Third Calf Overnight Causes Concern

A third Sussex calf was born overnight at Upper Woodhill Farm. Cattle farmer Andrew Cameron had gone to bed late on Monday night, having checked on his heifer, and woke early this morning to find she had given birth to a bull calf.

Mother was not doing well though, the bull calf was exceptionally big and had left Mum with paralysis of the hind legs. As the mother had not been able to get to her calf it had not fed, was shivering, weak and was unable to get up.  Andrew quickly moved it over to its mother and was able to get it to suckle some colostrum. The bull calf soon got the hang of it and started to improve.

Then it was time for Andrew to turn his attention to the mother who was still unable to use her hind legs. The vet was called who administered a shot of calcium, shortly afterwards she was up.

I went to visit Mum and her bull calf this evening and can report that both are now doing very well. I made friends with the calf very quickly winning him over with a good scratch under his chin.

I can also report that Lottie and yesterday’s bull calf are also doing very well bouncing around their pen occasionally trying to knock me over while I was taking the photos for this blog. What fun.

Its unlikely we’ll see any more calves tonight but at least one is due before the weekend so keep checking the site. Click here for more pictures.