I’ll be honest, I knew nothing about the calving process. I had a few pictures in my mind from watching a veterinary show on television, but other than that, I had no tangible experience.  Granted, I have been through labor twice so I can at the very least pity the girl for what was about to happen!

In my ‘prior blog post’ I mentioned my buddy at work who is a cow guru. He has raised thousands over the years and has a wealth of knowledge.  Better yet, he has been out of the cow business for just long enough to start missing it, so Miss Mabel was now the apple of his eye.

Of course he had already been over to see her and gave her a few ‘once overs’, but as each day passed he would leave me with a new piece of information. Mabel came to us from a pasture where she had broken into a beef herd and was successfully bred.  We had no due date and a mixed breed calf and so we had to be keen on all cues.  At this point, the only cues I had were that her udder was getting bigger by the day, you could see the calf move on her left side and she had an endless appetite.  We were starting to wonder if she would ever pick her head up from the pasture long enough to focus on labor.  Though with passing weeks, major changes began occurring.

1. Joints Popping – As with humans, there is a rush of hormones that loosen every ligament to prepare it for moving and stretching. About 3 weeks out from labor we could really hear her joints cracking with every step. It’s unmistakable. Sounds like they are walking on broken branches.
2. Stomach Dropping – literally looks like they had the baby and left it somewhere. Their stomachs can go from looking like a hot air balloon about to carry them away to a low deep stomach. This helps the baby get into position.
3. Loose ‘back end’ – This wasn’t quite what I expected. After watching a cow crotch for as long as I had, it became very un-offensive. However, I think beef cattle and some more ‘seasoned’ dairy cows show a bit more stretching and sloppiness in this area. Let’s just say Mabel didn’t let it get out of control. I wasn’t able to use this as a big indicator of impending labor either.
4. Udder Enlargement – This by far is the most important. Udder’s get big, then get huge. Just when you think it can’t get any bigger, it doubles in size. I am not kidding, it looked horribly painful. It stuck so far out her back end that she inevitably pooped on it and it was so full of swelling in the front and sides that she had indentations from where her legs rested against it. She literally had to swing her legs around it when she walked. I have heard some actually leak milk, Mabel did not. I ended up running cold water on her udder, rubbing peppermint oil lotion all over it and massaging it all in the last week because I couldn’t help myself…I couldn’t let her just be miserable. She loved every second of that as well!
5. Mucus Plug – Yep, just like it sounds. Try having an old farmer describe that to you. I almost couldn’t look him in the face. Again, this is not a sure fire sign as they may not have this happen all at once and/or you may miss it. I however, caught it on camera. This works the same as it does in humans…simply means things are moving and getting close.
6. Pin Bones Dropping – Mabel has two pin bones to the left and right of her tail. They stick out, and sit up nice and high. As you get closer and closer to birth, these drop further and further down until they almost ‘sink’ away. For a first timer, this isn’t the easiest to spot, but you may notice a definite change.
7. Change in Behavior – Lastly, as you are getting really close to labor, you may notice a big change in behavior. They may try and walk off alone, they may get up and lay down a lot (nesting), they may hold their tail straight out (can be a sign of contractions) and they may stop eating.

On what felt like the hottest day of the year, as well as the day after the full moon, Mabel had all of the above. So much so that it was worth bringing her into a stall to watch her really close…and to at least help her get comfortable.

(This picture was taken a day or two prior. Her gigantic udder was taking over!)

I headed home from work, gave the vet a heads up in case of complications and made sure my ‘coach’ was in route. As soon as I got home I grabbed a box fan and put it on her as I could tell she wasn’t getting up or moving.  I swear it felt like 150 degrees outside and all I could think of was how uncomfortable she looked.  My ‘coach’ finally arrived and I soon learned that any old cattle rancher doesn’t flinch at getting arm deep in the back end of a cow.  Within seconds he had his hand in up to his shoulder confirming the calf was still alive and seemed to be pretty far back for what seemed to be some good labor.  Poor Mabel was doing her best, but something just didn’t seem right so we made the decision to call the vet.

My vet deserves a standing ovation for even showing up. She climbed out her truck after the previous farm call of delivering a dead stinky calf and she suited up (literally in full coveralls) regardless of the heat.  She reached in, asked if we were ready to start delivering a calf and she broke Mabel’s water.  In about 30 seconds, she quickly realized that we were about to have a pretty difficult labor with a calf that was much too big.  The good news is, my ‘Coach’ had already prepared me for the worst and I had already given good thought to what I was willing to do…so I had a plan.

(You will have to wait for the next post to hear about the rest of the delivery)