Clarabelle Calved!

Clarabelle was due last week.  We were watching her closely.  We were hoping for a little heifer as we've had five little bulls in a row.  Time for a heifer!  Tricia happened to be home on Saturday afternoon when things started happening.  Clarabelle was way out in the front when a hoof poked out.  It seemed to be pointed the right way.

Then the hoof disappeared.  Clarabelle started walking all the way to the barn.  Tricia figured she wanted some privacy.  Once in the barn, things started progressing again.  Two legs, a nose, a pink tongue.  Tricia noticed that the calf was breathing.

Contractions continued and Clarabelle soon had the calf's shoulders out.

And in no time at all, the baby, in all its slimy glory, was out on the barn floor.

Clarabelle began cleaning the calf up with a complete 'lick-down.'

Here is a "post-lick" baby portrait.  Cute.  But I regret to inform you that IT IS ANOTHER LITTLE BULL!!!  Six bulls in a row.  Unbelievable.

Clarabelle made a big mess in the barn with all the after-birth.  After a few hours she had him mostly cleaned up, but when he would move around, he would get all dirty again.

Then Clarabelle began the task that is instinctive.  She began to eat the placenta.

Clarabelle's little bull is weak.  After four and a half hours, he still hadn't stood up and hadn't drank any colostrum.  We worked with him for a while, but he was just too awkward and weak to stand.  We figured we would get some colostrum in him one way or another, so I milked out a quart of colostrum into a big baby bottle.  Tricia gave him the bottle, and he quickly drained it, so we milked more out and gave him another.

By Sunday, the little bull was able to stand up, but still wasn't drinking on his own.  We milked more into the milk bottle and gave more to him to give him more strength and vigor.  We tried to direct him to Clarabelle's udder, but when he would get close, Clarabelle would kick him away.  We put the "Kow Kan't Kick" device on Clarabelle and urged him to try to nurse, but it was a no go. 

The little bull has gotten stronger and is standing now.  He has the nursing instinct as he is walking around Clarabelle "bumping" into her to try to find milk, but hasn't been successful yet.  We're making sure he is getting colostrum in him as that is so very important.

We made some good progress today.  Hopefully we'll have some good news to report tomorrow.

Amy is a Go-Getter!

I don't want to bore any readers with baby pictures, but I did want to show Amy's progress after only 30 minutes from birth.  As discussed in the post from yesterday, she has been the most active and alert baby calf we've had.  She struggled clumsily on wobbly legs for a few times, plopping right back down, but she was persistent and kept trying.  After a few more tries, she was up.

It is simply amazing to see the instincts kick into gear as the Amy went looking for the 'milk machine.'  She started searching, but at the wrong end.  Rosie was very patient with her.

Wrong end, Amy.

Pretty soon Amy was getting closer to the goal line.  Rosie seemed to be coaxing her to keep trying.

Getting warm

Warmer!

Now in previous births I've shown this next series of pictures, but it is always interesting to me.  The momma cow will eat the placenta.  As discussed in earlier posts, experts think that they eat the placenta for nutrition reasons as well as to protect their young ones from predators that would be attracted to the area by the scent of the placenta.

Cows eat the placenta after its delivery

It takes them a while to take care of the job, but they get it done.  

Yummy for the tummy!

Little Amy is a real cutie pie.  She's spunky and within minutes, she was running around on legs that were strengthening quickly.

Surveying the new scenery

Checking me out

And then she started trying to nurse on Rosie again.  She was so close to finding the teat that it took everything we could muster to keep from walking up and putting it in her mouth, but we've learned from past encounters that the Good Lord knows what He's doing.  Most of the time animals need little to no help from us.

You're so close, Amy!

This next picture shows the milk vein very clearly on Rosie's side.  It is the large, brown, snake-like thing that is running horizontally from the udder to the left side of the picture below.  Some quick reading taught me that the milk vein is the main vein that takes blood from the udder to the heart.  There are two ways, though, for blood to get to the heart as when they lay down, that vein is blocked.  There is another large vein that you can't see from the outside of the cow that performs the task.  It was once thought that the larger the milk vein, the more milk the cow would produce, but this is untrue.  The cow's nutrition, genetics and environment play the major role in milk production.

The milk vein

After the labor and delivery and mom & baby seemed to be in good health, I brought Rosie a couple scoops of lunch which consisted of some Dairy Ration and some Alfalfa.  She wolfed it down in a skinny minute.

Your lunch is back there, Amy.

At this point we were still not sure if Amy had suckled on Rosie yet.  It is imperative that the calf nurses and gets the first milk, or colostrum.  Colostrum is chock full of nutrients, amino acids and most importantly, antibodies that the calf must ingest to ensure good health.  It is for this reason that we have some that we freeze some just in case we might need it.  Tricia tasted it out of curiosity.  It has a bright yellow color, does not taste good, and it has an oily consistency.

We always want to see that the calf is able to drink the colostrum and either want to watch her sucking or look for other evidence.  This morning we were unable to see her sucking, BUT I did find evidence later that afternoon.  I present to you Exhibit A:

A colostrum Poop!

Remember how I told you that colostrum is bright yellow?  It retains it's color all the way through her digestive tract.  Well, we've looked at pictures of Rosie eating her placenta and now I've shown you Amy's loose yellow stool.  Sorry for spoiling your appetite.  Being that I can't think of anything else gross to show you, I'll sign off for now.  See ya tomorrow!