A Jersey cow named Amalthea collapsed at the bottom of a steep pasture in Fallbrook, California, late Thursday evening after giving birth, leaving her stranded and unable to get back up on her own. The eight-year-old cow needed a nine-person rescue crew, a specialized sling, and a crane just to get out of the hillside alive.
The San Diego Humane Society's Emergency Response Team rescued the cow, according to San Diego Humane Society, which described responders racing against time to move Amalthea to safety before rain moved into the area. Nine ERT members rigged the sling system around her body to support her weight, then used a crane to hoist her up the steep hillside and onto a waiting flatbed truck.
Getting Her Off the Hillside
Moving an incapacitated, full-grown dairy cow up a steep slope is not a simple task, and the humane society's account makes clear the operation required careful rigging. Responders secured Amalthea for the ride using protective hay bales and tightly cinched tie-down straps, the organization says, cushioning her against the jostle of transport while keeping her from shifting during the drive.
From there, the Emergency Response Team moved Amalthea to a barn, where veterinarians began her rehabilitation. Once inside, the crew positioned hay bales around her to keep her in an upright, sternal position — a detail the humane society says was meant to support her recovery indoors, away from the pasture where she'd gone down. The whole operation, from the initial call to Amalthea reaching the barn, stretched across four hours, according to the organization, which called it a technical rescue that gave her the best possible fighting chance to heal alongside her calf. Amalthea was reunited with her newborn calf once she was settled.
What Veterinarians Suspect Went Wrong
Veterinarians suspect Amalthea developed milk fever, a severe calcium deficiency that can strike after calving and leave cows dangerously weak or unable to stand, per the humane society's account.
The condition veterinarians suspect, often called milk fever, happens when blood calcium is depleted faster than a cow's body can replenish it, according to the University of Wisconsin–Madison's dairy extension program. The extension notes that most cases strike between calving and roughly three days afterward, and that cows five years or older, high-producing animals, and Jersey cattle specifically are at elevated risk — three factors that lined up in Amalthea's case.
Why Jerseys Are Especially Vulnerable
Veterinary references back up why breed matters here. The MSD Veterinary Manual states that the related condition known as parturient paresis is more common in Jersey and Guernsey breeds, and that it typically emerges right around the onset of lactation after calving, when calcium excretion spikes and blood calcium drops sharply. The manual also notes that cows in the more advanced stage of the condition can become paretic to the point that they simply cannot stand — the exact situation that left Amalthea stuck at the bottom of her pasture.
A Scottish agricultural advisory group, FAS, puts a number on that breed gap, reporting that Jersey cows are 2.25 times more likely to suffer milk fever than Holsteins. A three-year study at a commercial dairy farm in Beatrice, Zimbabwe, found a similar pattern, with milk-fever incidence among Jerseys measured at 14.78 percent compared with 4.82 percent in Holsteins, and an overall incidence of 7.98 percent across the farm, according to findings published by scielo.org.za.
The rescue was first reported by Central Oregon Daily, which covered the Emergency Response Team's effort to get Amalthea to shelter before the storm rolled through Fallbrook.
