A sad day

Do you ever get the feeling the whole world is against you, well today was one of those days here.

We were up early as usual and on approaching the field all appeared well, and then I spotted something in the paddock. Immediate panic set in and quite rightly so, Willow had given birth. Sadly the cria was dead, it looked as though she had given birth in the early hours of the morning, both the cria and the placenta were cold.

A little brown girl (just as I'd predicted), poor Willow loves to be a mum and had to watch everyone else with babies last year, as she's missed out on getting pregnant because of the movement restrictions and fate has dealt her the same misfortune this year.

As you can imagine I've spent most of the day in tears. I have been blaming myself, full of what ifs and wondering what we'd done wrong. As if we've not had enough bad luck of late, and poor Willow, she went through all that discomfort for nothing. Thankfully Chiquita has been by her side all day.

After going through the loss of her baby I then milked her, I thought I would take her colostrum and freeze it so we have some just in case of emergency later in the year. I already have the powdered stuff in but the real thing will be much more efficient.

I have hit a real low, I'm not sure how many more kicks in the teeth I can take. Tomorrow is a new day and hopefully a brighter one.