First and foremost I am not a writer nor do I have eloquent speech. Fact is I speak a lot like I'm typing this. I'm from Texas and you can definitely tell the moment I open my mouth. A friend of mine on facebook told me I should blog so I'm giving it a try. I post a lot about my experiences with our cows once W goes back to work for 2 weeks. He's in the oilfield and is here 2 weeks and gone 2 weeks. When he's gone it's up to me to take care of all the critters, mainly cows. We have 4 ferrets and 2 mutts also but they don't give me 1/4 the trouble these persnickety cows do and they always wait for W, my husband to leave.
Hunny is a young Holstein cow my husband W bought at the auction ring. Poor baby was skin and bones and is still in rough shape (he bought her on March 8th). I wasn't really attached to her until yesterday when I took her to the vet. One look into her big brown eyes and I was hooked. She is infested with internal parasites, so much so her gums and inner eyelids are white. She is having a hard time and some days I wonder if she will make it, but she's a fighter. I almost lost her in the squeeze chute at the Vet. She is in such a poor state that when she started to lay down in the chute she was squeezing herself to death, literally. It happened so fast and thank God the vet got there when he did because she probably would have died right there. He lifted her head by holding the top part of her mouth and finally she started breathing and bellering. He gave her her vitamin shots and antibiotics, W had already wormed her with Ivomec F. Have you ever had a traumatic experience and started shaking uncontrollably? That's what Hunny was doing. I held her head and scratched her until she stopped. I swear that cow was telling me thank you with her eyes. But she couldn't get up so the Doc pulled and pushed her until she was out of the chute and off to the side where he could work on Leroy's heifers, he was the guy after me and my cow. He was a funny old codger. He was telling me a story of his Beefmaster/Brahma cross cows and the way he worded it was like this: "They started out as Beefmaster/Brahma cross and were mainly red and they they all got white spots" Both me and the Vet were wondering if they started out as Beefmaster/Brahma crosses, what did they end up as? You had to have been there, but I'm digressing.
So there's Hunny laying there and I have to leave her until the next day. I started planning on how I would haul her home if she died (insert sad face) I decided to go back to the Vet's around 10:30 last night and lo and behold Hunny was standing. She still felt like crap, (she told me with her eyes) so I left her some feed and told her I would pick her up tomorrow. I prayed for that cow on the way home and God listened and I'm mighty happy He did. She was still up the next day, which was today so I loaded her up and brought her home. She decided she didn't want to stand while we rode on the rough dirt road and laid down in the trailer. Dang.
So I get her backed into our holding pens and she doesn't want to get up. I don't blame her, it's been a crappy two days (actually longer to be that down from being wormy), so I left her there in the shade and headed out. I needed some good hay for her so I took off to yet another town to get her some Alfalfa hay and more feed. When I get back to her, she is standing, Hooray. I hitched up the trailer again and gave her a short ride to inside the trap. She went directly back into the stock tank and stood there like it was Heaven. Funny thing since she didn't have a fever. Some cows just like to stand in water.
Well that's it for my adventures with Hunny. W said she must have been owned by a woman because he can't get anywhere near her without her walking away from him. I guess he's right because I walk all around her in the trailer and even scratch her head and talk to her.
I really hope she has eaten some more tomorrow and feels better. I also have to check on the other cows including young heifers that are fixing to calve. It's been so hectic around here lately.
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