randiliana
Well-known member
We've already made our decision, but have a go at it. Tell me what you would do in this case.
Coming 8 year old cow. Possibly the top cow in the herd as far as production goes, at the very least in the top 5 out of 150 head or so. Pretty much a given that she will raise a 650+ lb calf. This year her calf weighed 793 and we kept him for a 4H calf. She tends to have high BW, Avg on 6 calves is 111 lbs, but she does it by herself. She herself would weigh in around 1350-1400 lbs. Not a huge cow frame wise. She is quiet, easy to handle and low maintenance, up til now anyways. She has 1 daughter in the herd, which raised her 1st calf last year.
This fall, at weaning time (late Oct), we noticed her eye was running, not a lot, but looked like the discharge was bloody. We kinda had a look at it, and thought that maybe she had scratched it (eyelid or the skin around it) on something and it was just bleeding a bit. Turned her back out, and kept an eye on her. It never really quit running, not a lot, but bloody discharge. So, when we moved the cows to the next pasture, we cut her off at home and kept her there, this was end of Nov. Put her down the chute, so we could have a good look at it. Turned out to be cancer eye. So we hauled her to the vet. He looked at it, confirmed our thought. Biggest problem is that it was NOT on the 3rd eyelid, but on the interior of the eye socket in the corner. He said 25%-50% chance that he could get it all.
Now the real question, what would you have done;
1. have the cancer removed
2. have the eye removed
3. sell the cow, probably worth $900 at the time as a cull, and cancer wasn't bad enough to see a dock.
4. Other, and explain if you would have done something else.
Our decision was made a long time ago. I'll tell you about it later.
Coming 8 year old cow. Possibly the top cow in the herd as far as production goes, at the very least in the top 5 out of 150 head or so. Pretty much a given that she will raise a 650+ lb calf. This year her calf weighed 793 and we kept him for a 4H calf. She tends to have high BW, Avg on 6 calves is 111 lbs, but she does it by herself. She herself would weigh in around 1350-1400 lbs. Not a huge cow frame wise. She is quiet, easy to handle and low maintenance, up til now anyways. She has 1 daughter in the herd, which raised her 1st calf last year.
This fall, at weaning time (late Oct), we noticed her eye was running, not a lot, but looked like the discharge was bloody. We kinda had a look at it, and thought that maybe she had scratched it (eyelid or the skin around it) on something and it was just bleeding a bit. Turned her back out, and kept an eye on her. It never really quit running, not a lot, but bloody discharge. So, when we moved the cows to the next pasture, we cut her off at home and kept her there, this was end of Nov. Put her down the chute, so we could have a good look at it. Turned out to be cancer eye. So we hauled her to the vet. He looked at it, confirmed our thought. Biggest problem is that it was NOT on the 3rd eyelid, but on the interior of the eye socket in the corner. He said 25%-50% chance that he could get it all.
Now the real question, what would you have done;
1. have the cancer removed
2. have the eye removed
3. sell the cow, probably worth $900 at the time as a cull, and cancer wasn't bad enough to see a dock.
4. Other, and explain if you would have done something else.
Our decision was made a long time ago. I'll tell you about it later.
