Cow injury

The cow with the bad limp (cow #60) has been taken care of.   This morning she was in the middle pasture with the rest of the cattle and Donna and I got a good look at her.  The cow had a bad cut on the back and side of her right leg just above her hoof.  Her leg was swollen and she may have gotten an infection.  The cattle were all laying down and chewing their cuds so I let her be.  I opened the gates to the north pasture and corral and mid afternoon the cattle found them open.  She came limping as fast as she could behind the herd.

I separated her from the herd to be by herself in the corral. Then I loaded her into my stock trailer and took her to the cattle vet.  She checked the wound, cut the dead tissue away and cleaned the wound.  A bad looking cut but not one that cut or damaged tendons.   It could have been worse.

The vet wrapped the leg and gave her four shots of an anti-biotic.  Four shots as the medicine can burn so it is split into four doses.  The cow was well behaved during the cleaning and the shots.  Loading her back into my trailer was a challenge as she didn't want to step up into the trailer.  After we went around and around she finally went inside.

$99 vet bill.

Once we got her home I am keeping her in the south corral while she recovers.  It is drier and cleaner than walking into the river to drink water.  I got her calf in the corral with her.

The herd stood outside the corral and watched while I unloaded and moved the cow.  Cow #120 who had a swollen jaw back in March when she was pregnant needs some attention.  Back in April her swelling went down when it appeared (?) her abscess drained.   But looking at her now it doesn't seem like her wound has healed well.  So I got this cow and her calf into the corral along with cow #60.  I'll call the vet tomorrow and have this cow looked after.  If it's not one things... it's another.


How did cow #60 get her wound?  I suspect that is was when the cattle broke into the weed hay enclosure earlier this week.  They had trashed the fence posts and also ripped the three strands of barb wire off the posts.  I think cow #60 got entangled in the barb wire and cut her leg.    Weed hay... the gift that keep on giving.


Other than attending to the cows, I laid out several more lines of irrigation pipe.  Lots of work.  For one line I added one of the newer 30' pipes.  When I opened water to the line I found the sprinkler on the 30' pipe to be stuck.   Looking closer I found clips around the sprinkler restricting its movement.  Why?  It makes no sense.  So I had to go home and get pliers to remove the two clips.   As the pipe is 30' long and the sprinklers throw water 40' I got wet as I worked.  Making matters worse is the next sprinkler had two openings to throw water.  And the wind came up strong blowing water my way.  I was soaked and getting cold as the sun was setting by the time I got the clips removed.   When I got home I found one of my pliers is missing.  My favorite plier of the two pliers.

I have the sprinkler lines set so they just reach the fence line by the road,  The wind blew so strong (21 mph with gust to 33 mph) the water wasn't reaching even close to the fence line.

Everything is a struggle.