Trautman Family Farm

This also from July 2005. What a crappy couple of months it ended up being. Another note -- I complain about $290/mo insurance being devastating -- with a deductable of $10,000. Try $15,000 deductable and $550/month. That is robbery. I think soon we will join the millions without any healthcare at all. - Scott

Takin' one for the team

The vet was out yesterday; to treat one calf with pinkeye, poor little #85, who's been rather sorry looking since he got here, having been weaned too quickly & transported here on a quite cold day. The vet also lanced an abcess on another calf's cheek, one about the size of a big golf ball.

My wife Julie helps we catch and hold these fellows when we need to do something. These fellows are in the calf shed, a 40x60 foot building.

With that cheek lance, we need to push out the pus out & put some iodine in there, at least twice a day until it heals over.
Six hours after the vet lanced it, it was back to its original oversized golf ball size, we catch good ol' Wolly, but darn it if we can get the puss out of the lance, trying to squeeze it. The vet said we might have to clean it out with hydrogen peroxide & break a scab to get it out. Well, probe as I might in the wound, and thoroughly grossing Julie & myself out, can't get it open. Need the vet out again.

At the same time, we need to vaccinate the other 7 fellows in with him against pinkeye. Which means catch 'em & give them a quick shot in the neck. We caught 5 with relative ease. I suggested to Julie, well, maybe that's enough for tonight. Okay, let's try the next one, if we can't, that'll be it for tonight. Okay! Julie & I make quite a team, I'm the major "grabber", she's right behind to gain control, then back to me to get them down on the ground & do the vaccination, 2cc's in the neck.

Good & big #224, I grab him at the feeder, he makes a lunge, Julie's got his tail, I've got him by the neck, down he goes, I'm on top.
Bam, up goes his head, and his bud of a horn knocks me good just above my left eye, wow, that hurt, but I got him vaccinated. I touch my head, it's slick, and my hand comes back bloody. Julie can't see my face yet.

When she does, her first comment is "you've got to go to the emergency room". The damn thing doesn't really hurt, but it's definitely bleeding good. Nah, no emergency room, it's not that big a deal. Especially since the last time we had an urgent care situation, our 2 year old daughter having fallen down a couple stairs playing with her brothers, result being she was limping. Three x-rays later, $1000. It was nothing, she just sprained her ankle, but there it is, $1000 for being safe. And a nice little note in the file about "blunt trauma" to make sure they could suggest child abuse to keep us shut up.

Our health insurance is still $290/month, almost $10/day, for a $10k per person deductable. On a farmer's pay, that $1000 was devastating, and all I can think is they'll find some way to make this a $1000 cut, won't they? So no, not going to urgent care, clean it up, try and bind it up to minimize a scar. Such is the price of healthcare these days. You've got good employer provided healthcare? Good for you, no scars for you. For us, if it's me anyway, it'll be a broken bone or as bad before I go to those money suckers.

Being the jokester that I am, I now am able to say upon being asked (by everyone of course) "what happened?", well, Julie, she's a mean drunk I tell you, I never saw it coming. There may well be a small scar, no problem, the problem right now is wiping away sweat in the course of other activities from that eye. All part of what it is to be a farmer, with animals.