This morning at feeding time, things were a little wild. The two heifers, LuLu and Elsie were jumping all over each other. Rosie and Clarabelle were getting in on the action as well. This happens when they go into heat. They will bellow and follow each other around and jump on one another. 800 - 1,000 pound animals doing this is not something you want to be around. I quickly fed them, opened up the laying boxes for the hens and got out of there. It was about time for church anyway.
This afternoon when I went out to do evening chores, something was amiss! Rosie and Elsie and LuLu were all out eating in the pasture. Clarabelle, however, was sitting in a grassy area near the barn. It has been raining almost every day for the last two weeks. It is exceedingly muddy everywhere. I walked over to see what was going on with her.
She had been trying to get up with no success. The ground was matted down and she was all muddy and out of breath from exertion. I tried to help her get up, but it was of no use.
I went inside and got Tricia. We first flipped her over to the other side to give her legs underneath her a break. Then I gave her a drench of molasses and some sweet feed and hay to eat. She ate it. She appeared to have no fever and her ears were perky and erect.
I gave her an intra-muscular injection of 20 cc's of BoSe, a medication for selenium and Vitamin E deficiency. It appears that it is something with her back legs - almost a paralysis. She tries to get up, but her back legs aren't cooperating.
This was late afternoon on Sunday. Tomorrow morning, if she's not up and feeling better, we'll make a call to our vet and see if he'll do a farm call and check her out. Cows that are down are not a good thing. We sat out with ol' Clarabelle and swatted mosquitoes and deer flies off of her and prayed that she'd get better. We'll report back on the diagnosis/prognosis.
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