Frantic Call to the Vet

On Wednesday, my family headed into Colonial Williamsburg for a day of history and entertainment. The Plantation has Milking Devons, but the Plantation closes on Wednesday, so we didn’t see their cows.

We had left my phone at our home farm, so Ken and Cheri could reach us if necessary. When we entered the Colonial Williamsburg Complex, Phil noticed that his phone was almost dead, and left it behind in the car.

All day we enjoyed the craftsman, and when we sat down to dinner in George Washington’s favorite seafood restaurant, we were startled to find that my brother-in-law had taken a call from Cheri.

She had tried to reach us all day, and, in desperation, finally tried searching my phone to find a number where we could be reached.

Of all the awful things we could have done to a caretaker, this one is, quite possibly, the absolute worst: to leave without contact for twelve critical hours. (Murphy’s Law: it would have to be the one day of the year when we were out of cell service.)
Thankfully, the calf was okay, though appeared more listless than preferable.

But one of our yearling heifers was ill. Michelle Bessette came over and took her temperature (once again, how blessed we are with such amazing neighbors), noted the panting, foaming cow, and suggested that, with a fever of over 104, we should get a vet to come.

So we called the vet, after hours, to look at our heifer.

In retrospect, there was a triple blessing in that. Obviously, he checked our heifer.

Also, I asked him to look at Bianca. One of her teats is larger than the other three, and I was a bit worried about that quarter: what if baby Beatrice couldn’t nurse? Might we have mastitis on our hands? The vet checked for that: no problems.

He did say, though, that the calf was more sluggish than he would like to see. He recommended some form of shade, which Ken and Cheri set about constructing.

Finally, with BB’s potential bottle jaw, I asked him to pull fecal samples from both the sheep and the cows, to make sure that the parasites were not infesting the cows as well.

With great thanksgiving, I heard that the cows were clean. The sheep do have some parasites, but sort of mid-range for sheep. Considering we used a natural dewormer one time with Ashley and Acorn last October, the sheep we have are not terribly susceptible to parasites. (Most sheep are chemically dewormed on a regular basis.)

Notwithstanding, we plan to be more cognizant of what month it is, and make sure we do garlic juice, and some of the natural products we have, more regularly.

The heifer looked much better by the time the vet arrived. He went ahead and did an antibiotic because she was still feverish.

Was it medically necessary? We have no way to know, and were a good four hours away. She won’t be milking for another two years anyway, so, necessary or not, we hope it did no harm. Mostly we’re just so thankful that she is yet alive.