My parents found him just in the nick of time.
He was left in the middle of the field, abandoned by his too-young mother, covered in after-birth, in the pouring down rain. They think he'd been there for about 12 hours when they found him. He was hypothermic and on the verge on death.
They brought him up to the house, cleaned him up with warm water, put him in a large crate in the shop that they filled with hay, covered him in blankets, rubbed him like crazy to try to get his circulation going and gave him a bottle of colostrum. He didn't want to eat, was extremely lethargic, hadn't been on his feet yet {not at all a good sign for a calf}, and couldn't stop shaking.
My parents checked on him throughout the night, making sure he stayed covered and warm. They gave him some antibiotics, put a tube down his throat to feed him when he wouldn't drink from a bottle, and prayed that this little guy would pull through.
Here he is at about 24 hours old. He could barely stand on his own and would tip over if he wasn't held up. :(
He is now in their back yard...and he sorta thinks he's a dog!
He follows my dad everywhere {since he hasn't been around the other cows, he doesn't have any fear of humans at all} and has been running and hopping and playing!
He still gets tired really quickly and sleeps a lot.
He's in his crate {that's now covered} in the backyard and loves to bask in the sun when it's out.
He's still not crazy about eating, but he's drinking a bit more from the bottle everyday.
And bless his little heart, he's one week old today! ♥
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