A First for Me at Saving a Calf...........

Today we had a first.  We IV'ed a calf.  I have never seen this done before.  It is kind of cool.  We have lost 2 calves in the last week, and found another sick one tonight at feeding time so we took him to the veterinarian to see if he could tell us what was wrong.  The vet really couldn't diagnose anything at this point except that he was dehydrated, severely, to the point where he would have been dead in a couple of hours.  So he administrated an IV, and gave him fluids. Now when we arrived at the vet, this calf couldn't even hold up his head and had given up on life.  After giving him two bag of fluids, he was holding his head up and acting like he might actually want to live.  Amazing!  So we brought him home, put him in the warm calf house, gave him one more bag of fluids then left him until the next scheduled feeding, which was three hours.  I was really afraid to go back after that three hours.  I just knew he would be dead.  After all, the other two calves I had tried to save died, so why not this one.  My Farmer and I woke up at 2:00am and went back to the calf house.  I was totally holding my breath as he opened the door, I did not want to find this little guy dead.  OMG!  He was laying there, his head up and he had even moved around!  I was so excited I almost wanted to cry!  So we gave him another bag of fluids and even gave him a little milk.  Now we are back home, will try and get a couple hours sleep, then go back and if he is still alive, give him more fluids.  However, I am still holding my breath and praying, cuz I know we are not out of the woods yet.  Until tomorrow...... Or I guess it is already tomorrow.........wow I better get some sleep!