today has been the most emotionally and physically exhausting day i have experienced on the farm. ill proceed to explain why;

as i posted earlier, our freisian cow was very sick this morning with what looked to be bloat. bloat is caused by certain foods fermenting inside the rumen (which is the first of four stomachs). the gas build up is so great that they are unable to belch it out so they swell up dramatically and their stomach feel like a hot air balloon. this condition can cause death in as little as 20minutes. so anyway, Maybe (the cow) was still lying down in the burning sun when the vet arrived. all he had with him was the instrument they use to stab the cows stomach in order to release the build up of gas. i wasnt looking forward to seeing this be done but i was scared for her life. when the vet started examining her he decided that she wasnt swollen enough to be "stabbed". phew!! but still she was unwell. she is incredibly big and examining her was difficult. after poking around he said that she may actually have milk fever (calcium deficiency) and that if we were coming into town later we could pick up two bags of calcium/glucose mix which would replace the calcium she was missing. to administer this treatment one would have to insert a needle in under the skin on her neck while the other squeezed the bag of liquid into her through the attached tube. this would leave a big lump on her neck which we would then have to massage down. this is what he told us. he then showed us briefly where and how to insert the needle. then as if by magic he went and did something to her tail which caused her to actually stand up. this was great because we were able to get her to walk into the shade, out of the direct sun. we watched her for a while and then walked the vet to his car and told him we would be in to see him soon.

……

so we picked up the solution from the vet later in the afternoon. even though it seemed like an enormous amount of liquid to get into her, i felt confident that we could do it. we arrived home and got our boots on and set out, treatment in hand, to find Maybe and move her into the bails and administer the treatment. when we found her she was again lying down unable to get up. to me, this seemed to be a better position for us to try to treat her. so we opened the packets, snapped off the plastic bit, connected the needle and approached the cow. from this moment on things became incredibly stressful….

trying to insert the needle into her neck was traumatic. not to mention the liquid contents squirting out everywhere. every time i got the needle in, she would swing her enormous head and it would slip out again. i continued to try with no success. i was so stressed out/panicked that i started crying. i announced that i couldn’t do it and threw my hat on the ground. i felt useless. like a complete failure. the whole time this enormous cow was trying to crawl away like a beetle. she was frightened, i was frightened and virginia was frightened. i just closed my eyes and cried. virginia ran back to the house to call the vet. i wiped the sweat from my face and could feel Maybe’s hair stuck to my cheek. the vet said on the phone that if it was too difficult to get her in the neck that we should try her flanks. this seemed crazy as she has very little flank so to speak, more like bones being a dairy cow. so we went back out there and tried again. this was impossible too. the skin on the flank was too thick. finally, to both of our relief, she stood up. we took her to get a drink and then we let her into the bails where she was confined in a small space. virginia put her two fingers inside her nose like a septum piercing, to keep her head still. this didnt work because either because every time i went to insert the needle she thrashed her head violently. we then got a rope and tied it around her head and eventually i got the needle into one side and squeezed the contents in. the lump wasnt that big so together we massaged it down. then we swapped sides and tried to do the same again. virginia held the rope firmly and i was able to get the needle in about the second attempt. once i started squeezing the bag she stopped stuggling. i think virginia was crying at this point as she held the rope gently and watched Maybe be still. it was so draining and awful. it seemed to take an eternity but eventually the bag was emptied and i removed the needle and we massaged the lump. virginia then got our home made aloe vera spray and sprayed it on her injection sites and a cut that had opened on her hip some time during the struggle. then we let her out and gave her a big pile of dry fresh hay. she ate and ate and ate. her belly had gone down to its normal size as well. she was still eating when we checked on her last. i hope she is alright. virginia’s dad said we did a good job which means alot to us both.

today was a hard day. Maybe didn’t die though. so i guess we did something right.

charlene.
   

severe storm warning with gale force winds, flash flooding, heavy rain and large hailstones. 4:00pm this afternoon.

there was a storm cell heading towards lismore from kyogle.  

3 consecutive days of severe storms. lismore declared a national disaster zone.

the warning was cancelled around 5pm.

Sky after storm, with duck bath

i expect you’ll be wanting to know about how Maybe is… We are still recovering from a day of keeping her alive. I think Charlene will blog about this when she feels calmer. 

right now, as i write this, we are waiting for an emergency visit from the vet!! our cow is down and it looks like she has bloat which can kill them within 20 minutes!! this is so distressing. you realise just how helpless you are sometimes. the amount of knowledge a true farmer has is immense, worth more than you know. both of us try so hard to learn learn learn but without experience you feel like you know nothing. this cow means so much to us. she is an important part in our plans/life/farm. to have her die here would be beyond awful. she is sitting in full sun and cant get up. we just got about 750mls of oil down her throat which is what the vet said to do. yesterday we tried a few of the home remedies from our many farming books but to no avail. the immense size of this cow (close to 1000 pounds) is overwhelming. watching her struggle is confronting. so i guess all we can do is wait….wait for someone who knows what to do

and can do it.

Charlene 

Waiting waiting for the vet to come, watching Maybe to make sure her head stays upright, wishing that the sun (which we haven’t seen for days), would hide behind a cloud, A black cow in full sun with bloat seems like a disastrous recipe. The vets are not close here,and "leaving now" can mean in half an hour, so we called an unfamiliar vet to begin with, but changed our minds and went back to our favourite vet, who said he’d shove some things in a bag and be here asap… Told me that in the direst moment, if that arrived, we could stab her through the side directly into the rumen to save her life. I’m not big on that idea, but i would do it to save her life if it came to that. Calling my dad, a cattle man from way back, who gifted us the cow, who has some suggestions to make but is too far away to help… so… I’m writing to pass the time while we wait…

Virginia