A Lucky Little Fellow

 

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Monday morning we had an exciting start to the day.  When Caleb moved the big cow/goat/alpaca/sheep herd at 6 am, he realized our cow Bridget was in the middle of having a calf.  There were two little feet sticking out, the right ones even (front), but after a while we decided things were not progressing as they should, and maybe the calf's head was back.  Fortunately, the rest of the animals had moved on to the new pasture, so we had the old one to ourselves. Caleb roped her off to a tree and hobbled her back ankles, and I finally got to use our shoulder-length OB gloves for real (the regular wrist-length are all I really need for goats).  Sure enough, the head was turned back all the way along the side of the calf, and my arm just wasn't long enough to get it turned around.  So, Caleb got to "go in" for the first time - I've always done it with the goats since I'm smaller, but this time that was actually a disadvantage.  Even better, he got to experience the amazing feeling of having a baby suck on your finger before it's actually born :)  After several minutes of fighting with a large (and strong) cow, he got the head turned.  We waited for Bridget to get on with things herself after the issue was fixed, but nothing.  Caleb went back in, and frustratingly, the calf's head was right back along it's side.  He pulled it up front again, and then pulled the calf to the point that the nose was sticking out.  At that point, he assisted by maintaining pressure to encourage Bridget to push, and she popped him out a minute later.  She seemed fine afterwards, at least once Caleb untied her :) and went straight to nuzzling and talking to the little guy.  I checked mid-morning, and he was nursing away, and is trotting around the pasture today, with no idea how close he came to not being here.  

This was especially exciting since it is the first time we've had a less-than-ideal calving situation that we were able to actually fix.  Now, only 6 more calves to go this summer...

Comments

Obstetrical heroics

Great that y'all were able to deliver the calf despite issues. Go team!

James Herriot reincarnated

The stories of James Herriot come to mind in your description--so glad you had a happy ending to this amazing story you are living. And now Liam has a birthday buddy :-)

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