While we haven't lost any more calves, we've been doctoring a few. We seem to have a lot with scours and we treated at least one that appeared to have pneumonia. Every morning and afternoon we make a trip through the herd to look for any that have droopy ears or appear lethargic. Most of the ones with scours are still too lively to catch easily, and M doesn't really feel like diving off the 4-wheeler to grab one, although he did that yesterday. We've never had scours before so it's a new and disturbing problem. After the bad winter/spring of 2011 we had lots of pneumonia but no scours. We just have to continue to be vigilant and hope nice weather arrives and maybe helps the situation.
We had more snow overnight with wind. I didn't sleep well with the wind howling, thinking of the poor babies getting wet and cold again. Thankfully, it didn't get too terribly cold.
Every day my trek through the yard is on a different surface. One day it was slush, the next ice, and today was snow that was squishy with mud underneath. It occurred to me that I should have been counting consecutive "mud days". M asked yesterday if I thought it would ever dry up. I said yes. He said, "soon?". I said no.
It was also interesting today to see the different animal tracks in the snow. Lots of deer tracks through the yard this morning as well as lots of bird tracks. I also smelled skunk so they must be coming out of hibernation. I have seen a few gophers (affectionately referred to as "those little bastards") so maybe spring is coming. I need to start poisoning them while we don't have a dog to worry about.
Last night we went to the Friends of the NRA banquet with J and K. It was nice to get out and see people and the prime rib dinner was great, but I was really tempted to stay home and have some quiet hours to myself!
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