Each time some new affliction hits one of our bovine family
members, I realise how little I know about the health problems that can ail our
dairy animals!
I have seen no less than sixteen calves being born here and not
once have I had any problems with the calves.
But this time it was different,
maybe because the calf was not born in the stable, but outside in the rough terrain adjoining our
farm. The first two days went off well
enough and I did not notice anything amiss.
On the third day we noticed blood on the sacking on which the calf was
sleeping. On closer examination I noticed the umbilical area looked
swollen. A couple of frantic phone calls
to the doctor, the verdict was an infection of the umbilical cord. “Did you not
cleanse it with Tincture of Iodine immediately after it was born?” thundered
the vet. “Wha......t ? “ I wailed, I had never done it before, for any of the
other calves. Anyway now the solution
was to cleanse the wound deep , dress it well and hope for a quick recovery.
I carried the calf into the house, as, however
hard you may try, there always are a couple of flies lurking around in the cow
shed and I did not want any maggots in the wound.
But alas I was too late. As I cleaned the wound, I noticed
them. My first reaction was to burst into tears .... how could I have not seen
this earlier. ....how could I not have been more careful....
But then I pulled
myself together and braced myself to clean the wound. If someone had asked me to clean a maggot
infested wound 5 years back I would not have been able to do it. But when it is
your own helpless 3 day old calf, you have got to push all your squeamishness
and repulsion away and get down to the task.
The little one - I had named her
Kasturi, barely struggled as I held her down with my knee and cleaned the wound and poured the
tincture of iodine into it. As the day progressed she seemed to weaken
and grew more listless. Every three hours I was taking her back to her mother
to be nuzzled and to let her drink some milk. She would immediately perk up a
bit after that. But as evening progressed, even that did not seem to help her.
At around 9 pm she even refused to suckle, her head hanging limply down. And
when her mother nuzzled her, she just toppled over and fell. Another frantic call to the vet. “Ah well looks like she is too weak to
suckle. You could try feeding her with a
bottle” he explained. Now that put me
into a slight quandary. With Vivek out of town on work, there was no one I
could send across to buy a baby bottle. Besides I knew that the chemist shops
would have closed by the time I could get there, and wasn’t even sure whether
there was any all night chemist in the next town. “Don’t try pouring milk down her throat”, the
vet had warned.
Oh heavens! What was I to do!
 |
| Too weak to move, |
I decided to take a chance. With no fluids inside her the
little calf would not pull through the night. I had kept the colstrum from the
cow aside. I took about half an ounce in a tiny steel pail with a rim that
would enable easy pouring out of the milk. I sat on the floor with my legs
outstretched and took the calf’s head on my lap. With one finger inside the
calf’s mouth I let a trickle of milk flow down my finger – just a few drops at
a time. And then stroked the calf’s neck to ensure that she swallowed it right.
Kept repeating it. Sometimes the trickle
of milk would flow out from the other side of the mouth. But I got quite a few
spoonfuls through. I then let her rest for some time. After two hours I repeated
the whole thing. Late into the night I kept vigil over the calf. All animals
respond to human touch. So I kept stroking it, massaging the limp neck and belly, rubbing her ears and whispering
into her ears “You are going to be alright by morning”. At around 3.00 am I gave her one last feed and decided to
rest for sometime myself. You never know what new challenges the day will bring
and a sleep-deprived state is not the best way to face them. So leaving a dim
light on in the room, I finally slept, with my alarm set to 5.30 am.
I woke up with a start even before the alarm went off. I
first warmed a little bit of the milk to room temperature and went to check on
Kasturi. She did not resist when I fed her the trickle of milk. She definitely
seemed better. I could catch another
half an hour of shut eye.
When I woke up again at 6.30, dawn had broken and at the sound of my footsteps,
Kasturi opened her eyes, and with a little effort lifted her head. she looked
around with a puzzled look as if saying
“Why am I here in this strange place”. I
threw my arms around her and hugged her close. She made an effort and stood up!
This was a miracle indeed. She had pulled through the night! I carried her to
the cowshed where her mother greeted her with a loud bellow. I supported her as
she weakly nuzzled around the udder and could barely hold back my tears of joy
as she caught on and started suckling on her own!
From then on it was a quick recovery. I had to subject her to a painful cleaning and
dressing of the wound three times a day, but not once did she cry out aloud.
Her beautiful large eyes showed a total submission to what must have been a
very torturous procedure.
 |
| On the way to recovery! |
Today Kasturi runs and plays around and shows no sign of
what she has gone through. But we share a special bond and when I rub her head
and hold it in my palms she has a special look for me in her soulful eyes.
