cowherd diary

[Guest guest]

Haribol

There hasnt been too much on the conference lately except for Hare Krsna dasi's

information . Thankyou vey much Hare Krsna prabhu,. So I am taking the liberty

to write all about what is happening to my cows. At least it is about cows

 

It is said that troubles don't come singly but in a battalion. Srila

Prabhupada says we dont pray for misfortune but still it comes . so therefore

we dont need to pray for good fortune either.. Whatever is due to us will come

anyway. And in fact they are just the same good and bad. The first event

last month was very auspicoius at Makara Sankranti when the sun goes to the

north and winter begins to get over and the demigods get up from their sleep,(

I believe?). Rosni, young Gir cow had her first calf in the middle of the

night . She is a hot tempered aggressive red cow with big horns, I had

given her pregnant mother to a very seemingly cow devotee brahmin doctor

neighbour at his request but brought her and calf back a year and half later

as I was not satisfied with her care . ( maybe I will become a lizard in a

well for taking back a gift to a brahmin_) and the calf Rosni was bad

temnpered. I don't know how the workers over there had treated her, and we

tried our best to pacify her but she would always shake her head and want

to butt, if tied, and when loose, charge!The delivery was very fast and easy

and we didnt intervene except to push the calf back to his mother if he fell

down away from his mother while trying to get tp his feet as the cowshed floor

is sloping a bit. We had put down straw and leaves for deep litter for

comfort for them. I sat the rest of the night night on a bundle of straw and

watched them The calf drank his filll of colostrum all night and next couple

of days and skipped about happily all over. In some places superstitiious

people dont alow the calf to drink colostrum or even allow human babies to

drink it from their mother's breast. What deprivation and damage to

health.!! And wonders will never cease. Madhu our cow herd milked out the

excess and she didnt kick at all. I thought we would never be able to to milk

this cow. She has become very mellow now. We bred her only because altho our

herd is big I do think every young cow four or five years old should be

allowed to have a calf so her development becomes complete. Otherwise it is

not fair . And the change in every cow after delivery is remarkable. They

increase in size and become magnificent mothers and the calves of course will

remain in our herd for life time protection. Rosni is giving us abundant

milk. The 3 rd day however, blood appeared in the milk. yikes! Luckily

I practice homeopathy and the infallible remedy for this shocking phenonmenon

is IPECAC 30 and it worked right away and will work for anyone.( 3 doses a day

for 3 days,) This blood in milk is considered to be caused by " Naza" or

evil eye, nothing serious, just envy, which is there doubtless ,and the remedy

which we also performed is to burn 7 red chilis with salt near the cow shed

after waving it around her. We give 2 teats to the calf and milk 2 while he

is drinking . In some goshallas they leave only one for the calf trying to

squeeze maximum milk to fill demand.( Iskcon goshallas even) and the excuse

is that the calf will get diarrohea. At times they may get. as ours did a

few days back, and then we let him have one teat and gave him a bottle of

kanci or rice water and ayurvedic medicine . So now he is ok he gets 2 teats

again. Of course with the western breeds one teat is quite sufficient for

the calf but Indian breed calves should not be deprived. like this.

 

At the same time our local vet asked me to take in an accident case, a calf hit

by a vehicle and left outside the door of her office in Roha. The vet has set

her broken foot in plaster. Her hip the other side they thought was also

broken but she was eating ok but not able to stand. When I brought her home

she had maggots in and around hr vagina and on her eyelid. We got rid of those

quite fast as they had just begun, An old cowherdman from a village quite

far came and expertly set her dislocated hip right and put a hot iron brand

to keep it there. It didnt seem to bother her. The vets plaster was not

ok... the foot was swelling and blood coming out of a hole in it. So it had

to be removed which was not easy and he pounded up the sticky bark of a tree

, which later hardens, and spread it on a cloth and bound her broken foot wih

it and tied it up with bamboo splints leaving a a big opening for the pus

to drain from the deep sore inside and on which we put imli or tamarind powder

from the dried bark and covered it over with nirgundi leaves and a light

bandage. He made a stand for her with posts and ropes in the middle and a

sack for comfort in which we make her stand supported for a few hours to

encourage her to put her front feet down on the ground. Very slow progress.

We massage her front legs with ayurvedic ol and then hot water. Plus trying

homeopathic treatments. She gets to her knees and one now fixed back leg

and turns herself over quite frequently but doesnt get up on her perfectly

goodl front feet. Otherwise she is very jolly and eats very well, for nearly a

month now with us.

 

Then Govinda my Jersey ox, although the herd got vaccinated just 3 months

back, got foot and mouth and hardly ate for 4 days except glricidia leaves,

not even green grass. It was a mild case. And one more ox got it in his feet

only and no more cases/ I asked the vet and she said this vaccine covers

only one strain of FMD, although she assured me at the time it covers 7

strains and she said that since in this state we have daily 8 hour power cuts

the efficacy of the vaccine cannot be guaranteed as it has tobe kept

refrigerated. So there it is....... Also FMD is rampant this year again in

villages and their cattle come through our land to the river.. We just cant

build a great wall all around and it wouldnt work any more than will the US

plan to build a great wall across the Mexican border to keep out illegal

immigrants. We live among the villages not in an ivory tower and have to

face the same problems.

 

After recovering nicely from foot and mouth Govinda somehow or other got

maggots in his ear. deep in the ear too, When he was scratcjhing his ear and

shaking his head I thought he had an ear infection and gave him the homeopathic

remedy and put some hydrogen peroxide. He seemed to improve but next day on

cleaning is ear we found them,This had to be the worst thing that could ever

happen/. He stopped eating completely and started drooling this thick sticky

mucous . When I called the vet she told me to use this awful chemical called

Butox , very poisonous but you cant use turpentine oil in the ear and this

stuff doesnt sting,It has to be diluted so I put it in his ear with a plastic

syringe. And we cleaned his ear and maggots came out and we put more Butox

on a cotton to kill the rest down there. But he wasnt eating and he was

rapidly weakening and our vet goes away every weekend to her home elsewhere

and her helpers couildnt do a proper job so I called a friend who used to be

head of SPCA in Mumbai and she volunteered to keep him at her place 40 km

away and let their local vet, who is very qualified. take care of his ear, I

took him there in a hired tempo and they took excellent care giving IV and

calcium and antibiotics etc and after a few days I brought him back, his ear

thoroughly cleaned. He has a new life back fr.om the brink. The transport

cost a fortune and was difficult on these rough hilly roads.

 

To crown it all our dog bit a vets assitant here . He is vaccinated against

rabies but still I had to pay the poor mans's doctor bill. I thought that was

to crown it all but now I see there is no limit to adversity and I am bracing

for the next crisis. But I am very thankful to Krsna that Govinda's life got

saved so timely,

ys Labangalatika dasi