The diagnosis was not good.
One of dairy farmer Jesse Guffey’s prize Heifers suffered from a calcium deficiency known as milk fever. The disease is a mild fever caused by an infection that sometimes occurs when the breasts secret milk.
In dairy cows, the fever strikes shortly after calving and is characterized by paralysis. Guffey’s cow had a calve two days earlier. Dr. Charles R. Daily immediately began a treatment using glucose, calcium and antibiotics.
Daily has been a veterinarian for 25 years, each of which have been spent in Albany. He received his degree in veterinary medicine at Purdue University in Lafayette, Indiana.
Daily lives with his wife Betty, son Bart, daughter Megan and their noisy, friendly dog, Domino. They reside in a white house above a large basement-type area that houses the animal clinic.
Many clients come to the clinic, but house calls – or farm calls – are a large, steady part of Daily’s work.
“Some days you don’t get anything, and on other days you can’t catch your breath,” he says.
Although business may vary, it doesn’t quit on weekends. Between calls, Daily uses his leftover time to tend his tobacco crop and his sheep.
As one non-typical day slowly draws to an end, Daily travels down a bumpy, winding road to his tobacco barn just west of Highway 127 outside of Albany. Once inside, Daily begins filling buckets with field corn. Then, he exits through the back door making weird vocal sounds.
One hundred head of sheep answer back, knowing it’s feeding time and rumble toward the feed trough. When asked about hobbies or other pastime activities, Daily just smiles and says, “I don’t fish or play golf. So my family, animals, tobacco crop and an occasional cookout keep me well occupied.”
