The baby at our house did not eat like we hoped at all yesterday. I went to feed her in the morning and she wouldn't eat at all. After multiple attempts throughout the day (with little results) we finally got her to take another pint last night. She still looks good, isn't dehydrated, knows how to suck, etc. She just seemed uninterested. Best case senerio is that the 3 pints she gorged Monday night was quite a bit for a little girl like her and she was full/had an upset stomach. Worse case senerio is that this is the beginning of the end for her. She needs to eat.
All of last night was spent at the farm (Thank you to my VERY responsible two oldest babies. They seriously took care of business here at the house with the 3 littles while we were a mile down the road). The plan was to get mama and calf in the trailer so that we could move them to a "stall" up by the barn. The hope was that if we could get them to the stall we could watch and see if the twin was nursing and we could possible milk colostrum from mama for our bottle calf. And maybe even reunite bottle baby soon. We had to move the stall's current residents out (a mama and calf that were ready to go back to pasture) and then somehow load the "wild" mama and calf in the trailer. Long story short, a very unhappy mama cow would not go into the trailer, even with her baby in there. We lost all daylight and called it a day. We did however see a couple promising things there. One, mama is really cares about her calf. Being in a pasture between baby and an angry large animal with horns is not cool. Two, baby peed three times (once on Ryan - ha!) in the hour we were messing with her. I think she is probably getting some milk from her mom.
I am not sure how today will go. I have the number of 3 local dairy farmers that I am going to call to see if any have any extra colostrum. Yes, a tad bit out of my comfort zone. It is really important though, even now, that our bottle baby get this. I hope they are receptive to me. It is a little tricky in these parts. These farmers have a "farmer's mentality" if you will, God love 'em.
I am concerned that no one will want to be bothered with such a trivial thing, plus colostrum is often times needed for thier own calves.
Oh and just another little crazy thing added to our list of already crazy things, the rest of Leah's fair silkies are due to arrive today. Normally this would not be a big deal, but the breeder called me last night (My phone literally went off when mama cow was about 4 feet from the trailer with baby cow. I had about 5 guys giving me the look of death). Aparently one of the 6 chicks has been exposed to coccicidiosis. Sooooooo, that chick may be DOA or it may be fine. At any rate, all the chicks will have to be quarantined and treated with meds for 3 to 5 days. Really isn't a huge deal, but enough to add a little more stress.
I am suppose to be leaving Friday at 11:00 to go to Pennsylvania for the weekend with Leah. Ryan has been totally cool with being here with the kids, but in light of the animal things we have going on, well I think Ryan might go in my stead. Although Ryan is a big help, the kids and I typically do the animal stuff around here. It would be a lot for Ryan to be here with all the kids and having to take care of some high needs livestock.
Ok, this post was much longer than I was planning. I guess I feel like I have time because I have been up since 3:30. Even though I am a little tired still, the house it extremely peaceful right now. Kind of nice.
Anyways, would you pray for the twin calves, especially the one we are bottle feeding? I would really hate to see either of them die.
Here is baby in her "stall" in our chicken coop. This was yesterday morning.
How beautiful is she?
Here is mama and calf out at FIL's farm in the brushy pasture.
Julie
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