some days you're the bug...

You may have heard the song- somedays you're the windshield, somedays you're the bug - squished onto it... today turned out to be another one of those kind of days...

the team named the bull calf Nathaniel last night

This morning the ladies milked Infessa, the fresh cow - I have the colostrum in my fridge to prove it- Victor sells it to people, there is a traditional dish made from "first milk" baked in the oven, Garry compares it to cheesecake in taste. However, as the day went on she looked progressively weaker. Garry gave her some dextrose and calcium, although it didn't seem to be milk fever (caused by a mineral inbalance) and her temperature was high, but the temperature outside was in the mid-90s Farenheit for the upteenth day in a row (no rain in sight, it is going to be a record drought at least in this area, with very little to harvest on any crop.)

While I was busy with canning and making pizza for our visitors' last dinner with us before the Bible camp (VBS) closing program in the village church, Garry was waiting for the vet to come check her out. When he arrived after the pizza was eaten, the cow was dead and he was blaming Garry for it- he pulled the calf with this strange contraption, the cow must not have been ready, the cleanings (afterbirth) had not been removed immediately after calving (unlike in Canada and the US where we think it's less harmful to the cow to wait a few days, here they think they must be removed right away to prevent infection.) Any way she was hung up and went to the butcher like the cow the day before, for the hide.

So what killed the two cows? Turns out it looked like yesterday's cow died suddenly from a burst milk artery (the blood loss inside the body is huge and quickly fatal) and according to the post mortem inquiry - at the butchers- this second cow died due to a massive infection from a hole in her large intestine, flooding the inside of her body with manure. This might have happened as the calf was being delivered, since it was backwards - normally the front feet and head come first- the calf's feet were not in the normal position. So both cows died of things that were not usual and not fixable once they happened.

 Some days you are the bug....

The good news...such as it is, is the price of cows to replace these old cows (they were both around ten) is down, with the drought and lack of feed for the winter, cows for sale are plentiful and getting cheaper....