Calf Pulling
I got to see my first calf pulling last night! If you can't understand my excitement, remember that I am a vet student and we also get excited about "neat lesions" in pathology lab.
Last night I had settled down to procrastinate a bit by reading the Companions (a Mennonite youth/adult Sunday school paper). A truck drove up behind the house, and I (correctly) assumed it was someone coming to check on the beef cattle in a pasture nearby. After some time the person came up to the house to ask for warm water. One of the cows was trying to calve and he thought the calf was upside down. Hearing that I was a vet student (who had never pulled a calf), he said I could come watch - so I took him up on it.
Shortly, another truck pulled in. The new arrival used to live on a dairy and had helped maybe a hundred cows calve (unlike the first person who had never pulled a calf). Arrivals 1 & 2 went to drive the cow up to the shed. Not long after another truck pulled in with the first person's dad and brother. The cow was driven into the shed and tied to a post on the periphery (after considering another post more in the middle of the shed and deciding against it due to the weight of hay in the loft - if the cow pulled the post out, we might not fare well) and arrival #2 prepared the calf and cow for pulling. It turned out the calf was breech (ie backwards), and he decided to go ahead and pull it that way instead of trying to turn it around. He tied baling twine to the hooves, and applied brute force until the calf came through. They hung it from a diving wall (it was rather limp) and he got it to sneeze.
This morning I went out to get a flashlight I had left in the shed, and the calf seemed to be doing well.
Last night I had settled down to procrastinate a bit by reading the Companions (a Mennonite youth/adult Sunday school paper). A truck drove up behind the house, and I (correctly) assumed it was someone coming to check on the beef cattle in a pasture nearby. After some time the person came up to the house to ask for warm water. One of the cows was trying to calve and he thought the calf was upside down. Hearing that I was a vet student (who had never pulled a calf), he said I could come watch - so I took him up on it.
Shortly, another truck pulled in. The new arrival used to live on a dairy and had helped maybe a hundred cows calve (unlike the first person who had never pulled a calf). Arrivals 1 & 2 went to drive the cow up to the shed. Not long after another truck pulled in with the first person's dad and brother. The cow was driven into the shed and tied to a post on the periphery (after considering another post more in the middle of the shed and deciding against it due to the weight of hay in the loft - if the cow pulled the post out, we might not fare well) and arrival #2 prepared the calf and cow for pulling. It turned out the calf was breech (ie backwards), and he decided to go ahead and pull it that way instead of trying to turn it around. He tied baling twine to the hooves, and applied brute force until the calf came through. They hung it from a diving wall (it was rather limp) and he got it to sneeze.
This morning I went out to get a flashlight I had left in the shed, and the calf seemed to be doing well.
posted by Claire at 10:51
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