But I was asleep most of the time and did not even realize it. I do have some new heroes though, and they saved her life.
I had tried to drink a lot today, but have a very small tummy, and my mom has a HUGE bag. The lady that came this morning when I was born kept coming to see me all day, and this afternoon she was going to milk some out of my mom. Her friend Dru happened by and wanted to see me, I guess newborns are somewhat of an attraction. When they put a rope on my mom to lead her, my mom stumbles, staggered and almost fell down! Milk Fever!
Dru stayed with me and the lady went home to get an IV and calcium gluconate, and since the rude man who lifted my tail this morning was not home, she brought a neighbor named Chris who was thankfully home.
They tried to poke my mom in the meadow with this huge needle, but she kept falling and fighting the needle. They brought her to the pen so she could be still. She tried very hard, but she fell down and was giving up. She started to bloat up, her eyes rolled back into her head and all I could hear was the lady saying over and over, “Don’t die Annabelle, Don’t die Annabelle.”
Dear Dru held the bottle of calcium and it all went into her vein. When she saw me, she snapped out of it and got up, but was still staggering. She did get better very soon though, but they kept saying she is not out of the woods.
But at least she can walk and is feeling better, thanks to my new heroes Chris and Dru. By the way, I finally have a name: Christopher!
The rude man finally got home and he was going to give my mom another bottle of calcium and make her drink it.
We were resting peacefully.
He puts the bottle in her mouth, over her tongue, and makes sure she swallows it.
He keeps pouring it in, a little at a time, and she drinks it all.
I think my mommy is very brave to take her medicine.
and she does not spit any out.
The man goes to the river to get water
as my mom needs a lot of water to make a lot of colostrum and milk for me.
The man leaves to take their little girl to a neighbor and says he will be back soon. My lady waits for him, and then ties up my mom by the mineral feeder. She is not interested in any calcium there, and maybe she has had enough for now.
She wants to see if my mom has mastitis, and to get some of the pressure off of her udder.
I want to see what is going on as well, as she milks out a gallon and a half of colostrum from the quarters I did not drink on. She does not want to milk out too much because of the milk fever. It looks like there is a LOT more left in for me. whew!
The man does not come back for a long time and it is getting cold, dark and lots of mosquitoes. It is past 9:30 and the lady says that maybe Coors called the man and did not want to leave him a message.
It seems that she had one in her basket as well.
(Edit June 26 am.
I don’t know why, but milk fever was not on my radar. We were just so happy the calf was alive and there were no problems since Luit had to pull Siegfried a couple of years ago and he almost died, and then she lost her calf last year. I had stocked up on three bottles of Calcium Gluconate, Dextrose and the IV tubes, and thank goodness, because she would have died if we had not had that on hand.
“Milk Fever, aka parturient paresis, occurs generally in the day or so after calving and is caused by a drastic draw of calcium out of body for the purpose of lactation (secreting milk, high in calcium), particularly in high producing dairy cattle. Milk fever may include an imbalance in other nutrients, which is why CMPK (for Calcium – Magnesium – Phosphorus – Potassium) tends to work better than a simple Calcium/dextrose bottle. First time calving cows rarely get milk fever and the incidences of milk fever increase with age as milk production tends to also increase with age. Each calving presents higher risk of milk fever.” from Spirited Rose Farm
As always, my dear and wise friend Kelli gets some panic calls, and she gives great advice. She said that if we could not have gotten the IV in her vein, then she could have been given shots under her skin, sub-cutaneous, with a regular syringe, in several places. An additional bottle can be given by mouth, and she suggested using a large syringe without the needle and squirt it in her mouth in the back for her to swallow. I did not have to do that because Luit knew how to drench her with a wine or in this case, an olive oil bottle.
Kelli also said she needs good alfalfa hay (only after calving) and very good pasture with clover, as all of those have lots of calcium. She does have that and was eating well last night.
If I had been thinking I would have reread these great posts from Spirited Rose Farm on how to administer and IV for milk fever and her amazingly informative post on Milk Fever.
Luit has been down there checking on everyone this morning, and is not back yet. Fingers crossed.)
(all’s well. whew.)
