libertygarden
Well-known member
Last weekend 10/23 was the last time I saw the cow alive and in my estimation about to drop her second a calf in the next couple of days. I went to see the cows week later, 10/29, and as soon as I pulled to the gate I could see dozens of buzzards standing on the corrals, on the barn, flying overhead. Sure enough, I found that same cow bloated. I imagined she had calving complications sometime between Wednesday and Thursday since my neighbor went to check on them on Wednesday and everything was fine but her carcass as I found it had water inside from a rain we got on Friday. So my guess is she died on Thursday. I dragged the carcass to the very back of the property that is off limits to the cows by about 300 yards for the coyotes to finish her off and to get those nasty birds away from the herd since I'm in the middle of calving season. I could not see any signs of trauma to the cow such as bites to the neck that would indicate a predator attack. The only damage to carcass appears to be postmortem. What I found intriguing, however, is that I could not find signs of a stuck calf on her or bones around her. I'm not sure if the whiteish bone on her back is the pelvis on the calf. I also found it odd that the left front leg was dislocated at the shoulder and only hanging by a shred of skin. I did not find tracks of predators in the mud around her.