She was Chippie's calf and due to turn 1 year next month. She was the oldest of our calves and among the first calves to arrive at Tearmunn farm. She was particularly cute; out of all the girls we have here I always had a soft spot for her and wanted to keep her as one of the next generation mother cows. She was a curious little thing, not afraid to come up to us and sniff us or even take some bread or hay from us, and sometimes would even lick our hands.
Cows do have personalities, and she was a very cheery chirpy girl. So many nights we laughed at the antics of her and the other calves as they were going around during their mad half hour. Sometimes even the mums would join in, and we would watch a field full of mad happy cows.
When Satchmo arrived, the calves in particular were curious about him, but only 734 went up to him to lick his nose, and he hers. They seemed to hit it off, she wasn't scared of him and he liked her too. The others would run away at the last minute after which they would watch 734 and Satch from a safe distance.
Yesterday I picked up Ems from the field so I could milk her this morning and all was well. Chippie's new calf is doing well, and 734 had looked a little lost for a few days as her mum basically was busy with a new calf and didn't have any further interest in 734. They still hung out, but Chippie is busy being a mum to her newborn. Lucille looked like she was ready to calve and I decided to make sure I'd check on the herd to see all was well after finishing milking Ems this morning.
PJ also came along as I put Emma back in the field and it looked like all was ok. I saw one calf sitting near the dam, and thought nothing of it; they often sit near the dam either to cool down or to have a little drink. I tickled its head and thought gosh, this one is asleep! Again I thought nothing much of it and was more concerned checking on Lucille who was wandering around, still without calf though. Ma Rainey and Chippie looked ok, so it looked like I could go back inside to work.
PJ came back after me and appeared rather worried. He said, "It looks like Chippie's calf has bloat". I was surprised, after all the calf is only 1 week old, but he was talking about 734. So he started doing some searches on the Internet and also phoned Ian, in the hope that he'd have some suggestions. The symptoms did all point to bloat, were it not that it's the wrong time. Ursula reckoned it could be an early abortion, and I was thinking it might be snakebite as she was near the water.
At about 10.30am PJ and I went down to the dam. We looked at her again and her belly looked so distended. She was foaming at the mouth, so we made the decision to cut her stomach, to relieve the pressure on her stomach and to help her breathe easier and reduce the stress on her heart. The problem with bloat or similar conditions is that the fluid or gas build-up inside the animal rapidly puts pressure on the lungs, heart and other internal organs. This can cause them to fail and then ultimately leads to their death. I was holding her head as PJ stuck a knife in her rumen. It looked awful but she didn't notice. There was a lot of air and foul smelling liquid coming out, so it looked like we were doing the right thing. We reduced the size of her belly by about a third, which was giving us hope, especially as she seemed to be getting a little more comfortable.
At this stage Ursula came running down the field as well, so we ended up with the three of us trying to haul her away from the dam. Lots of dramas, she stood up and then half fell into the dam, it took us a few hours to get her back out and a bit higher up. Every time she looked a little more alert we felt she was getting a bit better, but then she'd have a relapse and moan in our arms. We took turns holding her head up so she could breathe a bit easier.
We had phoned the vet a few times and finally at around 3pm PJ got hold of him and he said he'd be over in the next 2 hours. We battled on and got to a stage where PJ phoned Jamahl to ask him if he could come and help us raise 734 so we could move her to a safer spot. The vet arrived unexpectedly at that time and after checking her over he thought it was most likely an obstruction or snakebite, as the time of the year is just wrong for bloat and the other two problems show the same sypmtoms. Both Ursula and I got annoyed with the guys standing around chatting while 734 was fading in front of our eyes, but finally they moved to get painkillers and whatnot to relieve her discomfort.
After this, things moved fast. PJ and the vet hadn't even walked 200 meters before 734 started convulsing, and within seconds she died in our arms. What felt like about 15 hours later when PJ and the vet returned, we had to tell them there was nothing left to do for our little 734, she was gone. Not long after, Jamahl also arrived to the very sad scene.
I have to say to the vet's defense that as PJ and him walked back to the car to pick up cortizone and such, that he said to PJ he didn't think 734 had long to go and basically that there wasn't anything we could do for her anymore. Still, just because we're females doesn't mean we can't deal with bad news even if we handle it differently from blokes, and I wish he would have just told us so when he was talking to us.
Ursula went home, Jamahl and PJ went to Geeveston to pick up lime to put over 734 to help her decompose and stop the flies from getting to her. They stopped at Wally's and so tomorrow his offsider is coming to help us dig a grave using the escavator, as it's not an easy thing to do by spade for a girl who was already around the 200kg. We used the ute to pull her to the far end of the paddock where there is a peaceful spot for her to be buried.
As for the gory parts: The vet asked us, if we could, to cut her open and check for any obstructions or anything to see what it was in the end, and we did. The good thing was that PJ cut her open at exactly the right spot, without doing any damage anywhere else. The other 'good' thing was that there were no obstructions, or bits of metal, or anything so it wasn't something she ate. The lining of her stomach had a weird colouring, the veins looked like they had all popped and so all signs point towards our poor little girl having been bitten by a snake. I never knew that a snake could kill something that large and I'll be a lot more careful when taking Satch around the paddock from now on. Ursula said that the snakes are very active, particularly at this time of the year and of course they are normally found where there is water.
I know that farmlife has its ups and downs. I also know that you could never enjoy the highs if you didn't experience the lows. But to lose 734 like this out of all the calves we have was a very difficult thing to experience. I can tell myself that she was a very happy calf and no doubt would have lived a long time with us, but it all rings a bit hollow. I'm glad I was there to give her some comfort and I'm glad Ursula and I were there to hold her as she passed away, but really it doesn't make it that much easier. Cutting her open to see what was wrong, and afterwards covering her in lime still made for a very sad picture of our little 734 in the fields.
The wind outside is howling and I don't really know what else to say.
734 (left) trying to get into a bucket of goodies, only last week.
2 comments:
I am so sorry. It is so hard when a lovely animal dies, either at the end of a long life or too early like little 734. She did have a good life, and your grief is the proof of it.
Michalea
She was a cutie alright, our 734, and it's weird not seeing her in the fields today. PJ and I are still a bit shellshocked and are physically really sore from yesterday.
The strange thing is that the other cows probably knew before us that things were bad as at one stage they all came over and wouldn't move, as if they were saying goodbye.
We heard today from a few locals that there have been a few cows dying of snakebite - apparently the snakes are unusually numerous and active this year. Another not so nice side effect of climate change I guess....
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