Twice during this weekend we had unexpected surprises, we will begin with Saturday. In the morning Mark, Barb, and Katelin got up and while Mark headed out to chore we women worked on some breakfast and got other things around such as laundry and dishes. Once chores were finished here at the house dad came in to grab some breakfast and head off to chore at our other locations. Lunch was made and once Mark came home we ate. I (Katelin) got ready to have a long list of things to do from Mark (dad), which always seems to be longer than the day will allow and today was no exception. The list was something like this...move 15 bales around to the pile (where we grind them for feed), water the hill cows, and fix the hot wire fence in the pasture. Seems simple enough right? NOT and it never is! Moving the bales and watering was easy yes but the next task ha! Once I (Katelin) went out to the pasture with Moose in tow, we started in search for the elusive hot wire fence....that was mysteriously lost...for a short period. While walking to the east I thought to myself I bet this is going to be a great big ball of wire and not going to be fun at all... Well to say the least, I found it...and yes it was a great big ball of tangled mess of wire UGH! It was a pain to even start to get apart...and well I had to call reinforcements...meaning Mom (Barb) and after about 3 hours of where does this one come out...where did my end go? And oh just cut it already!!!!!! Finally we got it all done and strung back out and hooked up to the juice (electric fencer) and we had power! Thank Goodness! Then back to chores and to get ready for a fast and furious Sunday morning.
Sunday morning came and Mark started off at Merle's while I started feeding at home. It was all going according to plan until I saw a calf that wasn't getting up to eat. The calves usually jump at the chance to come and get food before momma does. So I kept feeding until dad came back from the other two places where he chores. I had him come and take a look at him since he still hadn't gotten up. Once the calf was up we could see there was definitely something wrong. It looked like a big volleyball underneath his belly nail. We caught him and dad and I put him into the chute to see what it was. Well neither of us had any idea about what was wrong nor was there anything we could do until after church. So we both headed back to the house to clean up and get ready to go to church.
Once the church service was over we came back home and tried to decide what we were going to do with this calf. Finally dad thought he probably better use the emergency vet line to see if they could at least diagnose the issue and if it wasn't anything big then we would all feel really bad for making our wonderful vet come in on a Sunday afternoon while he should be taking an afternoon nap. But if this large volleyball like mass was something of larger issue we would need the expertise of our great vet. So we hooked up the gooseneck trailer and loaded the calf, then dad looked at me and said go ahead and go. Off I went to Bluestem Veterinary Service in Holland, KS about a 25 minute drive, over hills, rough roads, and through twists and turns, really wasn't that bad except for the bumpy roads part between the county line and Carlton ugh I hate that road. Anyhow back to the volleyball issue, once I arrived at the vet's buildings we unloaded and got the calf into the chute so that the Vet, Mr. Barton could have a closer look. He got that face, the face that no one ever wants to see when things like these happen. He gave me the diagnosis..."well it could be a couple of things, one which I think it is, is an umbilical infection. This is where the calf has an infection from the day that they are born from their umbilical cord and it stays up in their gut and just kind of rots away there. And the other it could be is just a growth, which finally dropped from his gut." And then came the even better news...I hope you can hear the sarcastic-ness of my voice... Mr. Barton “And I think we need to keep him over night no food, or water so that his gut is smaller in the morning. I would like to have him put under general anesthesia so that incase something happens to move or come down I can go straight into surgery instead of having to put him under and wait." Great...was my thought. So the calf was to spend the night without his momma, and he wasn't happy. And neither was my father when I called to give him the news. Great just great. Just what we need on a Sunday. That was some of what he stated. So I came back home with an empty trailer hoping that the calf would be ok and would make it through the surgery.
Monday morning came and we waited to hear back from the vet. Eventually we did. He was up and kicking, but the vet had let us know that with this type of cut, could become infected if he didn't heal right and could become to be a problem. So off I went again to pick up the calf and a couple other things which we needed to stock up on. The calf was so happy to see his momma that even before he got off the trailer they were talking to each other...well Moooing. He was happy and so was she. When they finally were in the pen he went straight to getting his breakfast which he had missed out on. They both are now happy and the calf is still healing from his wounds, but it has been over a week since he has had this surgery and is alive and kicking, oh he even decided he was going to go on a little journey and get out of the pen where we had him in. He was more than happy to get back with momma when I put him in.
So all is back to normal here on the farm. We are calving our spring cows out now, so that means babies! Boy are they cute. There are now 8 total from our heifers and the cows. The babies are all running around and terrorizing their mothers. It has been beautiful weather here for the past few days in the high 40's and lower 50's which has been nice for the calves but it does affect them as well. Hope all is well at your end of the rope. And remember faith like a mustard seed can move mountains. Happy Trails.
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