Aug. 13 2008 Pulling calf

Well, I just got back from helping deliver a calf, that didn't need help beign delivered. Confusing? very. I'll get to this later...

My sister Kristina helped me milk tonight. Shes really a big help. (she just turned 14) She loves everything to do with cows and horses. She has 2 horses. I don't love horses, but I do go for a ride once in a while. We had a visitor tonight when we went to get the cows. Somehow, we aqquired 2 sheep to our herd. I don't know who has sheep around us, but they were really cute.

When we were finishing up with the last couple cows, my brother called. He helps at our neighbors farm. (We don't allow him to touch our cows :) He was milking alone because they were at a seminar. He called saying he thought a cow was calving but nothing happened yet. I asked him how long she had been trying, and he said he noticed her when he started milking. But, nothing had changed. I asked if he had vaginally examined her. (I think he puked because he heard his sister say vagina) But he hadn't checked her- he's afraid of female cow parts I do beleive. He begged me to come take a look. We were done milking, and Kristina wanted to take her horse for a ride. So, she saddled up her pony, and I saddled up my horse and we were on our way.

When we got there, my brother was still milking, but he showed us the cow. She was out in the pasture, but he put her in a maternity pen already. She looked like she was trying to calve. Her tail was up and she would arch her back and push, then lay down. This was a very small cow (Actually a heifer) I thought to be calving even though it was a Jersey. I told my brother to keep milking and us girls would figure this out. I got in the pen and pulled a breeding sleeve out of my pocket. I stuffed a few in there before we left home since I figured it would come to this and didn't want to chance it that the neighbor had any. I pulled it on and went up behind her to do a vag. exam. Keep in mind she was in a maternity pen, but there was still room to move around. Kristina held her tail up and I started going in. She actually stood still pretry well, but was super tight. I couldn't tell if it was because she was so small or that she wasn't calving. I couldn't get in her far enough to know and she wasn't liking my dry glove up her vagina by the way it sounded. (I had brought gloves, but - on any lubricant. So, I sent my lil helper to look around. She came back shortly victorious. (It was an actual tube of ky jelly- I didn't ask where she found it. I squirted some on my hand and resumed my exploration. This time My arm easilly slid in the heifer. Her cervix was dilated pretty good. So, she was either aborting a calf or was actually calving. I continued my exam and went in past her cervix. Sure enough, I felt the calf. I was pretty sure it was dead. I tried pulling it out some, but it was pretty good size. My brother came back to see what all the mooing was about. "your raping that poor cow" he said. You want to do this? i asked. He shut up pretty quick. I lubed her up a little more, and got the calf throough the cervix. I eventually got the pulling chains on. We pulled gently and I went in her and tried to stretch her some every so often. Finally the head emerged, and I'd be damned the calf was alive. We pulled some more and soon there was a little calf on the ground- breathing.
I went in the cow again to check on things, and all seemed well, no tears or anything. I pulled my arm out and stripped my bloody glove off in triumph.

So, this was an excellant end to my day. I don't know how tommorow could be better.