Dear Daphne
In my 26 years living in the Deep South, I've never seen so much rain. I've been expecting all the cactus around here to rot.
This photo was taken in June of last year. This year, the grass has overwhelmed it. Therein lies the problem: the grasses are too lush. All water and carbs, no fiber. Enter bloat... around mid afternoon Tuesday.
Daphne, my 5 year old Holstein cow was not acting her aloof self. Instead, when I arrived home, she was at the gate closest to my house bellowing to no end. Quick assessment told me she was bloating. Imagine she's swallowed an inflatable dingy, now you're getting the visual. Bloat can be deadly, in a hurry. When too much fermentation takes place in the rumen, gases or froth build more quickly than the cow can eructate (belch), leading to ruptured rumen and death. Daphne was in trouble. When she went down, I managed to get over half a gallon of mineral oil in her. The oil has an anti saponification effect (breaks the bubbles in the froth). Sometimes works, sometimes not. By 2 AM, I had my scalpel, kitchen tools and reference book ready to perform an emergency trocarization. The rumen lays right up on the cow's left side, you cut a hole into it, set a tube in and let the gas out.
I'd helped perform some before when I worked on a dairy in CT, but that was 26 years ago. Daphne got the memo that she was up for home surgery and started showing signs of improving. For one, she got up and her labored breathing slowed.
By 8 AM Wednesday, she's back to the land of the living and I'm bleary eyed and severely ill tempered. This is my day off, the one where I was going to sleep in and work in my garden all day. I guess not. In lieu, I declared war against all the grass in the cattle's 4 acre pasture.
It's an odd shaped area with hills and trees everywhere. Bush hogging isn't feasible in over half of it. But we have a DR Trimmer monster at the farm. I pushed that bad boy for three hours. Let Daphne find anymore tall grass!!!
Tommy's mama push mowed 3 acres.
Because this is what Daphne needs to be eating:
Proper hay with fiber.
By afternoon, her flanks looked normal again.
Still unsure she was out of the woods, I opted to work around their barn all day. I trucked in 15 cu. yards of sand and made them some new softer beds in the barn.
Tommy's inspecting my work.
Does it pass muster?
Tommy says: "thanks".
Daphne says: "that'll be all, you're dismissed". Yup, she's feeling better, back to her prickly little self.
A whole day hanging around with my cattle, haven't done that in a very long time. I love my Tommy, Daphne's growing on me...
A sleeping ox, is there anything so beautiful? Don't argue with me, it's futile.
