Jersey Calf

On Saturday, our jersey cow, Vanessa (Kyersten, yes, this is Sunny!) lost her calf. After she had been in labour for a while, and not much was happening, I reached in to check things out and the calf was breech - so off to the vet's. Turns out the calf had died sometime earlier in the day (the vet thinks probably detached the placenta while moving into delivery position). It took Jim, me and the vet to pull the calf.

BUT yesterday, one of Lone Pine Jersey Dairy cows had a bull calf - so we scooped him for Vanessa (the dairy dispatches boys, no use for them).

Meet Patrick! We got him home this afternoon, just a little over 24-hours old.

All we have to do is convince Vanessa he is her baby and convince Patrick that Vanessa is his mom!
He had a quart of milk when he got here and then we tied and hobbled Vanessa and he 'sort' of figured out where the milk comes from... what a guy!


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So cute!

Oh my dear, bittersweet stuff. So sad that Vanessa lost her baby, but look what happened, that baby was replaced with another one that was going to have life end. this is a wonderful and glorious thing, happy days!! So wonderful that you had a farm nearby enough to get a replacement. Keep us posted on how things go with the little one and the mamma. Have a beautiful day, CynthiaM.

Actually, the dairy is about 6 and bit hours away... they are east of Didsbury... but still... not a huge deal and he is so sweet - Vanessa just needs a little time to figure it out. I think she is still 'calling' for her own baby and pushing Patrick away as he isn't hers (yet)

If you can rub the smell of her dead calf all over him. Or sounds gross, but can work, put the hide of the dead calf on the new calf, until she accepts him.

Shouldn't take long. If you buried the calf, maybe you can use some of the afterbirth? You may need to go on a digging expedition.

Good luck, keep us updated.