cow tippin'

[redpowerd]

she was on her side, eyes all red, 81.
poor 81.
went out to milk yesterday morn an seen her down, thought she'd split herself or something. dragged her out to the hill to wait for her to get up.  an hour after milkin i went to go tie her legs tgether, she was on her side sufocatin, broken leg. she was loosing energy and tryin to get air. me an brother pulled n lifted n tugged to get her under her feet. nope. thought about gettin a gun. we dont milk alot (44).
this was the barn pet.
she'd push cows into the parlor when called.
allways up for a good wraslin.
gave 100+ pounds on organic(mostly) ;D
and actually listend to peoples commands(like an ill trained dog)
we didnt want to shoot her, and i never shot a girl sucessfully.
we pulled and lifted till blue, and i went and got the gun. :-[

[Tom]

Some are friends and some are family.  Tough :'(

[RavioliKid]

That's so sad. :'(

You have my sympathies.

[hydeoutman]

Sorry about your loss :'(

[Bro. Noble]

I made some 'hip lifts'  that makes it fairly to get a downer cow up.  We used to use it quite a bit when we first started milking for cows with calving paralysis.  Got them up twice a day and milked them out by hand,  fed and watered them.  Took about an hour and seemed like they would always go down in bad weather.  We'd doctor them like this for usually a couple of weeks before they died.  Have been able to get a few to where they could be sold but don't ever remember getting one back in the milk line.  We don't have that problem much now but on the occasion that we do,  I don't wait too long before I dispatch them.  Only had one to break a leg and made hamburger out of her pronto.  Seems like it's always the good ones that have problems.  That's just life down on the farm.

Noble

[redpowerd]

its a fairly large, new barn, built in 90 after a fire ripped thru our 1800s barn. got some potholes we try to keep after.  i think thats what got her, though it may have been some heifers ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ???   anyway, the dude that takes care of the carcasses has a monopoly, hes the only guy in town, gets 20 a head, he used to pay us. but, hes got a .22 to put em down before the winch, only uses one peice of lead. i used 6. poor 81. oh, the dude got there 5 minutes later, usually takes him a day. his name is Liberty. irony sucks!  :-/ 81 81,  here 81

[redpowerd]

yea noble, we call that stuff 'milk fever'. same stuff?, down on the farm, told myself that when i was headin for the cherry gunbox. what dont kill ya........

[redpowerd]

thanks, your words warmed me quicker'n ma's chilli

[Fla._Deadheader]

Actually, when our cows got down with Milk Fever, I would stick a big needle into their paunch and dump in a bottle of electrolyte. Sometimes, they would get back up before the bottle was empty and wander on into the barn, lookin for feed??
  I used to sell the hip lifters. I used car bumper jacks and they looked like giant earmuffs. Had a chain welded to each end and hooked the bucket on the tractor loader to it and raised 'em up pretty stress free. Never had one go back into production, though??
   Had several struck by Lightning, also. Farm life is nearly as tough as sawmillin?? : : :D :D :D

[Bro. Noble]

redpowered,

Milkfever is a metabolic disorder caused by a calcium shortage.  They often get milkfever along with calving paralysis,  but if they only have milkfever it's easy to treat.  Give them an injection of vitamin D and then an IV of calcium and glucose.  An old cow can have her eyes rolled back and appear to be a goner and be up grazing 20 minutes after treatment.

Noble

[redpowerd]

huh, mabie thaats why the vet just built a new barn. k nice info. yea that fever dont last too long round the old man, picks it up right qucik. kinda wish id stayed on the farm them ten years or so i went to college. more schoolin

[Haytrader]

I had 20 heifers to calf out this last winter. Lost two calves and one heifer. Not good at all, but that is how mother nature does things once in a while. One calf was born in a snow storm. Placed a bale of grass hay right beside it and put it on hay but was just to cold. Hate to lose any. These are commercial cows, not dairy, but ya get attached to em anyway, specially when they eat cake outa yer hand.
Feed cows in the mornin........saw cedar in the afternoon.

[ksu_chainsaw]

we calved 30 head of commercial beef cows this year crossed to a gelbeih bull.  last year this bull was giving us nice easy calvers, but this year we had 3 to pull, one of which was doa and weighed over 150 lbs-out of a heifer.  this year has not been good for us, thank god the cows are not our main business- we would be loosing money big time

Charles Wist

[L. Wakefield]

   Yeah, this winter and 2 winters ago I had calves get so cold after birthing that I took them inside to warm them up. I KNOW it saved them. Fortunately they haven't ever gotten loose and trashed the living room. That wood fire does well for them.

   I did just buy a sweet little Jotul for the garage. That might become the emergency nursery annex. Better than the living room mebbe. The 2nd time around it was pretty ripe smelling by morning.

   Funny how the dogs understand that those babies need help.

   I had one mom cow get the hindquarters paralyzed during birth- but I saw her go down and pulled the calf immediately  (2nd calf 'I' had had)- and she got up in about 20 min. It all depends on how long the pressure is on the nerves that lie next to the birth canal. I think it's the peroneal nerve, but I'll have to look it up (later, after the sake..)

   I also lost one to milk fever (hypocalcemia)- if I'd paid closer attention, it wouldn't have happened. They need good feed after calving, water, and a limitation to the nursing for the first bit. This cow was up in the woods where there was no feed or water, and had a VERY greedy calf. Bad combo. She freshened to 5+ gal/day, and it was her 4th lactation.  They say it's most apt to happen from the 2nd to the 4th lactation.

     lw

[Jason_WI]

This past winter we had a cow with milk fever. My dad usually puts the calcium under the hide. It works the same. But she never seemed to snap out of it. Called the vet and said it was possible pneumonia but still wanted to put another bottle of calcuim in. Just after he pulled out the needle from the neck vein the cows eyes rolled back and she fell over dead.

Sometimes it don't pay to get up in the morning....