Jan 30, 2018 3 min read

Carl, our blind bottle calf, is doing well. He had a slight bout of the runs for a few days, during which time he was far more lethargic than normal. We were very concerned, but we discovered that too much milk powder was being added to his bottle. With an adjustment in the richness of his diet – and a few electrolytes added – he is recovering nicely.

Good thing, too, because one of our mama cows had twins last week. Often, a mother can’t adequately provide for both twins, and both calves end up being stunted and small. It is hard not only on the babies, but also on the mother who is trying to make enough milk for them both. We have lost mothers that way, when they have literally given everything they have to raise their babies.

In recent years, we have taken one of the babies from moms like that. We let the mama raise one baby, and we bottle feed the other one. It is easier on everyone but us. We often have a hard time choosing which baby to take when they are both healthy, but the decision was easy this time around.

When we got to the paddock, we saw that one of the twins was up, running around, and following closely behind the mother. It is a tiny little thing, looking to be only about 45 pounds. The other twin is much larger than her pint-sized sister, weighing closer to 65 pounds. Surprisingly, she was still lying near where she had been born, shivering and weakly lifting her head. We scooped her up in a blanket and rushed her to the barn. Her mama never even looked our way, which indicated that she wasn’t planning on coming back for her.

We dried her off to warm her up and stimulate her circulation. We mixed up some warm colostrum and gave her a couple pints. Then we buried her up to her neck in straw so that she didn’t have to work too hard to stay warm.

Every couple of hours we mixed up some fresh warm colostrum and took it out to feed to her. She fought the bottle at first, but quickly caught on. In fact, she now sucks the bottle so hard that she collapses it sometimes.

She wags her little calf tail back and forth just like a puppy when we approach with her milk. She prances in the pen with Carl, keeping him company and trying to finish his bottle if she gets done before him. (Carl begins slurping faster as she gets closer to his bottle.) She even attempted to suckle my daughter’s chin this weekend.

Both calves are feeling quite spunky, and it’ll be great fun to see them grow together as they get bigger. They will help each other thrive, not only because solid companionship brings joy, but they will encourage one another to eat grain and grass like they do with the milk.

I don’t know what Carl’s future will hold, because his lack of sight will make him more difficult to handle and potentially dangerous as he gets bigger. But Bonnie, as the girl has been named, will hopefully grow well enough that we will be able to keep her here forever, just as her mother has been here since birth.

Laura Zoeller can be reached at zoeller5@verizon.net.