Maddie Moo - MIDWIFE!

Wah Hoo!!!  It FINALLY happened!!! Posey's calf has arrived!
Here's how it all happened...

Posey around 5:00 check

Wednesday evening we checked Posey around 5:00.  She was with all the other cattle standing in the shade by the water tank.  We noticed that she was breathing really fast like we saw Faith doing for days before she delivered.  She was sweet and loving and did not shy away.  I had a meeting, so I got dressed up (like a little lady), went to my meeting, and then came back to do chores and check on Posey again afterward.  We joked on the way about the moon looking full and how a full moon can make a female go into labor.

Cutting open the sack.  White hooves.

When we got to the farm it was dark.  Mom shined the flashlight across the fence to see who was up at the feeder waiting on us.  Everyone was there...except Posey.  That was a good sign.  So she shined the flashlight all around the field.  She said she thought she saw white out of the corner of her eye.  Sure enough, it was Posey's white belly glowing in the moonlight.  She was lying flat on her side.  When we got down to the bottom of the field, we could see a liquid filled sack with two white hooves sticking out of her.

Christy was out of town at the Ag teacher conference, so we called her to find out what to do.  She talked us through it all a little at a time.  We must have made four or five phone calls.  We were at the farm two years ago and saw a birth, but we didn't touch anything until after the calf was born.  We wanted to make sure that we didn't do anything wrong.  Mom had even watched a YouTube video that evening in the truck while I was in my meeting.  She was trying to refresh her memory on how everything was supposed to look.  (Awesome timing, Mom!)

We let Posey push a little more.  Then I cut open the sack.  We cleared off the nose with clean white cotton shop towels.  We kept the calf alert and breathing by touching her lower jaw and bridge of her nose.  That was weird.  Two hooves, a nose, and a tongue sticking out.

Nose and tongue, white feet and hooves.

We held her just above her hooves and pulled ONLY whenever Posey pushed.  We weren't trying to pull the calf out or remove her.  We were just making Posey's pushes more productive.  Posey got up and walked around and pushed for five minutes or so and then laid back down and pushed some more.  The calf's  head just wasn't moving out well, so Mom laid her hand on the opening (vulva) and just gently pushed it up and over the eyes and forehead.  Posey didn't tear or anything.  We were glad.  It was weird because the calf's head was sticking out and it opened its eyes and started looking at us.  Then the pushes got really productive and we had the calf on the ground before we knew it.  We checked, yep, it was a girl!  Yea!!!

Two seconds after touching the ground

Posey took to her right off and licked her good.  Then the calf started stirring like she was trying to stand up!  We had to move fast.  I ran and got the wheelbarrow.  We loaded up the little slippery sucker and pushed her up the hill to the pen.  I led Posey and Mom pushed the wheelbarrow.

Momma is cleaning her up.

We laid the calf on the soft hay beside the hay ring.  Posey licked her more.  I got to use my new Vetericyn umbilical cord spray!

We waited while she (Prim) tried to stand.  Then we worked with her on nursing.  Worst nurser EVER!  She would just barely get the teat in her mouth and lose it.  We would push her up closer, and she would resist us.  We would get her on and Posey would shift over one or two inches and we had to start all over again.  It was SO TIRING!!!  Much more tiring than helping with the delivery!  Finally she had enough and wouldn't nurse anymore.  She was even more tired than we were.  We were worried that she wouldn't have had enough nutrition to last her through the night.  She made it just fine.  She was just tired of us messing with her.  The next morning she was rested and alert and was a MUCH better nurser!   She filled up good.  She's been prancin' and dancin' every day since!
Welcome to the world, Godbless Burdette Primrose!!!  Everybody, this is Prim.  Prim, this is everybody!

Baby Prim, less than 12 hours old.

We can't BELIEVE how much she looks like her momma!  She's just got less white.  Even the triangle on her forehead is like hers, except in reverse.

(2010) Baby Posey's first day.

                                                                               






See the resemblance?

(2010) Baby Posey less than 24 hours old.

                                                                                   

Posey went to the dairy to live with other Ayrshire show cows.  It's the same dairy where I sold Faith.  So they won't be lonely.  They will be friends again! 

I can't wait to see what kind of condition Posey is in by TULSA STATE FAIR time!  That will be my next opportunity to show her.  I sure hope she is good.  People have always thought that she would be a better cow than she was a heifer.  She did okay as a heifer, but it would be nice to see her do even better as a cow.  We also wonder what her udder will look like after the swelling (edema) goes away from pregnancy/delivery.  

You just never know what could happen.  I hope she stays healthy.  I feel really good about her being at Hall's Dairy.  She will get great care there.  I sure do hope that other people think she's as great as I do!   I wonder if she will "track better in her back legs" since she has a big ol' udder to keep them apart?  At least I hope it's a BIG ol' udder.  It sure looked big the last time we saw her!  

After her first trip to the dairy parlor!

I miss her.  She's the first calf I raised up.  I know I've only had her for two years or so, but I feel like she's been with me forever.   

I can't wait to see her at TULSA!

Little Prim follows me around the pen just like her momma did.  We run and jump and play.  She's like her momma, but I think that Prim just might have a little more personality.    


  

Vetericyn products have arrived!!!

Yea!  I got a delivery!  I received my winnings from the Proud To Dairy photo contest!  I got four bottles of pink eye spray, one teat spray, and one umbilical/navel spray.  I immediately used the pink eye spray.  (Not on me, on one of my girls!)  With these hot, dry, windy, fly-infested conditions, we are trying to keep the animals from getting pink eye.  This sprays GREAT.  It really soaks the eye.  It's much easier to use than the dry puffer that I've always used in the past.  It gives a good big squirt every time.  It really soaks in.  It also looks like it doesn't irritate their eyes like the puffer does.  I'm hoping the medicine works great, too.

From Progressive Dairyman 07-21-12

For those of you who don't know, pink-eye is a condition that happens when the bacteria from feces (otherwise known as poop) gets in the eye.  Animals have flies around them because flies like to land on poop and lay their eggs.  When they land, bacteria sticks to their legs.  When those flies buzz around animals and land around the eyes, some of that bacteria gets in the eyes.  Then they can get pink eye.

You need to control flies.  Pesticides can be sprayed or poured on.  We don't use back rubbers that the cattle can walk under because we don't want their topline hair rubbed thin.  If you don't have any neighbor cattle, you can use a product that the animals can eat combined with a loose mineral (a feed-through like Clari-fly).



I have had some really good success by offering my girls a yellow sulphur mineral block along with their regular brown mineral block.  Before that, I was starting to feel like Clem in the cartoon.

Thanks again to the people at Proud To Dairy, Progressive Dairyman, and Innovacyn for having the contest and sending me these great products for my girls!  Thanks Alan Leavitt, Walt Cooley, Emily Caldwell, and Tabitha Cromer!  I will think of you all every time I use or talk about these products!
My parents say thanks too, because you are saving them some MONEY!

...and the winner is...Maddie Moo!!!

THANK YOU SO MUCH TO EACH AND EVERY PERSON WHO TOOK TIME OUT OF THEIR DAY AND WENT TO THE PROUD TO DAIRY SITE AND VOTED FOR MY PHOTO!

AND EXTRA SPECIAL GREAT BIG GIANT THANKS TO THE PEOPLE WHO WERE RESPONSIBLE FOR SPONSORING AND RUNNING THIS PHOTO CONTEST:

TABITHA CROMER 

Marketing Communications Manager

at Innovacyn, Inc. (the makers of Vetericyn)

ALAN LEAVITT 

Publisher 

Progressive Dairyman magazine

WALT COOLEY 

Editor  

Progressive Dairyman magazine

and 

EMILY CALDWELL

Web editor

Progressive Publishing

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PROUD TO DAIRYby Progressive Dairyman

THE CHALLENGE

Show us your pride:  Participate in the June Dairy month photo contest!

Do you have a Proud to Dairy hat? Snap a photo of yourself wearing it and upload it to Proud to Dairy for a chance to win prizes from the makers of Vetericyn Wound Spray: http://proudtodairy.ning.com/profiles/blogs/show-us-your-pride-participate-in-the-june-dairy-month-photo. Don't have a hat yet? Earn one by posting a blog or video and tell us why you're Proud to Dairy!

*******

So I made a blog post AND I posted a video.  They sent me TWO hats!  I put my hair up in a bun, headed out to do chores, stuck my Proud To Dairy hat on my head, and Mom snapped DOZENS of photos with her cell phone.  Eventually we got some good ones. 

Do I look PROUD TO DAIRY, or what?

Photo contest winner:  ME!!!

Tell her what we have for her, Johnny!

  TWO of these

and one of these!

These prizes have a combined value of  $120 (or more, depending on where you buy them)!!!

I had my choice of three products.  The third option was Umbilical, Navel & Udder gel.  I figured with as many flies as there are, I had better get two of the pink eye spray.  Darn those flies!  I will NOT let them get the best of MY girls!  As soon as these come in the mail, I'm going to be heavily armed!  I've already used Vetericyn wound spray and liked it a lot.  That's why I was extra excited about this contest.  I wanted some more Vetericyn products for my supply box!  They are GOOD stuff!

Thanks again to all the individuals who made this contest and these prizes and my WIN possible! 

Thank you!  Thank you!  THANK you!

 

Look what I got!

The two beef calves went to the sale Saturday, and in their place, I got a little bull calf and named him...

are you ready..?

... Pretty Boy Floyd!!!  (He's just so PURDY!)

He's a Brown Swiss bull calf, about a week old, born on a dairy.

Here he is getting to know his new wet nurse, Ayan.

(Ayan had a couple teats that were kind of cracked.  It looked like one of the calves had used its teeth a lot.  We got some Vetericyn wound spray and gave her some relief before we put another round of calves on her.)

Part of the deal of using the trailer was to wash it out, so after Pretty Boy was taken care of, I had to clean up the mess from hauling off the beef calves and bringing him home.  Mom held the flashlight and kept

Cleaning out the stock trailer in the dark

me company.  She kept trying to help
spray the floor down, but I wouldn't
let her.







We gave Floyd and Ayan just over a week to level out her production, but she's a milking producing machine, so we needed one more mouth for her to feed...so we got Bucko!

I'll keep Floyd and Bucko on Ayan for the next two months until Faith calves.  Then I'll take them to the auction and put Faith's calf on Ayan.  Faith will also need a new home.  I don't know yet if she will calve at Windy Hill or at her new home.  We just have to see what kind of sale arrangements we can make.  "Dear Lord, please help me find a good home for Faith...QUICKLY."