Calving….warning…there’s cow juices and stuff…and smells

***WARNING: PICTURES OF BABY COWS BEING BORN. COW JUICES AND BLOOD. EXPLCIT PICTURES. STOP READING/LOOKING IF YOU HAVE A QUEASY STOMACH***

Some days I think that it would have been quite lovely to be an intern here at this ranch while I was in school. Funny thing, when we were working with World Changers and the NAMB, I thought the same thing.

But something happens here around the end of February and beginning of March that changes my mind a little more each day. It’s a little on the nasty side, smells (more about that later), super long hours, middle of the night happenings, mud, slush, hairdryers, laundry, crying, etc.

Nope, it’s not working with human babies and kids. I do that all day long and it’s been my profession for about 12 years now.

Calving. It’s calving that brings the excitement, long hours, concerns, quick decision making skills, more long hours, sitting with babies, bottle feeding/tubing, shots, IV’s, etc.

Right at the beginning of calving, the air temps were so low that as soon as the babies were born, the interns would swoop in, load the baby up, and bring it to the vet barn. It would be quickly rubbed down with towels, put under a heat lamp and begin using a hair dryer to dry it. As the baby showed signs of drying, one intern will go back out and bring the mama to the vet barn. Many hours later, when the mama and baby were doing well, they are released to a corral, the stall cleaned out, and the process starts over with other mamas and babies that need help. There are people working around the clock.

(inside the vet barn. About 12 stalls are in the barn. The room toward the back is heated, holds another head catch, medicine refrigerator, sinks, and where information is recorded.)

(interns drying off a baby when it was below freezing outside and with a foot of snow on the ground.)

(an orphan being graphed to a new mama who lost her calf. She is in a catch so she won’t hurt the orphan, and the orphan will nurse. She will eventually take the calf as her own.)

(an intern bringing a mama into the barn to pull her calf)

Growing up around animals and cows, I can handle just about anything that comes along with them. Hay. I like the smell of hay and straw. I even like the smell of hay, dust, and poop/urine mixed in together. It doesn’t assault my senses or send me into a nose plugging scramble.

Blood. It’s the blood smell specifically that I have a hard time with. I can see the blood, blood can even be on me. It’s the raw, coppery, wet, moist smell of the blood and other animalistic juices that get me every time.

*****WARNING*****

****COW JUICE/BLOOD AND GROSSNESS AHEAD****

(she’s stuck in a walk through gate, she was a tad crazy. Plus, she has a baby about to come out…but it’s stuck.)

(see that wet ground at her feet? Birthing juices….oozing and pouring out of her)

Cow juices…birthing juices….the blood smell….and the mama moaning while giving birth. I. CAN’T. HANDLE most of that part. It makes my bones hurt, my heart hurt, and almost makes me cry. It also makes me almost double over…and I’M NOT DOING ANYTHING! Those pictures above where taken from that weird angle, because a.)there were two kids right behind me, one of which refused to go out of the vet barn and would cry if I went out, b.) that particular mama cow was a tad on the crazy side and had gotten herself caught in a gate and only had to take one step backwards to get out.

On a completely side note, cowboys and ranchers were a Muck type boot—with the pants tucked in thankyouverymuch— during the winter months. Wooster has some really nice Elk Pack boots, but they are in the shop. He was a little rough on them, so he’s wearing some gaiters (DOUBLE THANKS TO AUNT DONNA AND STEWART!) and some other work boots to get him by until we can get back to town to pick up his pack boots. All those cow juices and mud get your clothes extremely dirty. I’m washing Wooster’s work clothes (three different sets) every day just to keep the juice covering to a minimum.

Back to calving….

The girls here work extremely hard. Yesterday, the girl interns worked a 16 hour day. There was no one standing around talking, texting, twitting, facebooking—ha! We don’t have cell service for all that! They were busy helping mamas birth, feeding hay, mucking stalls, taking care of horses, putting out mineral and tagging calves.

My girls are learning and observing many different things.

The circle of life.

(Ruby showing her best Dead Baby Calf face)

Hard Work.

(Nicole, intern from Minnesota, pitching straw to put back in the cleaned out stalls)

Smells….there’s the smells, can’t forget those.

(Clara tucked in a stroller, behind an alfalfa bale and under some saddles, when we were pinning up a mama in a stall.)

And the view of a hardworking, good looking Papa during calving is a great view, despite all the cow juices and smells.