It all started last night, with my first case of bloat in my one and only Jersey milk cow. Around 11:30, my son heard her bawling in the barn, where I had stalled her. Our first case of bloat. It hit fast and hard, and I really didn't know a cow could fill with that much air! My son said he thought she could float away any second. Long story short, despite relieving the pressure and a middle of the night vet call, she died anyway this morning. And after all the meds the vet had doped her up with, we couldn't even eat the meat! The most frustrating thing is that we have NO IDEA what caused it. Nothing was different, and she didn't eat anything unusual. I didn't realize how much I loved that cow until I lost her. It really hit hard. I had to admit, though, our team came in handy. As low-tech and primitive as we are, they were our only option for getting her out of the barn and up the hill to the driveway where she could be hauled off.

After a few hours of tears, though, we got a call that cheered me up. The theater at the local historical park still wants the team to be in their production. They can't afford much money wise, but since we have to attend 3 rehearsals, desensitize the horses as best we can to the lights, sounds, and commotion of an outdoor, nighttime theater, plus do all the clean up and harnessing for 6 actual performances, we didn't feel too badly about asking for some compensation. So, we are getting enough money to pay for the babysitter (a big deal with 5 kiddos), a full page ad in the theater flyer for the rest of the summer (a $500 value, as that's what they charge other businesses to advertise), and the stagehands basically at our beck and call to ensure everyone's safety. What a great way to promote our fledgeling business in the area! This theater is a pretty big deal in our state, and is the main tourism draw in our county.

As if that wasn't exciting enough, a couple weeks ago, we also got a request from a photographer to come ride along on one of our Saturday evening rides and shoot some photos. He works with our tourism board and wanted to write an article, so we said, Sure, why not! Again, free publicity and no extra work on our part. As we chatted and he learned about our farm, he requested a visit to the farm to see it first hand, take some photos and film footage. Again, we agreed. What we didn't realize (he tried to explain, we just didn't get it) was that he was TV producer. As it turns out, he developed the footage from our farm and wagon ride into a 15 minute documentary that will soon air on a Fox local-to-midwest station. I will post the clip when I can, but it was wild seeing the preview and how professional it was! I just wish I didn't look quite so authentic with my frizzed hair and no make-up! AFter 2 hours of touring and interviewing in heat and humidity, we looked pretty rough!!

So, what started as a pretty rough day seems to be turning around. It will be fun to see where this all goes.

Sorry about your cow! It's true that we get very attached to the critters we care for.

Your "show" and advertising opportunities are wonderful. I wish you great success!

Possibly, it may help you in future to learn the "magic triangle" and you'll still be able to eat the meat, should worse come to worse, and also won't have to wait to relieve her pain and doing that sooner may save her life. Search the archives for others' experiences. So sorry about the loss of your cow. It's a big deal. Not knowing why it happened is frustrating.

Here are a couple of links that include what Jenny is talking about:

http://ruralheritage.com/messageboard/frontporch/11240.htm

http://ruralheritage.com/messageboard/frontporch/10517.htm

We knew about the triangle. Unfortunately, it was totally inaccessible, as she had her back pressed so tight up against a wall that her thrashing rubbed the hair right off her pin bones. I didn't have a trocar, so we grabbed the cleanest, smoothest, not-too-big knife I had available and poked as high up as we could get without getting kicked with the thrashing (I got kicOked anyway). It was amazing the pure rush of air that came out of that poor cow! It brought immediate relief, and she was soon back on her feet. Then we were left with a hole, and I wasn't sure whether it required sutures. Also, after she "deflated", the hole wound up being MUCH lower than we had anticipated, so I called the vet out. The vet decided not to suture, but to leave it open for drainage, but pumped her full of anti-bloat something-or-other, mineral oil, banamine, injectible mineral, and baytril. He said she would require 28 day withdrawal on the milk and meat.

Unfortunately, the next morning, she was down and would not get up. We even tried improvising a lift to get her up, lifting both her back and front end simultaneously. It just didn't happen. As we were working with her, she just gave up. Not sure why, but before hubby could even get the gun, she just died. It was a lousy start to the day. I got to spend this afternoon cleaning out the stall where she had explosive diarrhea during the ordeal, and flung it everywhere. Ick! I pray I never have to deal with that again!

Well, you can't kick yourself for not having done everything you could, and then some. I admire you for it.