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​I’m curious about a few things……. 
1.Have you ever had an Itovi scan? If so, how often do you get them?
2.Do you understand the information that the Itovi scan relays?
3. Do you own an Itovi scanner? And if so, where do you live?
Itovi updated their app awhile back, and the graphic attached is an easy to read explanation of what the new scanned info looks like . I realized when I was looking at it that I was misinterpreting the scan results slightly. I hope it helps someone else too! 

For more information about the Itovi:

#youneedanItoviscan
#letshookyaup
#bettertogether
#Useyourtoolsknowyourtools

Post #4 Corona Virus 101….. Diagnostics

Last night our President declared corona virus a national emergency here in the USA. He also declared that a very small population overall appears to be at high risk. If you are generally a healthy person, that lowers your risk category considerably. (Either way, please refer to Post #3/ Demographics in this series if you aren’t sure.)

If you develop flu like symptoms while we are under the umbrella of this declaration, it is prudent to continue to examine the facts:

Fact #1: It’s still cold and flu season throughout the United States (and probably the world), and symptoms of a cold, flu, or corona virus are all very similar. Additionally, depending on your overall health status, all illnesses may not look the same…. mild cases of all 3 may not even have much of a fever, while severe cases could technically settle into secondary bacterial infections in some people.

Fact #2: Right now, testing is still sketchy. Some people have been tested as many as 6 times before testing positive. Testing kits from the CDC are faulty according to reports… with a 50% accuracy rate.

Additionally, I’ve read that mutations of the original virus have already occurred at least once (common with viruses), so my personal confidence level in testing will likely remain low throughout this situation.

Fact #3: If you are “kinda sick” but don’t feel awful…. but that inner fear is driving you to want to know…. do I have “IT”?……. is it worth it to go to a dr’s office and sit in a germ infested waiting room where you might actually catch something worse than what you have? …. all to receive a test that may not yield accurate results? #rememberwhatcuriositydidtothecat

You do you of course, but my gut tells me, this would not be in my plans for personal care. 😉

Fact #4: Let’s just say you DO have “IT”, but don’t feel much differently than if you had a cold… and THEN, you go to the dr’s office to get tested and you, my friend, become the vector and spreader of germs to someone who quite possibly has an existing immunocompromised situation. …… all to receive a test that, again…. may or may not yield accurate results.

Be kind to others. Please keep your germs to yourself.

Fact #5: Mild illness is not the same as serious illness, and only you know your body and when your symptoms would constitute seeking medical attention. By all means…. go. Be kind tho to others as you evaluate your decision and put your plan into action.

(Please refer to my disclaimer below…. you do you.)

Fact #6: Certain masks are marginally helpful in preventing the spread of this virus. The N95 respirator masks are hard to come by these days, but are the only ones being recommended by the CDC. They filter particles down to .03 microns. (One of the “gain in functionality” issues of the corona virus is its particle size…. which has been found to be anywhere from .05-.02… smaller than what this type of mask is capable of filtering).

Keeping your hands clean, washed, and away from your nose, mouth, and eyes, is really your best option… as well as utilizing an immune boosting lifestyle, which starts with what you put into and on your body on a daily basis (please refer to Post #3 for basic lifestyle tips).

Tomorrow (or perhaps even late tonight if I have time), I’ll unpack what we know to be true about viruses and how to create an inhospitable environment for them. I’m spending today working at the pharmacy…. without a mask.

xoxo ~ liz

#wearenotcalledtoaspiritoffearbutoffaith
#knowbetterdobetter
#ThanksYL
#itsnevertoolatetoincorporateahealthylifestyle

Welcome! You’ve found my first official blog post on the updated website! This has  been a work in progress for the past several months, and…. not being exactly technically savvy (give me science or farming any other day!), I’ve had to call in some excellent tech help to assist in the upgrade. You can finally find ALL you need right here in one place!

The move to the new website put blogging on a little hiatus until we could get everything matched up properly. I think you’ll find this venue MUCH easier to navigate. Growing means learning, expanding, and exploring new options, right? 

Speaking of growing…. She’s now 10 months old, and it’s well past time for an Elsa update! Sweet girl shows up on Facebook with some regularity, but I need to update here…. this is kind of her ‘baby book’ after all. For all my love of animals, I never thought I’d love a cow as much as I love this heifer. I guess that’s what might happen when one lives in your bathtub for a few weeks, and syringe feeding around the clock takes control of your life! The cards were certainly stacked against her. Birth during 20 degree weather (which cost her parts of both ears), failure to thrive (because she couldn’t suck properly), trips to the vet (because we didn’t know any better.. couldn’t see the internal cleft palate… and subsequently also missed by the vet)…. it did not look good for Elsa. If you scroll back thru my early 2018 posts, you’ll find her history scattered throughout.

Nonetheless, she prevailed.

Her story hasn’t been without a little work and some modifications in her/our life. Elsa is a permanent mascot on our farm. She is a greeter, social maven, photo bomber, and so much more. As she’s grown, we’ve adapted and risen to the challenge.

Her cleft palate is not easily repairable. According to a couple of vets I’ve consulted at Texas A&M Veterinary College, the surgery would not be easy on her. Cow mouths do not open very wide, and any repair of this nature would only be manageable by entering thru the side of her face…effectively eliminating the possibility of surgery unless absolutely necessary.

Elsa eats well (albeit messily!), and does not seem to be hindered much by her birth defect. Fairly early on, we discovered that she is also moderately tongue tied, and is only able to stick her tongue out of the right side of her mouth. This really doesn’t seem to affect her much, so I’m torn between getting it fixed surgically (rather, putting her thru that surgery), and just letting her carry on as she has been. She doesn’t know any differently, and so it seems more like the surgery would be for us moreso than for her.

Cleft palates in calves are not as rare as you’d think. Unfortunately, most calves are birthed fairly unattended, and if they go without nursing for long, they die. As in the case of Elsa, if the cleft palate is undetectable externally, the rancher usually assumes the calf simply died of natural causes. Cleft palate in calves is not a genetic anomaly…it’s caused by eating the wrong plant during the first trimester of pregnancy (a similar thing can happen in people if certain medications or products are consumed during the first trimester too). In Honey’s case (Elsa’s mama)….. she apparently got ahold of a select few plants in the lupine family….. the most common culprit for bovine cleft palates. Honestly, we’re blessed. Her deformity could have been much much worse, and her personality more than makes up for the bit of added work that is required for her health and safety.

Milestones
Just like all babies, Elsa has had her milestones.

• She survived the first month! It took a team of dedicated friends and ‘nannies’, as well as Charlie and I to get her thru the first month.
• Around the six weeks mark, she finally figured out how to eat properly from one teat…. the left front. Each teat is different on a cow, and Elsa had to figure out how. We never gave up, and every day, I would encourage her to try. After the mastered one teat, she gradually learned how to nurse (in her own way) on 2 other teats. Because of the angle and size (And probably because of her limited use of her tongue on the left side of her mouth) she never mastered the 4th teat on the back left quarter. As she grew, her nursing got pretty rough on Honey. She used her teeth more than most calves, and consequently, was really tearing her mama up. We made the difficult decision to wean her at 4 1/2 months (early!) because the damage she was doing prevented us from milking Honey too.
• Eating creep feed and grass is not a problem for Elsa. Occasionally, she will have grass coming out her nose and she will stamp her feet and blow until it comes out. For awhile, we had to wet her creep feed so that it wouldn’t end up in her nose. She has outgrown that need now, and eats food just like the big girls! 
• Cud chewing…. all cows regurgitate their food and then thoughtfully re-chew it for better digest-ability. Elsa does this too, but the liquified food comes out her nose if her head is in a downward position. It doesn’t seem to bother her overly much, but it can get messy. Because of this, she gets a spongebath about once a week.
• Schooling. She is going to make an amazing hand milked dairy cow. She is calm, cool, and collected, AND she’s about as social as you could possibly imagine. Because the facial deformities are not genetic, we are not worried that the cleft palate will carry forward to her offspring.

Lessons from raising a Cleft Palate Calf

• Life is what you make of it.
• When you are able, make the most of running, bucking, and living like there’s no tomorrow…. but above all else, never ever give up! 
• Resiliency is a good thing. Bounce forward not backwards!
• Vitamin D is a necessary part of healing. Lay in the sunshine even when you think you don’t have time to.
• Be friends with those who are different from you. (Elsa doesn’t know a stranger… 2 or 4 legged!)
• Work with what you’ve got! Not everyone is born with the same tools.
• Family doesn’t always mean blood relatives.
• Being ‘schooled’ is not a bad thing. We all need to be haltered and given parameters on occasion.
• Patience is still a virtue.
• Love IS worth it.

Stay tuned…. Elsa will always be making an appearance here. She’s one of us….. part of the ‘farmily’. 

Thanks for visiting and celebrating our imperfectly perfect life on the farm.

Hugs and Love – Liz  

My world has come to a standstill…..at least it feels that way. I take my hat off to all those mamas who have (human) babies. The 24/7 is real….. even more real when you’ve got one with a health problem.

Elsa’s entry into the world, while received happily by us has been fraught with issues. The last two days, we’ve been unraveling the problem(s) that have plagued her.

1. Elsa’s problem #1: Hypothermia at birth: Although we live in north Texas, believe it or not, it can get dang cold here. It’s a different kind of cold than up north where it’s drier. Here…. it can be bone chilling in the winter time. We found her within 30 minutes of her birth, but she was already half frozen even in that short amount of time. Despite our efforts of heat lamps, warming pad, time indoors in front of the fire with us, we could not keep her warm.
2. Elsa’s problem #2: Low blood glucose: It appeared that because she was so cold, she wasn’t eating. Not eating was causing a dangerous drop in blood glucose. Between this and the hypothermia, we were setting ourselves up for losing her.
3. Elsa’s problem #3: Pneumonia: Babies are so very tender, especially ones born under such dangerous conditions. For whatever reason, I’ve found that calves and foals can be particularly tender at any time of the year. The vet heard rattling in her lungs, and her oxygen saturation came back at 72%. That is not conducive for living long, as eventually organs will begin shutting down.

Once we found out she had pneumonia, we upped our game. Frankly, the vet, rather gently attempted to talk me out of saving her, simply by telling me her chances of survival were slim. That news came Wednesday. Today is Friday, and baby girl is doing better. She has been on a round of two antibiotics, and spent about 48 hours in our bathtub. Because we wanted to do everything we could to support proper lung function and boost her immune system, we’ve been diffusing therapeutic grade Frankincense, Copaiba, and Lemon around the clock. Our bathroom became an aroma tent for her.  Two days of tube feeding…. and then we tried to teach her to nurse again, with very little success. We were all disappointed. Honey, (her mama) was THRILLED to have her back this morning after two days of absence. Honey’s mourning was heart wrenching. She went into a depressed mood, and didn’t even call for her baby. It was as if she knew she was dead. This picture isn’t so great, but neither one of them would stand still for a photo op.

Tube feeding is time consuming, but so is keeping a calf in the house….Keeping the house clean is a chore all it’s own. I’ve done load after load of towels and blankets. Little girl has proven that both her bladder and her bowels are functioning… this is GREAT news, as it means her organs are working. Her blood oxygen saturation level yesterday afternoon confirmed that….. it had risen to 95%.  Because she is so tiny, she needs food every 2-3 hours. Feed. Clean. Repeat.

Honey, Elsa’s mama, can’t be forgotten in all of this…. she has a bag full of milk at any given time, and has pined for her baby. Throughout all of this,  Honey has been a trooper. She is young, and has never been milked before…. so, on top of missing her baby, she had a crash course in getting to know me intimately while I milked. You can’t just walk up and start milking a cow. It actually takes time, trust, and a learning curve on the cow’s part. So this… milking….. has to also be added into the equation. Thankfully, because of scheduling at work, I was given a window of 7 days in a row off (Thank you Jesus!)…. but by next Wednesday, I’ll have to come up with a longer term plan.

​This brings me to Elsa’s Problem #4: Last night in the wee hours of the morning as I was placing the tube down her throat for yet another feeding, I felt something odd on the roof of her mouth. No wonder the poor thing can’t suckle well…… she has a cleft palate! After feeding her, I promptly did a little research…. what are our options?…..are we looking at surgery, is death the only option…. what’s next? Surprisingly, I found a small group of farmers and ranchers who have successfully raised cleft palate calves. It appears that if you can get past the initial suckling problems (ie: get creative with feeding), they can actually grow up and thrive. I also found that this particular congenital defect is almost always due to ingesting a plant in the lupine family during a certain time of pregnancy. You know I’m going to be stalking those fields in the spring with the intent of destroying that offending plant.

Today is Friday. Technically, she should be dead by now. I won’t say she’s thriving, but I do believe she is at least 85% better than she was on Wednesday. But the “window”, according to the vet, is still 3 days away.

Y’all keep praying for her. She is a cutie, and she’s worth fighting for!

Hugs and love, Liz