05/17/2026
May 2, 2026
When the vet clinic knows your voice on the after hours call, it’s not good. Although, this time, they said - “well, at least this one’s before midnight. Lol”.
I don’t know what’s going on.
The day after we lost my Jenny girl, another cow decided to just lay down and not get back up.
69 cow got chased by some horses on a pasture we rented a few years ago and got ran through a junk pile and got cut up really bad. She never really filled out well after we doctored her, but she did get in calf and has been good the last 5 years.
She was down 4 days (we kept dragging her to a new spot and got the dogs to get her attention and make her crawl to a new spot a few times each day). I fed her, grained her, watered her multiple times a day. Gave her metacam, Domcol twice a day, 2 bottles of Calmag each day, first start liquid vitamin drench daily. Tried everything I could think of.
Finally tried the hip lifters from the vet and they worked amazing! Need to get Cooper to weld me up a set!
Had a friend come over that day hoping to visit and hang out bottle feeding calves, tagging a few and enjoying the day.
Boy, was I wrong.
Got the hip lifters on the 69 cow and had her up for about an hour. Dogs ran by and she fell down so lifted her again and supported her for awhile. Then took the lifters off and she walked across the pen and stood for awhile. Then she laid down. Figured that was enough for the day and would try again in the morning.
Went to tag calves and went to eat about 9pm. Checked the calving camera and she was laid out. Thought she was dead. Nope. She was calving. Shoot. No bag and figured she was early. Ran out there and be damned if she didn’t have a vaginal prolapse as well. Checked her and felt a foot close to being out, but no where to go. Figured it was dead, so phoned the vet to see what to do.
They said, oh good, this one’s before midnight. lol.
So we spend an hour or so trying to push the prolapse in and let her calve around it. Then felt two feet, but one bigger and one smaller. They were moving now. Calf is alive. Tried and tried to pull the calf with no luck getting chains on.
Decided about 1am that it was c section or nothing. Being that this cow was down for 4 days, hubby came out and said no more money into her. I said then we better put her down and try to save the calf.
Tried a c section, but the rumen blew out at us. Picture my friend trying to push the rumen back in (was the size of 10 beach balls by this time) while I tried to find the calf underneath. The cow died as we were doing this, so I figured I’d just nick the rumen and let the air out so we could get the calf. Wrong! Stomach contents all over me from head to toe!
Tried to keep from puking, digging for the calf. Found the calf, then another. Twins. One forward and one backwards. A leg from each trying to come out the back end. No wonder we couldn’t get anywhere. And also, her cervix wasn’t dilated!
Everything against us. Literally!
So long story short, dead cow, dead twins, covered in stomach fluid, hauled cow and calves to dead pile at 2am while trying not to puke and cry in front of your friend.
I’m so sorry Vanessa, you probably won’t ever want to come back. That was a crazy wreck.
Makes my heart hurt so bad when you try and try and nothing goes right.
I love the farm, I love ranching, I love this lifestyle. Just hate losing these animals you put your heart and soul into.
