Meet "Baby-Face"

Since the weather has been so nice, we have done some catching up on spring chores. Early Monday evening I was just about done weeding the herb bed and thought, "now I can get to the chicken fence", when hubby came up out of the bottom field where the cows were. Long story short, we had a first-calving heifer that had abandoned her calf, so it was brought up out of the field and would have to be bottle fed.

While at the auction a few weeks ago I had talked with an Amish neighbor and remembered she told me their milk cow had just calved, so I knew where to go for milk. I made the trip quickly as I could and fortunately they were still up and did have extra milk. When I got back Hubby had made a make-shift pen out of the wind that was starting to blow up pretty strong, and had bedded it with the wood chips we use for the rabbits. We got a quart of milk mixed with one raw egg down her and I gave her a B-Plus shot and nutri-drench. She was a little wobbly but still well enough to drink.

Day2 We gave electrolytes but had to tube that down her because she wouldn't drink, and that seemed to perk her up some. She drank the milk later in the day but we had to get her up to feed her.

Day 3 This morning I heard what could have been the start of pnuemonia in her breathing, so another B shot and Nuflor antibiotic. This afternoon she is able to get up by herself with a little coaxing and willingly drink her milk. When I leave she tries to follow me out the door, which is a good sign. If we can keep the pnuemonia at bay she has a good chance of making it. She was born very healthy, just having a rough start. If anyone has other suggestions I would be glad to hear them.......