[  Mood: Neutral ]
[ Currently: Taking a break….. ]
I went out to do chores this morning, and I found a cow that wouldn’t get to her feet. Never a good thing. Now, I knew she was feeling under the weather, but we have been having such strange weather, temperature differences of close to 40 degrees in 12 hours time and again, which is BAD weather for cows. You’d rather it stayed 10 degrees below zero for two weeks than have it be 30 degrees for a couple of days, then 20 below for a day or two. It just breeds sickness.

But my cows are in damn good shape, and a beef cow can get pretty damn sick and never miss a meal. But sometimes, if it’s caught just right, it’ll just…BANG…keel over. Ol’ Dash had lost an alarming amount of weight.

Took me most all morning, but I finally got her to her feet, and into the barn. Vet came out, gave her some glucose ringers and a couple different antibiotics. But you know what, Doc is real Old School, which was the way Gramps taught me how to farm, he told me that if I really wanted to save this cow, we were going to have to drench her.

What is drenching, you ask? You take an empty wine bottle, fill it full of really thick sugar water, and you bottle feed the ol’ girl. Bottle feeding a thousand pound cow isn’t as much fun as it sounds. It’s probably going to be a lot of work, and a lot of time.

But you know what? I’ll take that route over pumping drugs into her and ignoring her every time. The hands on approach, I think, is better, animals know when you’re helping, and even if all they do is fight you, it gets the blood pumping, and the heart beating.

We live in remarkable times, with remarkable toys and luxuries…but sometimes, old school is the best.

Look for updates on whether ol’ Dash lives or dies.