More Cow Drama

A couple of days ago I noticed Violet had some swelling under her jaw. Her skin was loose and filled with some fluid. I would say it looked kind of like bottle jaw that I have seen in goats. I called my vet and told the office person all my details. That was at 3. She said she would have him call me back. I carried my phone around all day. I finally had to plug it up to charge but still stayed close. Finally at 8, I needed to feed one last dog. In the 2 minutes I was gone he called. He left me a message saying how he was sure the calf could not have bottle jaw. The office person got the whole story mixed up. Sigh. And of course, I couldn't call him back. Yesterday I called first thing and got to speak with him.  He proceeded to scare me half to death. Usually fluid under the jaw is associated with heart problems. If so, she was going to die. Or maybe she has swallowed a piece of metal and it was in her heart, if so, she was going to die. He did suggest I worm her which I did. I finally said can you just please come look at her!? He said it would be Friday. (today). He got here around lunch. By this time a lot of the swelling was gone. Now remember she was not supposed to be bred so I was not feeding her like I would a pregnant cow. I had remembered the day I brought her down to the barn she wore out the mineral lick and drank a ton of water. I asked him if possibly this was the cause. He took her temp and listened to her heart and all seemed to be normal. He said he had never seen it before but the fluid could have been from her overindulgence on the lick. Of course not. Only here on the homestead!
He then asked what I was going to do with the bull calf. I said I didn't know and had halfway thought about keeping him. I got a quick "Don't do that". I know Jersey bulls can be nasty I just didn't know how nasty. I've known my vet for almost 30 years. He was genuinely concerned for me and told a couple of awful stories of people he had known that were killed by a Jersey bull. Sooooo, Hank will be castrated in the near future and will be headed off to freezer camp down the road.