We have a beloved old cow named Fiona. She is a long legged Dexter. We used to raise Dexters, but she is the last one. We sold our herd before we moved. Of course, as with most breeders, we kept Fiona because she was our son’s pet at the fair and because she wasn’t the best example of her breed. Her main conformation issue was her udder. It was wonky and pendulous in the back. Several years ago, when she had what we thought would be her last calf, she had mastitis in both rear teats. We supplemented her calf with a bottle. Despite treatment, her mastitis did not clear up in her most pendulous teat. She even stepped on herself. I made her a bra out of a pair of our son’s boxer briefs and old man suspenders to help keep her injured udder supported. Finally, after our vet had exhausted all of her antibiotic options, we took Fiona to the vet hospital. She had a tumor in her udder. Have I mentioned Fiona is a beloved pet cow? So, she had a mastectomy. Since the vet school doesn’t get many cow patients to play with, they gave us a deal, thank goodness. Fiona came home and recovered in the horse barn. We fed her calf supplemental calf pellets. Everything was fine. Once she healed, Fiona looked as trim as a heifer. We even pranked a vet student that was following our vet around by asking for an udder exam. You’ve never seen such a confused look, lol!
So, that’s Fiona. She’ll be 15 years old in October.
Last fall a young Hereford bull visited our Hereford cross heifer. We could not fence him away from Fiona. Despite her age, Fiona still got pregnant. We stocked up on colostrum, formula, and bottles.
Her calf was born last night. We had to bring him in to ensure he got all of his colostrum. Fiona was agitated too much when we were messing with him. We hope to get him solid enough on the bottle to reunite him with Fiona soon. His name is Panda.
PANDA!!!
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