Lula's recovery set back...this part of ranching is the part you don't see much of or hear many speak about I guess. Maybe because we feel as if we've failed on one of the highest levels, maybe because it's just part of life...but lessons come through the good and the bad.
Our injured cow....we've concluded that it was a downed tree that caused her injury. The day she went missing from the herd we optimistically thought she was calving. After a few hours we jumped on the tractor and went to look for her. As we came across the ridge at the upper fence line we found a tree had been blown down by the high winds we'd had the past several days.
We got off and walked another 50 feet or so and there she was. Just over the hill from the downed tree laying on her side in a thicket.
Never dreaming she might be injured, and knowing she was due any time, we kept our distance so if she were in labor we wouldn't disturb the process.
Of course, by early the next day after she had come off the hill and rejoined the herd, the injury was discovered. Again, other than the limp and a spot at the top of her hip, it didn't appear a grave injury, initially we thought she might have scraped too hard against a tree during her shed scratching. Or, possibly one of the herd had gotten rough and caused some soreness and bruising.
We just never put the whole thing together, until the vet visit confirmed the impact must have been a major blow...like, hit by a Mack Truck. We went over every possible scenario, "Did she find a fox or groundhog hole we'd missed?" "Did she stumble and fall into a tree"....a tree?
As Dave and I were going over the possibilities and I was standing at the stove fixing dinner it all fell together. She must have been hit by that falling tree and made it just over the hill before going down.
We don't know if the blow caused any damage to the calf. But, last evening Lula went into labor. By 11:00 last night she still hadn't managed to push the calf out. I left her in the field exhausted. By the time I crawled into bed I was praying for her to get through till morning, that she could expel the calf without having to be darted and it pulled, and knowing there was no hope left the calf might survive.
This morning at daybreak I found her just a few feet from where I left her last night. She was laying facing the stillborn, waiting for any sign of life. The herd was just off from her about a hundred feet, the bulls somewhere out of sight.
I've monitored all morning, only once has she gotten up and left the carcass. And, even then she stayed close, looking back from time to time to see if it needed her. After a drink of cool water and a couple of bites of grass she went back and laid down with the calf again. The herd is staying closer to them now as well after each seemed to hover and take in the loss.
I'll pull the calf as soon as she's reconciled and decided to move on, and then we'll get her back on the healing regime. Till then I'm giving the herd their space to do what comes natural.
Going forward, I know I'll move Heaven and Earth to move the herd from the wooded parts of the farm during high winds, and we'll be busy cutting and clearing anything that looks like it might not withstand the storms.
Rest in peace little soul.
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