Daisy down.

I thought that I would have a peaceful evening of Thursday, November 20 but nope, not a chance. . . I was literally a centimeter away from stuffing my face with spaghetti when my mother crashed through the door, “Ethan, we’re going to need your help!” One of our cows was in distress. We loaded up the Kubota with a cow halter and tow ropes. Daniel (my brother) took the truck with the old faithful red trailer and Papa (Grandpa) took the tractor. Off we went up into the hills in our convoy.

When we got to the cow in distress we got our answer to: “Why all this?”

Well, mom went out to feed the cows in the early dawn that morning. As she was feeding she noticed that a cow was missing so she scanned the horizon. She happened to see a strange flick up on the hillside and went to investigate. There she found Daisy, the Jersey cow, thrashing in the suicide position – lying on her side, thrashing with eyes rolling back in her head and trying to get up. With all her strength mom had to get Daisy into a sitting position. Daisy could not get up. To make matters worse, Daisy was in a place that made rescue nearly impossible. So . . . mom raced home to get feed and water for Daisy. Since no one was available back at the ranch to help rescue Daisy that morning, mom brought the feed and water to Daisy then had to leave her there. Mom had to go and do her other life responsibilities that day, praying for Daisy.

Mom finished her day of teaching and hurried home to see if Daisy made it through the day. Yikes! Daisy had fallen or rolled down the hillside to the road below.

Daisy rolled from the top near the tree down to the road below.

She was lying with her head down hill and once again in the cow suicide position. Mom had to pull her tail and legs to get her to sit up….she was so near the edge that one wrong struggle to get up would have sent her to the point of no rescue. So mom went off to get help. That’s where I came in, just before stuffing my face.

Our convoy had to position our help past Daisy on the uphill side. I got to stand with pressure on Daisy to keep her from struggling so she wouldn’t go over the edge. Daniel lined up the trailer and we decided it would work best to try to get her in the tractor bucket then transfer her to the trailer. We were all in a precarious position; one wrong move from any of us would mean major injury to any of us, including Daisy! We put a halter on her to help control her flopping head. Yeah! Everything worked as planned. We got Daisy in the trailer and got her set up. However, she could not sit up on her own so I had to wedge myself in the trailer and sit with her to keep her upright for the bumpy trip down the hill. We made it down the hill and unloaded Daisy at the barn.

After several days and many tubes of electrolytes, four of us flipping her from side to side several times daily (so the body fluids would flow), propping her up in a sitting position with a few hay bales……………on the 9th day down she got up. Oh and her two month old heifer calf had to be roped and brought in as Daisy was not able to care for her. We put the calf on a bottle, and she is hand-fed twice a day at feeding time. The calf is in a pen near her mom is now starting to feed off Daisy. Daisy and her heifer calf will be part of the herd again soon. We thank God for His care of all His creatures.

Daisy’s heifer calf.