Ellie update

Ellie had two stillborn babies this morning.  They were both very small and underdeveloped, so I think they had died awhile ago, although they should have been due about now.  I am wondering if this contributed to her weakness--I know that it can make people ill.  She is very tired but still alive at least.  If I had known she would get so sick, I would never have brought her to the buck.  If she recovers, we won't have her bred again.  She is getting a little old, anyway, for having babies.  Ethan is out there now, cleaning her up and making her comfortable again with some fresh hay and water and green stuff, and I'm going to bring her out some more mullein, vitamin C and nettles later.  I hope that this will give her a chance to fully recover now.

We are very thankful for the rain we are getting right now.  Matlida was a total monster yesterday.  I think she's mad because she thought she was the only one getting milked, and now she's realizing that Mairie gets milked, too.  She was so horrible yesterday, breaking the fences, running around so we couldn't catch her, and periodically goring Mairie and the other cows and having them run through the fence, too.  All I could think about was beef.  I've never seen her act like that before--or any of our other cows be so incredibly malevolent, not even Geranium or Chestnut, who have the excuse of being normally crazy.

This morning when Ethan went to check on Ellie, he saw funny footprints in the sand on the driveway, and thought a bunch of people had ridden horses down it.  Then he saw the cows.  They are all out, they ate all the barley and peanut hay, which we can ill afford at the moment, and I'm sure it's all Matilda's fault.  When we come out later, she's getting stuck in the permanent paddock with a bale of hay until her behavior improves.

Anyway, hopefully Ellie will rest today and be better soon.

Here was Ellie, back when she had Chocolate and May.  She was leaning though the fence to eat Honey's milking ration and the babies were taking the opportunity to nurse.