Witnessed Yesterday

**Disclaimer:  For the non-farmer... you may not enjoy

this as much as I did!!**

(Some may not appreciate the pictures but I view

it as part of the amazing life cycle... save a life when you can)

 

On Sunday, Ben noticed that one of the closeup cows (a cow 

that is almost ready to calve) was sickly...

She has a fever, wouldn't get up, didn't want to eat, etc.

So on Monday, when the vet came to do herd health they decided

that the cow probably wasn't going to make it...

Instead of losing both cow and calf

they chose to do a c-section on the cow!

 

This is the first time that I have ever seen this done

so needless to say - I was out in the barn!!

 

Sometime c-sections are done on cows and then they

are stitched up and both calf and cow do fine...

(this time the cow was put down after the surgery - can't be put down

prior to surgery because then you only have moments to extract the calf

before it too dies)

The cow is given a local anesthetic,

so that it's one side is completely numb and doesn't feel anything.

 

Some pictures:

First the head poked out... immediately the calf took a breath!

And then the rest of the body was pulled out.

The calf - alive and well :)

 

Amazing... I love farm life!