Temperature swings hard on calves

I’m sure you all will know how I feel about the wet weather we were experiencing Monday. We sure don’t need the rain.
I was really hoping we would miss it.
The temperature was mild enough but it sounds like we are in for a cold snap–and rather quickly, too.
These fluctuations are what worry me with young calves. I have treated a few for scours and fortunately they seem to be responding well to the treatment, so that makes things a bit less stressful.
I’m pleased I only have four cows left to calve and it only will be a month on Friday since my due date. I should have five left but I’m pretty sure I have an open cow.
Last Thursday, I was leaving my mom in charge while I went off to an abattoir meeting. I only was gone a short time when she called to say I had a calf that was bloated. I returned home to a bloated calf, indeed.
I used the normal bloat medication with little response. My uncle brought me a small chunk of hose that I inserted hoping to drain some gas off. A little bit did drain but not enough, so I went to the house to get a large needle.
I inserted the needle into her stomach and drained the gas. Luckily, she was feeling better in a few hours and I heading back to the abattoir meeting.
The next night was the 4-H awards banquet so my dad said he would check the cows. He wouldn’t be wondering around looking for bloated calves but the four cows that were close he’d look at.
We only were at the awards night for 20 minutes or so when he called to say he had a cow calving. I asked why he thought she was calving? He explained that she was laying on her side with a big bulge, which she likely was but those four cows all waited for me and all calved on Saturday.
Thankfully at least, my mom and dad will help when I need to get away!
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Many of you will have received the recent Rainy River District Regional Abattoir newsletter. If you haven’t and you would like a copy, you could let me know.
I also left copies of it at Emo Feed, along with our suggestion box.
The newsletter is a very harsh reality of how tough the situation is. Despite ongoing effort by so many, our expenses are far greater than our income. We are working on multiple changes but the truth is, we still don’t know if we have the time to save it.
This will not be good for any one of us in Rainy River District. We are doing all we can do lower taxes, hydro, and insurance but please consider marketing more cattle through the abattoir.
We need to keep the doors open because the fact is if we lose it this time, it’s gone for good!
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Thanks to those who attended Riverside’s Foundation for Health Care community sessions. All the information that was collected is valued and will be considered in our future fundraising efforts.
If you didn’t make it and still would like to contribute, a Survey Monkey has been set up at www.surveymonkey.com/r/P2DHNGH
We welcome any and all of you to login and leave comments!
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The 4-H awards night once again was well attended! It is a great night to honour our members and celebrate a great program.
If you are able to participate in any 4-H club, be sure to take on that opportunity as it is one of the best leadership development programs out there!
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It is that time of the year that I am accepting applications for summer students at the Emo Agricultural Research Station.
The positions are for college/university students since you will begin work in early May.
All I need is your résumé. So if you are interested, just send them to me at kbliss@uoguelph.ca