WOW! What a calving season it has been! After 23 late nights, mid-afternoons, and bright and early mornings, they are all here safe and sound!!! We have brown, white, roan, black calves (but maybe some that have a little bit of dirt on them). On a daily basics we take the six-wheeler out in the field to check on the calves and cows.

But on June 22, one calf, affectionately nicknamed “Monster”, was over laying by himself next to the water tub. This was not like him at all; he’s always running, jumping and playing with the other calves. We went over and checked him, and sure enough he didn’t feel well. We loaded him up into the back of the six-wheeler (and boy that was a hand full), took him up to the barn as we decided to call the vet. The veterinarian determined that it would be in Monster’s best interest to go to the large animal hospital New Boltin since he had a bad tummy ache and his belly button was infected. With the help of some friends, I loaded Monster and his mom in the trailer and took him to New Boltin (and oh, did I mention this is at 10:30 PM! And it takes two hours to get there!)
 
Well off we drove with Monster and his mom, we arrived at 12:30 in New Boltin. We got Monster and his mom settled and the clinic staff immediately started running test and giving him an IV. We left New Blotin at 2:30 AM without Monster or his mom since they wanted to keep Monster on the IV and to do surgery the next day. In the mix of all of this, Kim and I were supposed to leave for East Lansing, MI, to attend the Shorthorn Junior Nationals!

The vet called to let us know that Monster did extremely well with the surgery. It was decided that they would keep Monster for a couple days just to make sure he was going to be okay. Kim and I headed to Michigan, and everyday we called for a report on Monster.

During our Michigan roadtrip though, we renamed “Monster”; his new name is “I’m a Pricey Little Man”.

When we got home from Michigan, we went and picked “Pricey” up on Wednesday afternoon. We brought him home and relocated him and his mom into air conditioning - yes, I said air conditioning. No, not in the house (I know that’s probaly what you were thinking). He’s been living in the air-conditioned barn during the day, but he’s able to run and play outside at night with only one condition - he has to let us rinse and dry the incision his belly so an infection doesn’t return. Can you believe it after all that he is one of the most active calves that we have at the farm!!

What a story of Mr. Pricey!!