New Calf

[dave77]

Does Donkey tolerate Princess Fiona?

[BrokenolMarine]

Does Donkey tolerate Princess Fiona?

Actually, No.
Fiona used to go to the barn with Mom and help Herd the chickens into the coop. She was good at it and the grin on the little gals face showed how much she enjoy working and pleasing Mom. Donkey has always been protective of Miss T and a bit jealous, and again, hates Canines, anything Canine. He had come up thru the woods behind the coop and BOOM, flashed out of the woods and charged Fiona while Tina was in the feed room of the coop getting the grain for the chickens.

She's small, but she's Quick.
Fiona heard the hoofbeats and Zoomed around the new barn, thru the breezeway, out the other end and under the barbedwire fence and was yelping the entire time. Tina was out of the feed room in a shot and ON donkey like a Rocket Launcher and smacked him with a Riding Crop across his haunches as many times as she could before he left a fire trail back up the path to the North Pasture.

Fiona had come straight to the house, and rung HER doorbell, to be let in and got in my lap shivering. (Yup, one on the steps at the front and back doors, she paws it and it rings a bell in the house... spoiled rotten.)

Tina checked her over thinking Donkey had connected and might have broken something. Fiona limped pretty badly for a few days but was fine after that. I pulled the camera footage from the coop/barn area and it clearly showed he never got within ten yards of her... The Princess is Quick.
She was limping due to the strain of her reaction. (When she was a pup, she had major knee issues in a back leg and had to have surgery to correct it, and has pins in that leg.)

NOW, If donkey is loose in the pastures, Fiona doesn't go in the pastures. If he is in the paddock, she doesn't go into the paddock/barn area. Mostly she'll go to the barn with MOM and sit outside the barbed wire calmly and wait for her to come back out and walk back to the house with her, or walk down with her to the barn then come immediately back up and ring the bell to be let in. She avoids Donkey... she's quick, but more importantly, the gal is SMART.

[BrokenolMarine]

It has been a bad week for Miss T. A hard week. Miss Molly was up the second day after the Milk Fever, but down that evening. T-Bone recovered nicely and was the energizer bunny, running and leaping around the paddock at 2 days, and a bundle of joy. He was obviously a baby boy, stubborn and demanding... NOW mom, Now...

Sadly, it appeared that Mom aspirated bad things into her left lung when she went down on that side during her seizure, and it turned into Pneumonia. We had become the Vet's best friend over the last week, and He had become Miss T and Molly's. Molly was more than just Tina's milk cow, she belongs to our daughter in Southern Oklahoma, we took her to free up space in her barn, and Miss T has always taken great care of our animals, and CARED for them as well. They have names and aren't numbers. They are pets.

Tina has been treating Miss Molly 24/7 for the last week, getting up in the middle of the night to check her temps and give her meds...
but Molly failed to beat the illness. It's over.
Tina is exhausted.

Miss Tina called a friend - He came through for us and his nephew and young wife came today and picked up T-Bone and they will bottle feed him.
Tina gave them the calf based on need and a promise of a good home for the little fella.


It's been a bad week. Tina noticed that the barn standpipe failed and we have our guy coming in the morning to replace that, and the old line running to it...

Blessed we can get someone out. Not always the case these days.

[dave77]

So sorry for your loss. Have never had a pet cow but have had my horse and many goats that were pets and hard to lose.

Good that you have a good large animal vet. Our only local large animal vet is wanting to retire and is having a difficult time finding someone to take over his practice. Seems that most vets graduating now would much rather be treating small animals in a nice clean and comfortable exam room instead of making farm calls. There is a young vet here that I was able to get to euthanize a very sick goat when my regular vet was out of town but he really only specializes in treating horses.

[BrokenolMarine]

So sorry for your loss. Have never had a pet cow but have had my horse and many goats that were pets and hard to lose.

Good that you have a good large animal vet. Our only local large animal vet is wanting to retire and is having a difficult time finding someone to take over his practice. Seems that most vets graduating now would much rather be treating small animals in a nice clean and comfortable exam room instead of making farm calls. There is a young vet here that I was able to get to euthanize a very sick goat when my regular vet was out of town but he really only specializes in treating horses.

When we were in VA, and first married, Miss Tina had a LONG relationship with a large animal Vet that made farm calls. She met her when she first started her practice and Tina was available while the kids were in school. The Vet quickly discovered that Tina's background and experience was helpful when they ran into each other on the various calls, and she knew all the farmers. Tina enjoyed working with the animals and the Vet often call to see if Tina could accompany her on farm calls when she needed an extra skilled hand for this or that.

Eventually, the VET became comfortable enough that she would often tell the Farmer that if they liked, Miss T could come out and change the dressings or clean the wounds for them if they weren't comfortable doing it and save them her farm calls fees. She assured them that Tina would call her immediately if she felt the VET was needed. This freed up HER time for more pressing matters, and the farmers paid Tina a small sum for every visit.

After a few years in practice, she had several paid assistants and no longer needed Tina but never forgot who was there when she needed her. If WE needed Vet services, large or small, we never had to pay the farm call fee, just the meds and associated materials, or labor if she had to perform surgical procedures. Plus, if Tina called, the VET showed up. It was just one more in the string of "guys" (gals?) we hated to leave behind when we left VA.

We tried several practices when we got here, but stumbled onto the Doc we use now through a friend. Doc Warren has LONG been retired. He is in his 70s and only takes on new clients when HE feels like it. He works from his home, answers his "Office cell himself" and stays as busy in retirement as he did in the practice. (His words.) He came out to check a sick cow the first year for us, and he and Tina hit if off immediately. He took us ON as clients because he could see the care Tina put into the animals and the facilities. WE are lucky to have him on the "Team."

[Sir Henry]

Sorry for your loss. Keep us posted on T-Bone.

[JEBar]

sorry to hear this .... there is no doubt that you guys gave it your best

[BrokenolMarine]

Sorry for your loss. Keep us posted on T-Bone.

T-Bone left yesterday evening with a young man who looked like a lumberjack. He showed up in a crewcab pickup, lifted the five day old calf up and put him in the back seat. Fiona supervised and looked over her shoulder to ask me where Tee was going. After the young man left, I took Fiona for a ride in the UTV. We got to the end of the road, and the pickup was stopped and both doors on the truck were open on the driver's side were open.

I pulled up and rolled my window down. "Everything okay?"

He looked over his shoulder. Laughed.

"I got it now." I could see he was tying T-Bone down with the halter and lead line in the back seat. "He must think he is a dog, he tried to climb into the front seat."

[Hatchdog]

Sorry for all Tina had to go thru this week and for Molly too. I bet Tina got a laugh when you told her the calf who would be a dog story. I’m sure that helped a little bit.

[BrokenolMarine]

We had hoped that Molly would pull through, but we won't make an animal suffer so we don't have to make the decision. We had a friend who kept his old cat alive for five or six years longer than he should have by giving it about $200 a month worth of drugs.... it was like a Stephen King Pet Cemetary thing, ghosting thru the house. His wife, Tina and I had all told him it was TIME to let her go, but "She has been my best friend for so long," was his excuse. The same thing happened with his two dogs. Meds until they finally passed on their own in spite of the drugs. NOT fair to the animals.