[waterbuffalofarmer]

As you can guess from the title, it was a hellish, horrible night last night. After milking we have started bringing the new imports into the parlour for food, so they can get used to our system before calving. Well last night I went to bring them in and noticed that one was missing. May I just say before I tell the rest of the sad tale..... she was a present from the farmer in Italy, he especially sold her to us as we have bought quite a few animals from him. She was in calf to embryo transfer of a world class italian milking bull, and one of his best animals, so we were really looking forward to a bull calf so that he could really improve the herd even further with milk yield/genetics etc. As it turns out she was starting to calve, so I caled the lads (seeing it was a rather cold night we didn't want to risk anything) so we brought her down, she was a bit of a hassle not wanting to come and stuff, but she came and we popped her into a building with fresh bedding. Half an hour later we looked in on her and only the head was presented, we didn't like that so we got her into the crush. My elder brother, is an excellent lamber and calver I might add and missed his true calling to be a vet, he gently put his hand inside of her to feel for the legs, he managed to get one leg out, but the other one was pushing very hard into her backend, he had to manouvere it so that she wouldn't rip inside, which is what would have happened had she pushed once more. We hardly had to pull the calf, as she pushed it out herself very quickly. We got the calf onto the ground, but it seemed almost lifeless, it was then we realised that it had a huge amount of stuff on the lungs, so we picked it up to swing it, which helped a little, then there was still loads of stuff on its lungs, so we held it upside down and shook it up and down, not very hardely but enough for stuff to empty from its lungs, the lads held it up down and I massaged it lungs hardely to force the stuff out. We did this a few times, after resting the calf a little inbetween each session, my brother did mouth to mouth, inhaling fresh air all the time. The sad tale ends here, the calf had way too much stuff on his lungs and didn't have the strength to help himself, along with us trying to revive him, he died shortly after and I must admit many a tear was shed last night by me, mum had her head in her hands and dad was almost speechless with anger..... My elder brother was upset and annoyed, my younger brotherwas very depressed and had to have a long talk with a long distance friend to help get stuff in perspective. So all in all calving has gotten off to a terrible start, I am only thankful we never had a ripped mother to boot, so that is some comfort I suppose. The calf drowned in his mothers womb and there was nothing we could do about it, he just didn't have the fight left in him, he wasn't premature he was due, it just happens I suppose  Still to look on positives here we do have more calvers coming up from the same batch and they have not as good genetics as this one, but very good anyway, so maybe we will get a bull out of one of them. Sorry for the gloomy tale, but i felt I had to let it go somewhere..... Thanks for listening i really do appreciate it

[Scotsdumpy]

I'm so sorry for your loss - it seems you did all you could to save the calf. On a positive note you still have the mum so you still have the chance for future successes. Hopefully your next calvings will bring you much happiness - don't be too hard on yourselves.

[landroverroy]

I'm so sorry for your loss - it seems you did all you could to save the calf. On a positive note you still have the mum so you still have the chance for future successes. Hopefully your next calvings will bring you much happiness - don't be too hard on yourselves.

Very true.
Sometimes when things don't go as well as you would hope, then you have to lower your expectations. (Not your standards!) And that particularly applies to farming
Where there's livestock - there's deadstock. There are no guarantees, and when things go wrong and there's nothing else you could have done then I find it makes me feel a lot better to actually be thankful for what has gone right.
So - you lost the calf - and that is heartbreaking. But from what you said it would have died whatever you or anyone else could have done. So you also saved a substantial vet bill. And best of all - you've saved a very well bred cow who hopefully will go on to breed further well bred calves. In your situation I always feel saddest about the cow who has gone through all the trauma and has no baby  to show for it. Remember - she will be far more traumatised and devastated than you are. So don't forget she needs a bit of support and sympathy as well.

[Bionic]

Awww, how sad for you but at east you know you did everything you could. It just wasn't to be. Hopefully the other births will go smoothly

[Penninehillbilly]

Sorry to hear the bad news, hope the mum is OK, hopefully all will be well next time for her.
Hope everything goes well with the rest of tnem. 

[SallyintNorth]

 

[Dans]

 

[DartmoorLiz]

 

[sabrina]

Very sad but glad mum is OK.

[BrimwoodFarm]

How horrible for you. After going through such a nightmare and such lengths to save his life, there's always that desperate hope it'll come right in the end. Makes it even worse when no happy outcome.

I'm glad you managed to step in and save the mother though. At least you still have her and hopefully you might be able to have another attempt with your Italian friend's bull in the future.

Thinking of you all.

[Rosemary]

 

[Marches Farmer]

That's bad luck - and it sounds as though bad luck is exactly what it was, not lack of care or experience.  If you had X-ray vision you might have been able to do something about it before the calf took a breath before it was born.  "Stuff happens" is what we say  under such circumstances but it doesn't stop you kicking yourself and trying to work out if you'd have had a better outcome if you'd done something, anything, differently.  I guess that's how you get better at what you do and why keeping livestock is only for special people.

[waterbuffalofarmer]

Thanks guys for the support, I really appreciate it. The mother is much better now and is getting used to being milked in the parlour. However her milk has dropped, probably due to stress, but she is still giving something which is good. I think there is another of the heifers due today, I am going to bring her in later  just to keep an eye on her. Filled with a twinge of excitement and a lot of fear. Hopefully all goes well

[landroverroy]

Good luck with that one then.
She'll no doubt be on 24 hour watch and special treats till she calves.