Okay.... maybe the title is stretching is a little, but it's not a day that I would choose to relive if I could. I spent the last week in the hospital barn working with Sergio. It was good and I learned a lot! On Friday I found out that I would get to work in the hospital all by myself on Sunday! Brett talked to me about it and while we both knew that I didn't feel comfortable about it, he said that it was probably the best way for me to really learn and apply everything I had been doing. I agreed that it would be best, but that didn't mean that I was looking forward to it.
Sunday morning came around and things were generally going well. Slowly, but pretty well. It's crazy how much time is saved when two people are putting on milkers verses one person. I milked the fresh cows, then the show cows, then the cows that are being held for antibiotic withdrawal days. All of this went smoothly. The guys working outside were around and they helped me when I asked for help. I did learn quickly, however, that if I asked for help with one cow, whoever was helping me would stick around and help with all eight, then leave so that I could bring up eight more. I was done by 11:30, only half an hour longer than it takes Sergio. It wasn't so bad. Overall the morning was pretty good. If only the day had stayed that way...
The afternoon milking rolled around like usual and one of the outside guys, Jake, came in to help me with the freshened heifers that like to kick. After we were done with the fresh heifers he went and did other stuff but stopped in every once in a while to see how things were going. Nothing needed to be treated in the afternoon but I still had cows that kick and didn't cooperate when I tried to put the milking machines on. I really needed the most help with some of the hospital cows, but when I got to them I found myself alone. Completely alone. It was 4:30 and the guys had gotten off early around 2:00. Jake had stayed til 3:30 but finally called it a day when he thought that I had things under control. Well, when he left I did, but I had four cows that were in the hospital being treated for mastitis and they really liked to kick. Normally it would take both me and Sergio to control them: one person holding their tail to make them stay still while the other quickly put the milking machine on. And that was with a rope around their middles so that they kicked less. I tried calling Brett and C.A. but it was their day off so no one was answering their phones. Finally I called Brenda and she came to the rescue. In no time at all the machines were on, off, and the cows were back in the pen by 5:30. Not too bad. During this time, though, one of the feed trucks broke down and Antonio had to get it fixed so he asked me to enter sheets for him. I was figuring on that when a milker showed up in the hospital barn and told me that there was a cow that needed calcium and that he would put her in the transfer lane that leads to the hospital. She went down and couldn't get up and she was in the main intersection of the transfer lanes going from the pens to the milk barn. She had to be moved. So, I started calling people again. I knew I couldn't do this by myself. Anyway you look at it, I just can't roll a cow into the bucket of a skidloader by myself. I didn't get a hold of anyone except Jake, who lives 20 minutes away but was on his way the moment I called him. It was easily 6:00 by now. A few minutes later, Brett called to ask what was going on. I explained that I had a down cow that I needed help with and he said to wait 10 minutes and he would be there. I called Jake and told him Brett was coming and that he could stay home.
While I was waiting I got everything we needed to treat a typical down cow: calcium, dextrose, blood tubes, IV needles, etc. I also finished moving cows back into the hospital pen. That's when one cow that's been struggling with ketosis tripped on a curb and went down. Now I had two down cows to deal with. That's when Antonio got back. He had gotten back and already entered the sheets into the computer. He asked me how my day was going and when I said I was frustrated he made me stop what I was doing and do "yoga breathing" for a few minutes. "Breathing comes before movement. Movement is always secondary," he said. I have to admit, it actually helped a little.
When Brett got there we had one of the milkers help us and we loaded the first cow into the bucket of the skidloader and we took her to the hospital. Once we got there we took blood samples and I.V.ed calcium and dextrose to her. I'm happy to say that I was able to take the blood samples and start giving the calcium thanks to the large amount of practice I had had in the past week (as well as good teaching from Dr. Kreykes back home). Brett took over giving the calcium and dextrose so that I could finish cleaning the hospital barn up, which I finally knew how to do thanks to Jake. Once I got back out to the pen, Brett thought she could also possibly have a case of bloody gut so we gave her half a gallon of mineral oil. When it was all said and done, I clocked out at 7:00. Thankfully Brenda was around to hear about my day and then cheer me up with stories about what she had done during the weekend. We also went out to eat at a taco truck for the first time. It was really good and I'm glad she waited for me, even though it was really, really late.
Hopefully this week should be a lot better. Today I ran the scanner for part of the vet checks then I "learned" to drive the skidloader and put new bedding into the calving pens. For most of the summer I've been saying that I didn't know how to drive the skidloader because I had never been in it. I didn't realize that even though it's a Bobcat, the controls are the same as the ones in the New Hollands that we have back home. Whoops... I'm not sure what is all in store tomorrow but I have to be at work at 5:30am so that we can walk the show cows before the day gets started. Then on Wednesday everyone here at the dairy and at Brenda's dairy are going hiking in Yosemite National Park!! I'm so excited!!! It's gonna be a lot of fun! Thursday, if all goes as planned, Brenda and I are going to Vlot's Calf Ranch with Dr. Liz. We aren't sure what we'll be doing but all of us are excited to go. Anyway, that was my Sunday in a nutshell. Maybe more of a book,
but whatever : )
Books are good :)
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