Scarlett and Pearl, The First Four Days

I posted Pearl's birth pictures a few days ago, but there was more to the story. Because Scarlett, her mom, retained her afterbirth and I was so worried about her, I walked out into the field numerous times each day to check on them. As a result, I felt that I'd gotten to know both mother and calf pretty darn well - and I had more photos than usual. So here are some of those photos, a record of the first four days, beginning with little Pearl hiding in the grass at one day old:

Scarlett and one day old Pearl. Notice that Scarlett has afterbirth trailing out of her behind and dragging on the ground. You can see why I worried. Besides being unsightly, it was unsanitary and would likely result in an infection if it stayed there too long:

On their first day as mother and daughter, Scarlett and Pearl appeared to be doing well in spite of the afterbirth problem. I consulted a local dairy farmer, the vet and the internet, all of them suggesting I just watch and wait:

One and a half days later, mother and daughter were still doing well, but the afterbirth continued to trail out her back end. I knew that it must be starting to rot:

Scarlett has always been a mother who leaves her calves in the grass and then goes off alone to graze. This is the same technique which mother deer employ so as not to attract predators to their fawns. Here's Pearl at two days old:

Still two days old, Pearl was advanced enough to jump to her feet when I got too close. For all she knew, I might be the big bad wolf:

Two days old, Pearl meets Gladys:

At three days old, Pearl was trying to engage all the older calves:

And she got them to play:

Pearl ran like a little deer at three days old, urging the older calves to play with her:

At three and half days old, I couldn't find Pearl, so I walked far out into the south field. She knew me by then and wasn't much afraid, but she still stood up just in case. Her mother came out to keep an eye on me when I was so close to her baby:

After nearly four days, sometime during the night, Scarlett dropped the afterbirth and seemed to be none the worse for the experience. I was much relieved and even called the vet back to thank him for his advice. From this point on, Scarlett and Pearl were again just part of the herd in my mind - except for one thing. I discovered that Scarlett's collar had become too tight and needed loosening. She, however, wasn't letting me loosen it. I had to lure her into the barn for grain to do so, but that took a couple more days: