I thought I would tell all of you what kind of crazy time I had last night-this is a long post.
Saturday was my 1st day off in 3 weeks & I fully planned to make the most of it & let my hair down. So Friday night came along & I went to the local pub. At about 1am (after just 1 beer), I decided to check how my calves were doing because the dairy is right next to the pub & I had a tiny heifer with complications. So off I tramp in my really nice clothes. I gave her a bottle without getting dirty & saw that a cow was going into labor. I went back to the pub & decided to check her in an hour just to make sure that things were OK. Continued socializing with my good friends & then excused myself for 5 min to check on expectant mom.
She has a little heifer at her side! That's fine but it looks small so although we havn't had twins all year, something makes me go get out the shoulder gloves & check for another baby. Push my handbag out of the way & in I go. What on earth is this...feels like a balloon? Shouldn't be here...lets see if I can reach around it.......
POP!
Curse, splutter, gasp & mutter
Now my lovely white party clothes are completely soaked in blood & birth fluid from collar to leather shoes-not to mention my hair
So now that the party is over for me, I may as well continue. I take off my watch & bag & in I go again. Yup, there's another one, upside down & backwards actually. So there's no way that she is going to have this alone-she isn't even having contractions. I get the ropes & try to get a rope around its legs but it's so deep inside, it would probably be easier to pull it out the cow's throat
I couldn't get things working so I called a co-worker who was behind the bar & asked him to come give me a hand. As you can imagine, he was thrilled
So luckily, I eventually get a rope around it's legs & we pull but it's stuck so I can't get the machine & the ropes to meet...we do it by hand. Pull the baby out and....
it's not breathing
I ask my friend to hold my hair out my face & start pounding this thing to get it breathing before it's little heart stops beating-it is supplied with oxygen inside the mother so it's heart beats fine when it 1st comes out but if it doesn't breathe soon, the heart stops.
So back to me pounding-it's not working. So I put an arm down it's throat to pull as much mucus out as I can. Still not working. Then just as I was going in for a nasty session of mouth to mouth, it BREATHES!
About time too. It took some time & more pounding to get it regular but it worked. I then had to get mom away from calf #1 because she is ignoring #2 so I grab the baby & hightail it out of the stall. I put baby down, climbed the fence to pull her under from the other side & went splat-guess it was further to the ground than I thought. My hand hurt a lot but I continued & put both babies on the tractor & took them to the nursery. They got infrared lamps & their milk which they drank well.
I left a few bits out involving what happened to my clothes due to this being a family site but I think you guys get the point & we have 2 new healthy babies! I got home at 5am & slept the whole of my day off, only waking when my replacement called me in the evening to tell me that everyone was doing well. Had to tell someone & everyone here is sleeping now.
Saturday was my 1st day off in 3 weeks & I fully planned to make the most of it & let my hair down. So Friday night came along & I went to the local pub. At about 1am (after just 1 beer), I decided to check how my calves were doing because the dairy is right next to the pub & I had a tiny heifer with complications. So off I tramp in my really nice clothes. I gave her a bottle without getting dirty & saw that a cow was going into labor. I went back to the pub & decided to check her in an hour just to make sure that things were OK. Continued socializing with my good friends & then excused myself for 5 min to check on expectant mom.
She has a little heifer at her side! That's fine but it looks small so although we havn't had twins all year, something makes me go get out the shoulder gloves & check for another baby. Push my handbag out of the way & in I go. What on earth is this...feels like a balloon? Shouldn't be here...lets see if I can reach around it.......
POP!
Curse, splutter, gasp & mutter
Now my lovely white party clothes are completely soaked in blood & birth fluid from collar to leather shoes-not to mention my hair
So now that the party is over for me, I may as well continue. I take off my watch & bag & in I go again. Yup, there's another one, upside down & backwards actually. So there's no way that she is going to have this alone-she isn't even having contractions. I get the ropes & try to get a rope around its legs but it's so deep inside, it would probably be easier to pull it out the cow's throat
So luckily, I eventually get a rope around it's legs & we pull but it's stuck so I can't get the machine & the ropes to meet...we do it by hand. Pull the baby out and....
it's not breathing
I ask my friend to hold my hair out my face & start pounding this thing to get it breathing before it's little heart stops beating-it is supplied with oxygen inside the mother so it's heart beats fine when it 1st comes out but if it doesn't breathe soon, the heart stops.
So back to me pounding-it's not working. So I put an arm down it's throat to pull as much mucus out as I can. Still not working. Then just as I was going in for a nasty session of mouth to mouth, it BREATHES!
About time too. It took some time & more pounding to get it regular but it worked. I then had to get mom away from calf #1 because she is ignoring #2 so I grab the baby & hightail it out of the stall. I put baby down, climbed the fence to pull her under from the other side & went splat-guess it was further to the ground than I thought. My hand hurt a lot but I continued & put both babies on the tractor & took them to the nursery. They got infrared lamps & their milk which they drank well.
I left a few bits out involving what happened to my clothes due to this being a family site but I think you guys get the point & we have 2 new healthy babies! I got home at 5am & slept the whole of my day off, only waking when my replacement called me in the evening to tell me that everyone was doing well. Had to tell someone & everyone here is sleeping now.
