Leanne

You may have read about Leanne a while ago, she had a difficult delivery of her first calf and was unable to stand on her own for several weeks. Well, this picture is of Leanne. She is still not the most agile cow in the herd, but I have argued with Ben that she isn't the least agile either.
After weeks of babying her, carrying feed and water to her, lifting her first with hip clamps, then with a full-body sling and later helping to stabilize her hind end while she attempted to get up... we can now say that she is fully mobile all on her own. I saw her run last night, it wasn't a pretty run, but she was gimping along, three legs running and one stiff leg only assisting when it could. Hopefully she will do alright on the treks back and forth to the pasture in a few weeks, right now she doesn't have much traveling she has to do.
The other cows have been picking on her a little, but most get out of her way when they see her in their path. She still wears the scars from the hip lifters and the sling, but I would say it was worth it. All those weeks she never lost the brightness in her eyes or the perky look on her face. Leanne was excited every time we came near and knew that it was time to try and get up. She would 'moo' everytime the other cows went in to be milked because she wanted so badly to go with them. Now she can go, but she isn't getting milked, I think she just likes to feel like a part of the group.
We are thankful to have the bedded pack barn because if she had been immobile for that long on a concrete floor there is no way she would have stayed as healthy and pneumonia most definitely would have set in. Now we can hope she gets bred soon, continues to improve while on pasture and gets her chance to be part of the milking herd next year.