Calves

A Millers woman says she lost time and money trying to save farm animals purchased at the county's only livestock auction.Two weeks after buying four calves and a lamb at the Westminster Livestock Auction on Aug. 1, Jane Kelley lost all the animals. One of the calves, a newborn that still had its umbilical cord attached, died within a few days of the purchase. The experience has left her critical of the practice of selling young, even newborn, calves.But the owners of the auction say they stand by a longtime "buyer beware" policy and do not compensate bidders for lost animals.

Pneumonia killed one dolphin calf at the National Aquarium last month while internal bleeding took the life of another baby days later, according to results of a necropsy released Friday. The aquarium has yet to resume its popular dolphin shows because the surviving dolphins remain distressed by the deaths. According to the necropsy, the deaths of the two 2-month-old calves were unrelated, said Brent R. Whitaker, the aquarium's deputy executive director for biological programs.

Animal trainer Deirdre Weadock has worked at the National Aquarium long enough to have seen her share of life and death, but she'll tell you this has been the roughest week of her career. Losing one dolphin, then another, within days. "You can't really describe what this feels like to other people," Weadock said Sunday, her voice breaking. "I guess any parent can relate. " On Saturday night, the second of the aquarium's two calves died in the arms of the aquarium's medical workers as they tried desperately to save her. The first had been found dead in the pool on Tuesday.

Animal trainer Deirdre Weadock has worked at the National Aquarium long enough to have seen her share of life and death, but she'll tell you this has been the roughest week of her career. Losing one dolphin, then another, within days. "You can't really describe what this feels like to other people," Weadock said Sunday, her voice breaking. "I guess any parent can relate. " On Saturday night, the second of the aquarium's two calves died in the arms of the aquarium's medical workers as they tried desperately to save her. The first had been found dead in the pool on Tuesday.

An 11-day-old dolphin calf born at the National Aquarium in Baltimore died Sunday morning, shortly after staff first noticed it was breathing irregularly. The cause of death has not been determined for the 30-pound, 2- to 3-foot-long calf that was born March 10 to an Atlantic bottlenose dolphin named Jade. A necropsy was performed at the Johns Hopkins University's comparative pathology lab by National Aquarium veterinarians and Hopkins staff. Aquarium officials were awaiting test results from cultures, which could take one to two weeks, according to a statement from the aquarium.

A Millers woman says she lost time and money trying to save farm animals purchased at the county's only livestock auction.Two weeks after buying four calves and a lamb at the Westminster Livestock Auction on Aug. 1, Jane Kelley lost all the animals. One of the calves, a newborn that still had its umbilical cord attached, died within a few days of the purchase. The experience has left her critical of the practice of selling young, even newborn, calves.But the owners of the auction say they stand by a longtime "buyer beware" policy and do not compensate bidders for lost animals.

Advice for expectant mothers: Eat nutritious food, take vitamins and visit the doctor for regular checkups and ultrasound exams. It's a regimen that Shiloh and Chesapeake adhere to strictly. They take heavy-duty supplements, have experts make ultrasound images of their babies every month and eat 25 pounds of fish every day. O.K., that's a little more fish than the average human eats - pregnant or not. Shiloh and Chesapeake are two Atlantic bottlenose dolphins who are expected to give birth in late July or August at the National Aquarium in Baltimore.

The male dolphin calf born March 20 at Baltimore's National Aquarium was found dead yesterday morning in the Marine Mammal Pavilion's nursery pool -- being pushed through the water by its mother in a futile lifesaving effort.Aquarium officials said mother Nani's instinctive attempt to keep her unnamed calf breathing could not save it from the pneumonia that appeared to be the cause of death.Marine mammal curator Nedra Hecker said the calf was Nani's third; the others, born at Marine Park in Galveston, Texas, also did not survive -- one drowning at birth, the other succumbing to a bacterial infection at three weeks.

Havre de Grace.--Anyone who's spent much time with livestock knows that emergencies occur more frequently on Sundays. This is a law of nature. So it was with some misgivings last Sunday morning that I went out to check the cows.I had a feeling that something was going to happen. This is calving season, the weather has been even harder on cows than on people, and the farm has had pretty good luck the past couple of years. Trouble was overdue.Actually, we've had some cow trouble already this season.

HAVRE DE GRACE -- We shipped out 34 six-month-old calves this week, about nine tons' worth. Their mothers are desolate. They spend much of the day and part of the night at the pasture gate, staring out the lane and bellowing forlornly.The bull, who's in another field, is restless too, but for different reasons. He's been separated from the herd since midsummer, before the heifer calves reached puberty, and all the recent noise has reminded him that he's lonely and would like some company.

An 11-day-old dolphin calf born at the National Aquarium in Baltimore died Sunday morning, shortly after staff first noticed it was breathing irregularly. The cause of death has not been determined for the 30-pound, 2- to 3-foot-long calf that was born March 10 to an Atlantic bottlenose dolphin named Jade. A necropsy was performed at the Johns Hopkins University's comparative pathology lab by National Aquarium veterinarians and Hopkins staff. Aquarium officials were awaiting test results from cultures, which could take one to two weeks, according to a statement from the aquarium.

Advice for expectant mothers: Eat nutritious food, take vitamins and visit the doctor for regular checkups and ultrasound exams. It's a regimen that Shiloh and Chesapeake adhere to strictly. They take heavy-duty supplements, have experts make ultrasound images of their babies every month and eat 25 pounds of fish every day. O.K., that's a little more fish than the average human eats - pregnant or not. Shiloh and Chesapeake are two Atlantic bottlenose dolphins who are expected to give birth in late July or August at the National Aquarium in Baltimore.

At 6 feet 3 and 337 pounds, defensive tackle Anthony Bryant is hard to miss. But the one body part that gets the most attention is not his broad shoulders, massive arms or expansive chest. It's his calves. Bryant's calves are 20 inches in circumference, a byproduct of doing 1,000 calf raises a day with 100-pound weights as a teenager in Newbern, Ala. Naturally, Bryant's legs have earned him the nickname "Calves" from teammates such as linebacker Terrell Suggs and defensive end Trevor Pryce.

GRANADA, COLO. -- The snow curled up before the massive plow blade fitted to the front of one of John Duvall's tractors. The 58-year-old rancher clenched his jaw as the vehicle trembled and then stalled. There were still a hundred yards of snowed-in road he had to clear before he could haul hay to the starving herd of cattle clustered in a small clearing. "This is [what] you put up with every day," Duvall said. "You're working your butt off, and looking at your livelihood go down the drain."

WASHINGTON - A cow that died of complications from calving in April might have been infected with mad cow disease, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said yesterday. There is no danger to the human or animal food supply, said Dr. John Clifford, the department's chief veterinarian, because the carcass was destroyed where the cow died after tissue samples were collected. Clifford said a sample of brain tissue was submitted by a veterinarian who treats animals in "a remote area," which he did not identify.