Sniffles

Last night when I went to comb the cows, I noticed Bridgit standing up with her tongue sticking out a bit. Finding that odd, I walked over to her. She was actually breathing through her mouth with her tongue poking out...major alarm bells.

She was breathing really loudly and sounded like she had a stuffy nose, and the mucus she kept licking away (because she's a cow, and they can stick their tongues up their noses) confirmed that. She ate really well, though, and followed me around, but I was still concerned.

I put my rubber boots on and took to the pasture with a big flashlight this morning before dawn to check on her condition. She was lying down, chewing her cud, but got right up (I'm sure I made her nervous, out there in the dark with a bright light), and promptly blew some now yellowy, thicker mucus out of her nose. Oh, no!

I called the vet, who wants me to check and see if she's still eating this afternoon. If she is, it's probably something minor that we can just watch and hope for improvement on. If she's not eating, though, we'll need the vet to come out and administer antibiotics. This is a bummer, because this same vet was quite frustrated with us when he pregnancy checked the girls in early August, mostly because we have very little in the way of cattle containment, and they're a bit on the wild side. (Mostly Bridgit, wouldn't you know.)

Gads...but what are we to do? We certainly don't want to endanger Bridgit or her calf, nor potentially Sheila and HER calf if it's something contagious. So...better to suck it up and call the vet if necessary, swallow our pride and put on our feelings-armor in the event he's as frustrated with us this time as last.

Here's a photo of Bridgit (a.k.a. "Little Baby," "Little Mama") that I just love...(and I appear to be the only one who can get this comfortably close to her so far...). Her "cowlick" seems to be improving, by the way. This photo was taken about a month and a half ago.