.  I'm not sure cows ever look happy.  

This morning things were a bit different.  Tricia walked out to the barn this morning to take care of the morning chores and found Clarabelle in distress!  Rosie and Clarabelle have gotten in a habit of sleeping right next to the barn, under the overhang that protects them from rain.  It is dry and built up high. The hens will dig holes in this dry spot bordering the barn and "dust" themselves to take baths.  You can probably see the holes where the chickens have created a slope that goes downward, directly to the barn.

Clarabelle slept last night right beneath the window.  (We've moved the wagon so she can't sleep there again.)  Anyway, when Tricia walked out, Clarabelle was out of breath.  No telling how long she had been like that, but she was struggling to get up.  She was situated in such a way on the sloping ground that she couldn't lift her head, could not get herself up.  She had kicked around on the ground in her struggle and had even pooped all over the side of the barn and bent the tin walls of the barn in her struggling.

She was very, very weak when Tricia found her.  Tricia thought she may lose her, but after much work pushing and pulling, Tricia was able to get her up.  Clarabelle was flustered and out of breath, but she's gonna be okay.  We hope her calf will be fine, too.  So this afternoon, while Rosie and Clarabelle were eating grass in the yard, we positioned an old wagon that doubles as a hay bale feeder over the hen dust baths.  We don't want any repeat performances.  You can see the poop on the walls from the commotion.

Who's to say what would have happened had Tricia not gone out when she did to do chores?  We could have possibly lost both Clarabelle and her baby and chickens would have been the perpetrator.  Oh well, All's well that ends well.