It’s been a full, busy, tough week. While we have had many victories we can rejoice in, this past Saturday we experienced a big loss here on our farm. We lost our milk cow, Bonnie.
A combination of her curiosity and determination, a left open barn door and a feed bag, ultimately caused her death. While, in retrospect, we could kick ourselves for not having the feed more tightly secured and the barn door shut tight, we did learn a lot on Saturday. Paul and the boys spent a large part of the day trying to save her from bloat. They even resorted to sticking a water hose down her throat into the rumen to release the air. I was so proud of my two boys for their hard work that day…even though it was hard. All and all, the vet said that what happened was bloat leads to toxicity. She died before we could treat her with antibiotic shots.
Loosing your milk cow isn’t quite like having a chicken die. We have chickens come and go on a regular basis and although they are part of our farm like Bonnie was…there are so many of them running around here and they just all blend in the chicken flock the same.
Bonnie was our first family milk cow. She, in a lot of ways, threw our family immediately into living real farm life! We learned soo much from her. Bonnie gave us lots of fresh raw milk, cream and butter and for that we were so thankful. She was a great big Guernsey with lots of personality and attitude to boot! People have been asking us the question…”Well, are you going to get another milk cow?” And, Yes…we will…eventually… and we want a big brown Guernsey….like Bonnie Blue was.
Oh, boo hoo. That would be so sad. My 8-yo is cow obsessed. I don’t know if I’ll mention your news. He has admired Bonnie Blue on your header many times.
Our 8yo cat got hit by a car last Monday and we had to put her to sleep on Wednesday. It was so hard. She was such a groovy cat and was so great with the kids. I never would have believed I would be so cut up about it.
I’m so sorry for your loss.
In Him
Meredith
oh, I’m so sorry for you all.
We get fresh milk from a farm and wouldn’t know what to do if we no longer had our milk.
We have enjoyed your cow stories. Looking forward to more!
Blessings,
Becki
We are so sorry for your loss. When you have a “pet” that is so helpful to your family it sure is quite the loss. We will pray you all find the right cow for your family.
Carmen
We’re so sorry for your loss.
We, too, have farm animals and have experienced our own losses this year, some could have been avoided and lessons have been learned and others not.
This year we also learned how to tube a bloated animal, though a garden hose is just a little too big for tubing a goat, so we used a piece of vinyl tubing which we bought after having the expensive lesson of watching the vet tube the goat. Bloat, enterotoxemia, goat polio, listeriosis, all a result of over eating, are not fun things to deal with.
When I was a child, my dad bought me 5 steers for my first 4-H steer project. They got out and into the feed room and I found 2 of them dying. We trocarred the other steers’ rumens to save their lives. Oh my! That is the most hideous smell. Tubing lets the gas out slowly. Trocarring is puncturing the rumen so the gas comes out all at once.
We saved 2 and were able to save the other 3 for veal meat. That was my first introduction to farm animals. Thankfully, there are many happy memories that followed and I still love having our farm animals and the food they provide for us.
May God provide you with another wonderful cow.
I am so sorry about Bonnie! I know how hard it is to replace a good milk cow. We have been looking for a while now for a Jersey or a Gurnsey and they are scare in our neck of the wods! Or they are so pricey we can’t afford one. I hope you find another Bonnie Blue soon!
I am so sorry about Bonnie! I know how hard it is to replace a good milk cow. We have been looking for a while now for a Jersey or a Gurnsey and they are scare in our neck of the wods! Or they are so pricey we can’t afford one. I hope you find another Bonnie Blue soon!
I am so sorry about Bonnie! I know how hard it is to replace a good milk cow. We have been looking for a while now for a Jersey or a Gurnsey and they are scare in our neck of the wods! Or they are so pricey we can’t afford one. I hope you find another Bonnie Blue soon!
[…] We lost our milk cow back in August of 2008. Since then, we have been searching for another Guernsey. […]