On Tuesday July 14th, I received a text message from SWMBO that one of the cows looked like she had become bloated. I was two hours away at gunsmithing school so I texted Miguel and asked him to go take a look. A little while later I checked in with him and yes she was bloated and he already had her in the head gate. We’d discussed what to do if we had any issues while I was gone and we’d agreed he’d just call the vet however Miguel decided he’d seen me put in a trocar enough times and he could do it. This was fine as I’d given him that option when we were making our plans.
I walked out of class and talked Miguel through the surgery, which was nerve racking for both of us and funny in hindsight. Miguel’s English is way better than my Spanish but there are still some words that are hard to understand occasionally, especially when you start using medical terms. After a few minutes Miguel was able to get the trocar installed and relieve the pressure on the cow. It turned out that the cow with bloat was one of our great momma cows, Sprinkles. The next day, Sprinkles surprised us and delivered this little cutie.
Sprinkles normally calves in the fall. This little calf came early as a result of the bloat. However Sprinkles is a great mom and she is doing great taking care of him. He’s was definitely born early as he acts like a day old calf even a week later. He’s doing fine though and is keeping up with everyone else.