Oh no, not again....

Sometimes I ask myself why I want to have animals.

I also want to ask Mother Nature why she can be so nasty at times too. The temperature dropped into the low teens two nights ago so yesterday we thought we better go check up on Buttercup's new white calf. We hadn't seen her since the day before and Buttercup was standing way up near the edge of the woods.

Buttercup's calf was one day old here. It was raining but the snow came later that night.

After we fed the cows a round bale, my husband headed out into the woods on the ATV and found the calf lying in the snow, alive but not looking good. Usually after they're a few days old, the calves will stand up when we come near and shy away. This one wouldn't stand at all, even after her mother came down to the feeder, leaving her behind.
After getting the completely limp calf down to the cowyard later, we decided she was too weak and chilled to stay out with the herd. She could not even lift her head by then. Oh no, I thought. Not another one. Except that this one was much weaker than her older sister in the basement. Off to the basement we went with another one.
Since this calf was much bigger (and we only have one crate) we decided to dig out the chicken tractor that was stuffed in one of the sheds and use it for the calves. After warming and drying her with the heat gun we piled her high with warm blankets.

More penicillin and electrolytes later, the little white girl finally stopped shaking and started to lift her head. Later that afternoon when we gave her some milk-replacer she actually began to suck. Wow, that was encouraging. By evening she was standing on her own and we hoped everything was going to be okay.
But then morning came and surprisingly the older calf had taken a turn for the worse. I actually didn't think she was going to make it through the day. Since it had been somewhat warm in the sun yesterday, we had put her out with Erin and she stayed out there most of the day following mama around and looking like she was doing well. We tried to keep an eye on her while we were taking care of the white calf but I still couldn't tell if she was nursing. By the time the sun was starting to go down, she was lying down in the snow and mud, and we brought her back inside for the night. Apparently she had not nursed.
As bad as she looked this morning, I almost gave up on her. But no, we had to try something. More electrolytes, another shot and more milk-replacer was poured in. Luckily it didn't take long for her to start looking better. Right now she's up and standing and eating fairly well, although neither of the calves seem to like the taste of the milk-replacer. The white calf was listless all day and that wasn't too encouraging, but tomorrow is another day. We will see what happens then.