Rose is ill

For the last two or three days I've seen Rose off by herself in the loafing shed while the other cattle are eating at the hay bales or laying under the trees in the north pasture.  Rose was still chewing her cud and walking out to the bales to eat.  The other cattle pick on Rose so I figured she just wanted to be left alone.

This morning Rose didn't look good.  She was standing in the loafing shed.  She appeared to be favoring her left rear leg and was standing on the point of her hoof.  When I approached she moved and stood on all four hooves.

Still Rose didn't look right.  Her back was arched and her head hung low.  Donna came over and agreed Rose looked ill.  Rose's back hind quarters seemed weak.  I called the vet.  The main cattle vet was off for the day but the backup cattle vet could see her.

I got my stock trailer and using the pickup's four wheel drive blasted through the deep snow.  By now Rose was laying down in the loafing shed. We decided to try to load her from the loafing shed rather than make her walk into the loading corral.

I had a temporary corral panel on one side and the trailer door swung open on the other side.  I stacked two pallets, one smaller than the other, behind the trailer to make it easier for Rose to step into the trailer as the step up into the trailer can be a big one.

It wasn't too hard to get Rose to stand up and move to the back of the trailer. Rose was hesitant to step onto a wooden pallet.  As I was moving around her to grab her leg and lift it onto the pallet Rose bolted and ran around the trailer door into the corral.  She headed towards the loading corral but then slipped and fell on the hard slick snow.

Donna and I tried to get Rose up but we couldn't without her help.  Initially she laid all stretched out on the ground even her neck and head. She was breathing hard. We let her rest a little bit and tried again.  No luck.  More rest and eventually she lifted her head and neck off the ground.

Eventually we gave up and I called the vet and asked her to come over.  Fortunately I do not live too far from her office.

A half hour to hour later the vet and her assistant arrived.  As they approached Rose, Rose got up on her own. She was wobbly but we guided Rose into the loading ramp and then down to the head gate which we closed to hold her in place.

The vet checked Rose.  Her temperature was 102 degrees, a little high.  Her heart was racing.  She was breathing a little hard.  The vet reached her arm way into Rose to check her insides.  Her stool seemed fine.  Rose is pregnant but no sign of a mummied calf corpse.  Her rumen was somewhat hard which was not normal.  This could be due to what she has eaten, if it is too rough or stemy, or perhaps she hasn't drank enough water to aid in her digestion.

Rose could have swallowed a sharp metal object which cut her insides.  The vet didn't find any objects but that doesn't mean it couldn't have happened.

So, did Rose:

• swallow a sharp object?
• not get enough water and that threw her digestion off?
• is injured from falling on slippery snow?
• is injured from another cow or cows ramming her?
• and the injury and pain threw her eating and drinking patterns off?

It's unknown.

The vet gave Rose a shot for pain and a shot of antibiotics.  I filled 3/4 of a large pail with warm water and the vet inserted a long hose down Rose's mouth and into her stomach and then pumped the water mixed with some electrolytes down the tube.  Finally the vet inserted a metal tube in Rose's mouth and put a long magnet down the tube.  It took two tries before Rose swallowed the magnet.  The magnet will attract any metal objects and should stop them from causing harm.  The magnet will always stay in Rose.

I let Rose out of the head gate and she walked right over to the covered roof west of the barn.  I had spread out a bunch of fresh straw for her.  Rose checked out the straw, chewed on some straw or grass clump, and stood for a while before laying down.  That is where she is now.

I closed the gates to this part of the corral so she is not bothered by the other cattle.  I put out a fresh bale of hay in a wooden feeder by the barn.  I took some sections of hay and laid them on the straw near Rose.  She took a one bite of the hay and weakly chewed on it.

I checked on Rose several times, the last time a few minutes ago.  Each time she was laying in a different position so she is moving around.

Now to wait and see if she recovers.  The vet bill was $208.

As I found Rose this morning.

Getting ready to pump water into Rose.  The blood is from injecting the antibiotics into a vein in her neck.

Waiting to be let free.

When I pulled the trailer back to the hay shed I went faster than normal through the gate so I wouldn't get stuck in the snow.  Unfortunately I clipped the gate with the back part of the trailer and bent the bottom bolt.

I tried hammering the bolt straight using a sledgehammer but was starting to bent the gate and not the bolt.  So I got my tractor and hooked a chain to the bolt to pull and straighten it.  I couldn't quite see the bolt from the tractor cab and ended up bending the bolt the other way.  I then pushed the bolt and gate with my tractor and straightened the bolt.  I had the bale spear on the tractor and while I could see the main spear and avoid the gate, I couldn't see the two smaller spears and one spear pushed against the gate rail bending it.

   Can anything else go wrong today, or is this the end?

I used the sledgehammer to straighten the gate rail.  Now my nice beautiful gate has an imperfection.