Any improvement yet...not sure.

Our little baby girl (calf) is not out in the pasture with mom yet. Wouldn't you know, Mother Nature decided to be nasty like usual and we've been getting rain, snow, sleet and thunderstorms on and off for the past two days. Many of the fields around the area are partially flooded and all of the rivers and creeks, including ours, are way over their banks. It started as pouring rain yesterday and never let up. By evening the thunderstorms started and shortly after that, the rain/sleet turned to snow/ice.
Well, okay, the rain let up long enough yesterday morning for me to take the little calf out to the pasture gate to see her Mother. I put her head through the fence and mama licked her and kept saying, 'Come on, lets get outta here, follow me.'
But Leah (the calf) couldn't... even if she wanted to. She was shaking from chills and still so weak; standing was a trial. And worse, she refused to suck the bottle when I tried to feed her. I tried on and off all day and the only way I could get anything into her was by pouring it in. I think she inhaled and wore more on her than she got inside of her.
With the vet's blessing, my son and I gave her a shot of penicillin last night, and today she seems a tiny bit better. At least she's not chilled anymore. While I was at work today my husband and son took care of her. When I got home my son and I took her out to the 'catch pen' to see if maybe mama would let her nurse. Or even funnier, if I could milk her a little to keep her milk coming. Ha ha, I thought no way! Not only were neither of us in the mood to get kicked, but Leah was still so weak (at least she was sucking a little better today). After getting Erin in the pen and lots of time later to let her calm down, I finally got near her with the calf.
Of course kicking had been involved. My son got kicked only once (surprisingly) and the calf got kicked twice. But the amazing thing was that she allowed me to get her milk started (with the calf between us of course-she thought I was her calf) and the even more awesome thing: when I put her teat in the calf's mouth, Leah actually started to suck. I was astonished. I was only able to get her to nurse on two teats and unfortunately it didn't last long since Erin probably didn't have too much milk, but it was WAY more than I had expected.
The snow was coming down pretty steady by then and Leah was starting to get wet and shake so we decided to let Erin out of the pen and take Leah back inside. If it was warmer and drier out I would have let her stay with mama. But as weak as she is, I don't think she would have made it out in the snow and mud and flooded creek. Sadly the forecast says it won't be getting any better for the rest of the week.
But tomorrow we'll try it again if all goes well tonight.

Angel on the hillside autumn