A few days after our donkey, Gavin arrived here on the farm Fiona was preparing for her forthcoming calf. For several days leading up to the birth of the little bull calf, we dreadfully set our alarms for every two hours throughout the night and into the mornings. On Thursday EARLY morning on my third trip out to the barn to check on Fiona's progress I found her with a little hoof having been birthed. I immediately called Eric to give him the exciting news!! By the time he reached the barn, I realized we only had one hoof and a nose, not two hoofs and a nose as it should have been.
Yes, you guessed it, we had to intervene and help Fiona out. We waited a bit to make sure she needed our assistance before scrubbing up and going in. After pushing and making no progress we made the decision to assist. I was a bit frightened because the little calf's tongue was hanging off to the side of its mouth and I had never seen this before. Of course, I was assured by our friend Bob, who is a dairy farmer, that this was perfectly normal! Whew! After some careful reaching around, I finally was able to feel the calf's other front leg. I carefully pushed the other foot and head back so I could realign the two front feet along with the head so birthing could go smoothly. Once that bit of help was done, Fiona pushed on her next contraction and we had a baby calf on the ground!
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