Sunday, March 7, 2010

4 weeks old

Here is the little calf born 4 weeks ago, just starting to put on a bit of beef, so to speak. We still have to supplement his milk as his Mum only has milk in one quarter, and she is as skinny as a rake. Mumma cow hardly ate anything for almost 3 weeks and we thought we would lose her but she is picking up , albeit very slowly. She will only eat her hay if it has molasses poured over it.
This is the Mumma cow that had extremely severe mastitis, poor thing. I feel for her. The vet says she will be dry from now and will never regain her ability to feed except for from the back left quarter. Probably some of her teats will fall off!


If you hear I have died from shock it will be because the vet's bill has arrived. LOL
Posted by Picasa

4 comments:

Pip said...

Sweet little calf. I feel sorry for the Mumma cow too. I can only imagine how much the vet's bill will be (going on how much our vet charged us for a visit a while ago)

Olive said...

Hi Pip, this vet has to visit US, and he came 3 times total. Twice to treat the cow and once to deliver some medication. Then there was 2 trips (by us) to his place to pick up some extra syringes full of anti-biotics.
I'm having nightmares !!

Cathy said...

Hello Olive
How quickly do calves grow - is he towering over you yet??
I have memories of vet bills from when I used to breed cats - luckily none of the girls ever needed a c-section or like you I would have died of shock. Now its just yearly checks and vaccinations - much easier on the bank balance
Take care
Cathy

Olive said...

Hi Cathy, It takes about 18 months for cattle to reach adult size and from there on its all filling out, putting on the "beef" LOL

The vet's account arrived yesterday, a little less than I expected but with the cost of replacement milk...2 X 20 kg bags @ $88.00 each its not a cheap exercise. By the time the mother builds up again and the baby is ready to go to market we probably will still be out of pocket. BUT...its much better to know that they have had good care.