A List Of Bovine Problems
1.) Our cow, Maybelle, freshened 11 days ago and we don’t have any milk yet.
2.) Maybelle’s calf, ‘Gus, didn’t nurse for nearly 24 hours missing his window of opportunity to take advantage of the colostrum.
3.) Not that the colostrum isn’t still in the milk. It is. See #1.
4.) Gus has a couple favorite teats and is neglecting the other two. See #3.
5.) ‘Gus now has calf scours. You don’t want to be downwind from ‘Gus unless you are really, really good at holding your breath. He smells just awful!
6.) Scours is just a (not so) fancy name for diarrhea. This isn’t really a problem. More of a puzzle since I can’t figure out why they wouldn’t just call it diarrhea.
7.) I hate it when Google searches remind me that I can’t spell diarrhea. Thankful for spell checker.
8.) It looks like the cause of his scours may be salmonella. (See the link for other causes & symptoms to help identify your scours problem. Ok, not YOUR scours problem. But the scours problem of your calf.)
9.) The potential salmonella diagnosis has triggered a mild case of OCD in our home and everything is viewed as a potential mode of transmitting it to my little people.
10.) The children prefer not to keep me apprised of their bathroom habits so that I may be aware of any cross contamination issues.
11.) We had to learn how to administer an intramuscular injection to a calf.
12.) The medicine is making ‘Gus feel quite poorly. Otherwise he was surprisingly chipper for a sick little guy.
13.) Our cow, Maybelle, freshened 11 days ago and we don’t have any milk yet.
14.) When trying to milk Maybelle, she is kicking so frequently that the task is virtually impossible.
15.) She has flies all over her. We’re experimenting with natural, homemade fly sprays.
16.) We don’t know why she’s kicking. It could be #4. It could be #10. It could be she has a bad attitude. It could be she hates us.
17.) We’re worried mastitis is going to ensue.
18.) I didn’t buy any milk at the store this week. I counted my chickens before they hatched.
19.) I was supposed to make cheese today.
20.) Our virtually free to maintain cow is now costing us money. In vet bills and cow anti-kicking devices.
21.) Did I mention that our cow, Maybelle, freshened 11 days ago and we don’t have any milk yet.
