Knuckles Update

Gosh, it seems like a month has passed since our slippery slide-y skid down the slopes with the newborn Knuckles calf. I had to look back to see that it was on the 7th and not a nearly a month at all.

Since finding that his front legs had not straightened properly during his womb time, we have kept both his mother Plum and Knuckles himself segregated from the rest of the herd and have been giving the pair extra care. We moved them into a pen inside the barn while the outside area was pretty much a swamp and covered with run off from the hillside. After a few days we opened the pen and let the pair move freely out into the small sorting pasture just outside the barn. Each feeding we brought the pair into the barn to feed Plum and massage those gnarled ankles.

Knuckles is quite a character and has learned to achieve standing position with a timid hop to balance on the tippy toes of his front feet. His right side is significantly stronger than the left and he is able to hold that leg nearly straight for at least a few minutes before he curls down to standing on his knuckle (would look like a wrist on a human) or down even further and kneeling (what would look like an elbow for for us onto bends the same direction as the wrist). Knuckles loves to cavort around and his actions seem to have him stumble-bumble from one spot to the next but improving each day.

Plum is a large cow and she prefers not to be shuttered in a barn. She has been vocal about wanting to get out. We opened up the bigger area of the small pasture around the side of the barn (this is electric fenced from the main herd and the one that had been broken into by one of the cows recently until we purchased and installed a new solar battery for the fence).

Daily Plum and Knuckles spend their day in the little pasture, safe from the main herd and the mud they cause. Knuckles spends a lot of his time napping as all calves his age and doesn’t let his mother go very far away before jumping up to see what she is doing. Knuckles has been staying on his hooves longer with each passing day and he can nearly keep the stronger of the two correctly flexed for small walks.

We are still hesitant about putting the pair out with the wild energy of the other cow/calf pairs for fear of his being picked on by the other calves and for Knuckles forming calluses or sores on the joints rather than getting those hooves where they will protect the feet.

In order to keep Plum happy we have also been adding a scoop of grain to her meals and this has appeased her so far but we can tell the time is coming when we will have to get the pair out into the real world of the farm.