Looking for ways to die (Part Three)

[Jogeephus]

Fella I sold some pairs to dropped by in a panic this morning. One of his heifers decided to calve and thought calving under the skirting of a tobacco barn was just the place. Calf was fairly on the large size thanks to his line breeding program he is using and it seems the calf nicked a nerve and temporarily paralyzed the heifer. When I arrived the heifer had pushed herself up against the tobacco barn and was stuck and was beginning to bloat. Calf was dead from suffocation I suspect since mom couldn't clean it.

My immediate concern was to address the bloat before it killed her. I thought about letting the air out manually but thought I still had time to try and get her feet under her before she expired. Best way I could see doing this was to put a hip vice on her and get her on her feet but the low hanging roof would not allow the use of a tractor or even allow me to stand under it so I went to plan 2. Plan 2 wasn't going to be pretty since it involved dragging her out from the confines of her cave-like birthing area. This was going to prove difficult since getting a rope around her was going to be tough - but plan 3 involved putting it around her neck but this was only a last resort. As we tried to get the rope under her I came up with the idea of using her legs as levers to roll her. She seemed pretty calm so I gave this a go and it worked fairly well till she decided to brush me aside with one slap of the hoof to my chest and shoulder. I quickly got her message but thankfully this rotation was just enough to get the rope around her chest. We then hooked the rope to a tractor and pulled her out of her cave. Once out, we were able to use the pallet forks on the tractor to go up under her and lift her so we could manipulate her and get her on her chest and legs so she wouldn't be laying on her side. Once this was done a few minutes is all it took for the bloat to begin subsiding and she began looking much better. Gave her some water which she drank steadily. She looked light years better in not time at all.

As we watched her recovery, his bull came over to inspect what we were up to. The fella bragged on the bull and I gave him a look over and saw he was a pretty fine bull at that. And to think, some dumbazz sold it to him just a couple of years ago. I suspect if that fella knew now what he didn't know then he would have kept the bull calf for himself. Stupid fool. But wait, that fool would have been me. :lol:

 

[djinwa]

Might want to rename these threads, "Owners who give cattle good opportunities to kill themselves". By failing to remove metal on which they can get cut, or failing to fence off places in which they can get stuck.

With cattle, if it can happen, it will. It is only a matter of time.

 

[greybeard]

Might want to rename these threads, "Owners who give cattle good opportunities to kill themselves". By failing to remove metal on which they can get cut, or failing to fence off places in which they can get stuck.

With cattle, if it can happen, it will. It is only a matter of time.

True, including getting stuck UNDER the fence that was put up to keep them from getting stuck under something else.

 

[Jogeephus]

Bad news. After several hours she never got back up. No temp or anything so she is now hanging in the meat locker.

 

[hillsdown]

I have seen things this year that I NEVER EVER want to see again . :devil2: BUT sometime shytt just happens . :hide:

 

[Workinonit Farm]

It never ceases to amaze me how much 'trouble' they can get into.

For folks who don't know them and only see them from afar or in pictures, they seem so benign and 'easy'. For those of us that keep them, breed them and raise them, we know better and often are surprised at the situations that arise.

I remember a thread, a few years ago on Rancher's, where a heifer or steer got its head caught in a lawn chair.

Katherine

 

[TB521]

I use to work for company that picked up dead cows I think I have seen about every way one can kill them selves I picked one up time that stuck his head under a brush hog to smell a skunk and when it sprayed he tried to jump back and hung his head and broke his neck

 

[Nesikep]

Wow... The bloat must have ruptured the rumen and you couldn't tell right away...

We once had a bunch of scabby potatoes and we put them in the manure spreader and spread them in the field.. Well, one of our nicest bred heifers found them so good she ate 10 in a mouthfull and choked to death on one.

Workinonit Farm... I just saw a picture on Facebook a month ago of a holstein cow with it's head in a kids 'toy truck'... it was one of those big plastic pieces of crap... If it's not safe for a cow, I wouldn't put my kid in it!

5 gallon buckets are bad for heiferettes... they're the perfect size... Just deep enough to get up to the ears, just loose enough to get the head into, just tight enough to not come off... I had one wander around the corral for a half hour with the bucket on it's head... luckily she was calm about it and didn't get riled.. I took it off, and be darned if she remembered there was nothing in it.. she wanted to take a second look..

I think it was 3waycross that posted a picture of a steer that tried to jump a gate, and got hung up at half way... (I'm sure there's plenty of those).. My friend had a longhorn bull that had broken the round bale feeder, and was walking around the field with 1/4 of the feeder tangled up in his horns.. (Look at the rack on that moose!). I have a small feed bunk, and it has posts at 4" intervals.. Well the calves were always pulling the hay out of it, so I decided to put dividers along it, and bars so that they could only fit 1 head in.. Sometimes the measurements didn't work out so well so I had one spot that was tight.. I saw this one was only about 9", and thought "someone's going to get stuck in this"... I was out of 2x4's, so I had to go look for some more.. sure enough, one was stuck by the time I got back (5 minutes tops) and it took her a little while to get out.. Long enough I got the camera and videod it!... then I fixed the hole. The stories are endless and certainly entertaining... It makes the others who've had those losses not feel so bad!

 

[WalnutCrest]

Our best tasting beef from last year was a heifer that refused to stay behind a fence.

I'm not sure if she tasted good based on her own merits ... or if it was that revenge was sweet.

Either way, it worked itself out for us.

 

[Stocker Steve]

Our best tasting beef from last year was a heifer that refused to stay behind a fence.

I'm not sure if she tasted good based on her own merits ... or if it was that revenge was sweet. /quote]

Revenge :nod: