The Veterinarian

Yesterday we had our first two babies in the month of July.  They are also the first babies to be born for about two weeks.  It has been a long time since we've gone two weeks without any babies being born.  Yesterday morning we pulled this little guy out during the morning milking. 

 



And then during the evening milking this little one decided to make his appearance. 

 

 

When we left the farm last night everyone was happy and seemed to be healthy.  This morning things were a different story.  The black cow that gave birth yesterday evening had prolapsed sometime during the night and this is what dad and I had waiting for us this morning.  Having something go wrong overnight is something that I literally have nightmares about.  This could mean I spend too much time at the farm, but it's true.  I've had nightmares about everything from cows prolapsing, to having twins or triplets, or giving birth in a snowstorm and the baby freezing to death.  I'm pretty sure this nightmare trait is something that my worry wart of a father has passed down to me. 

 

Anyway since this is something we discovered at 4:45 this morning this was obviously a time of day that most people are still sleeping.  Luckily for us we have an amazing veterinarian who answers the phone anytime of night or day.  His name is Dr. Fox.  His dad and him are both veterinarian's and they have both always been up to help us out whenever they are able to.  Right before 5am I called him up, he answered and I explained what was happening.  The vet lives about 25 minutes away from the farm so after he got everything together and made the drive it was a little after 6am when he got there.  The cow was still in distress, but she had gotten up and moved herself once.  Dr. Fox put everything back in it's correct place and stitched her up.  Thankfully he thinks she'll be okay. 

 

In our area there are three different vet's that we deal with.  You have to have more than one vet that you can work with because schedule's conflict and not everyone is willing to take a phone call at 5am.  Dr. Fox is the only vet in our area that is willing to take on the demands of our dairy.  The other vet's out here are more of the Monday through Friday, 8-5 kind of people.  When you run a dairy it is imperative to have a veterinarian who is willing to work with the weird schedule and the calving season's that you have.  The vet you work with can make or break you in a lot of cases. 

 

You may wonder why this is something we would call the vet for instead of taking care of it ourselves.  The reason why is because she is a dairy cow.  Dairy cow's are worth lots of money and when it comes to their health no expense is spared.  They not only produce milk, but they also provide you with at least one calf per year.  If you need to know what milk is worth pay attention to how much your spending on it in the grocery store next time you go shopping.  Add that to the price of being able to raise up her calf and then sell it or keep it to bring back into the herd and you have yourself a nice little pile of money.  Many large dairies will have their own veterinarian's on their payroll that only take care of their dairy cows.  Some dairy farmers feel comfortable doing all of the medical necessity's for their animals, but my dad and Frank are not those kind of guys.  They don't feel comfortable enough performing it themselves so they call in the expert. 

 

I still have seven pregnant cows that are due to pop at any moment.  With my luck they will probably all come within this week, but here's to hoping I don't have to make any more phone calls to the vet.