Difficulties and Joys

Dhruva the ox loves to lick your hand or arm, or any part of your body he can get near. It’s his way of showing his love by giving sloppy love licks. Cows have tongues like sandpaper so it is quite the experience to get a lick from Dhruva as our grandsons Balaji (12 years old) and Bhima (5 years old) show you in this video.

ISCOWP News

Starting a week ago, Meenakshi stopped eating and drinking. She has stopped eating before but she always drank some water. We tried all the tricks we have tried in the past to persuade her to eat. None of them worked and our vets felt they had exhausted their knowledge as to what to do for her. After not eating and drinking for five days she became quite weak.

(Meenakshi was born with water on her brain. At the sale barn, no one wanted her. Her head was quite large in proportion to her body and it is known that cows with water on the brain do not live very long, maybe two years at most. Lakshmi took compassion upon her and we brought her home to ISCOWP in 2014 with 6 other calves. Now she is 7 years old.)

After exhausting our attempts to get additional vets to come to look at her we opted for going to the local University Veterinary Clinic as an emergency case. The clinic took us right away and the doctors put Meenakshi in her own stall, took blood tests, and gave her liquids and nutrition intravenously.

Now 2 days later she is standing and showing some interest in food. Her blood tests have come back showing no disease. We are waiting for the results of some stool tests. The consensus at this moment is that it is likely all a result of the water on her brain although as she grew her head became more proportionate to the rest of her body. The connections between the brain and the rest of the body are affected by this defect.

There has been improvement, but we are not out of the woods just yet.  Due to her malady, she is often nervous and neurotic but at the same time, she is loving, caring, and friendly. So, we are asking for your prayers for her health. Thank you so much!