Last night I was preparing to read a book in bed when the school watchman started talking to me through my window. I couldn’t really make out what he was saying, but it was clear that he saying something about the school cow and that he wanted me to come. Feeling slightly annoyed I put on a jacket and headed outside. He led me to where the school cow was laying on the ground, with what I think you would call a dilated birth canal.
Before my very eyes part of the sack enveloping the baby started coming out, and within a few minutes I was staring at two hooves.
As we watched this happening our watchman and the primary school’s watchman decided that we needed the animal doctor to come and assist us with the birthing process. As the watchman and I kept vigil the primary school’s watchman hurried off.
After a few minutes with the two of us watching the calf it became clear that the doctor may not come in time. Despite this, I was slightly disturbed when the watchman grabbed the placenta and popped it, causing a small flood of fluid.
As all of this was happening, the mother was periodically becoming disturbed by a dog that was circling around her. This caused the mother to jump up and hobble around with two hooves sticking out of her. She looked so unstable that I thought she might seriously break a leg, but she never did and after each of these movements she settled back into a birthing position.
Then the watchman decided that it was time to, figuratively, take the baby-bull by the horns, or literally take it by the hooves, and separate it from it’s mother. As he grabbed the head to keep the mother from jumping up, it became apparent that I was to be an integral part of this magic trick. From his shouting I gathered that I was supposed to grab the hooves and pull, which I did. The mother didn’t seem to enjoy this much, and I guess I don’t blame her. I quickly found out that the hooves I had been seeing were the front ones and after about a minute of frantic pulling, I soon saw a head. I do not know how many of you have ever tried to do this before, but it reminded me of trying to catch a greased pig at the country fair. I have never tried to catch a greased pig, but I think that this would be a good analogy, so long as your greased pig had gotten himself wedged inside of a hole with an opening a third his size.
Somehow I succeeded at this unlikely fair game, and once the calves' shoulders emerged the mom seemed to relax and the rest of the calf slipped right out.
Not a bad performance for my first time performing the pull-a-cow-from-another-cow trick! The doctor then arrived in time to confirm that we had done good work.
What I was noticing at this point was that the mother did not seem very interested in her new-born calf. The doctor had a solution to this though. He got a big handful of placenta and he smeared it all over the mother’s mouth. Instantly upon tasting this seemingly gross blood-water mixture, the mother became so excited that she hopped right up from where she has been trying to sleep and started licking that calf clean with a vigor that is possibly only matched in cows during the period when the bull is trying to mount the female. This was a lot nicer to watch though, and I seriously cannot express my surprise at how energetic this mother became just from tasting placenta.
Below is a picture that I took of the calf about 14 hours after it was born. With all that the calf and I have been through together it is sad to think that it will grow up for a few years only to be slaughtered. Such is the life of cows though.
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