Bad foot cow, snow and trees

Giving aspirin to the cow with the bad foot... not working so well.   I mix the aspirin in with some grain.  Cattle love grain, right?  Not this cow.   The first time in the morning she sniffed the grain suspiciously and didn't eat any.   The cattle were in the "cud chewing" mood so I tried again in the afternoon.   She ate a little bit.  Only a very little bit.   I tried again in the evening when I put out a bale of hay.  She was more interested in the hay than the grain.

Her leg is bothering her more.  It's frustrating.   I'll try again tomorrow.

You expect me to eat that?

 
It snowed slowly but steadily overnight and I woke up to plenty of snow.   The forecast for the coming days is for warmer temperatures; temperatures above freezing.  The last snowfall I shoveled everything only to have it all melt.  I don't want to get stuck with a half melted/frozen mess but my heart isn't into shoveling all of the driveway and yard.  I compromised and only shoveled a quarter of everything: around the house and garage and paths to the road and the buildings.  I hope I don't get stuck with a half frozen mess for the rest of the Winter.

The trees look nice with the snow...

In the previous photos... mountains?  What mountains?

Vet visit

The cow with the limp seemed to be worse on Wednesday.  She would lift her front leg leg and shake it around.  No... she was not doing the "Hokey Pokey".  I was afraid she got an abscess like the other cow last year.

Today I took her to the vet. Dan came over this morning to help me load her into my stock trailer.  Even though it was snowing lightly, it couldn't have gone any smoother.  The herd walked straight outside the corral when I herded them. Buddy the bull followed right along.  The cow walked over to the gate Dan was manning, then walked over to the loading corral gate, then into the stock trailer.  I barely had to herd her.

The loading went so smooth we were at the vet's place 20 minutes early.

Getting the cow into the vet's squeeze chute was trickier as she didn't know where to go.  There were extra open gates and an open door and she went in all of those.  Let's try it again.  This time with all the extra gates and doors closed she easily walked into the squeeze chute.  She even lifted her leg when the vet reached down.  He commented she was better than many horses.

No signs of an abscess.  The right side of her front left hoof is a little longer than the left side of the split.  That right side was tender in spots.  The vet thinks the cow made have stepped on something with just the longer section of hoof and may have strained or (hopefully not) torn a tendon or something.

The vet trimmed the longer part of the hoof to match the other part.  He could fashion a wooden block as a temporary shoe but that would work better in the Spring or Summer than Winter.  We will let her be and most likely it will heal in a few weeks.  It is possible that even after the injury heals she may have alight limp.  Time will tell.

The vet gave me some powdered aspirin to give her.  I am to mix it with a little grain and feed it to her twice a day for a short time.

After I put the cow back into the part of the corral with the calves - since the herd was already outside the corral - I pulled another hay bale into the corral.   Between the pallet being slightly frozen to the ground, and the snow on the ground under the pickup's wheels, it took several running starts to get the bale and pallet to move.  Once they did move I was able to continuously pull it into the corral.  I needed all four wheels of the four wheel drive.

Who needs a tractor when you have a four wheel drive pickup?

Daisy wasn't ready to come outside in the morning when I took the cow to the vet.  When I moved the hay bale she was there to 'help'.  Here she is inspecting the placement of the bale.

The remaining large bales.

The herd patiently waiting outside the corral.

I put the last of the previous bale into the two wooden feeders.  Here the cattle are checking out the feeders with the 'new' hay.  Momma - being one of the smarter cattle - quickly moved on to the large bale.

Buddy the bull.  The red heifer behind him is a large heifer.

Winter scene at the ranch.

Hooves and sunset

Some weeks ago I found part of a hoof out in the hayfield.  I think it may be from Momma.  I never noticed her limping, but her hoofs were long this Summer and this hoof looks to be the size and color as Momma's hoofs.

This past week cow #40 started to limp after the cattle were let back into the corral.  I first noticed it Tuesday night when Dan and I separated the calves for weaning.  It was somewhat dark to see why she was limping.  I watched during the week.  First it seemed like her back left leg was a little swollen between her hoof and the first joint.  Then it seemed like she was favoring her front left foot.

This morning I got a little better look and she is definitely favoring her front left hoof.  Dan stopped by at noon and we looked.  She won't let us grab her leg to look but from a little distance away nothing seems caught in her hoof.  For now we are thinking she stepped on some frozen something (manure piles?) in the corral and that made her hoof tender.   She was near a gate so we herded her in the corral with the calves.  She was the only cow not to have a calf so this will work.  This part of the corral is a little smoother and she doesn't have to walk as much to eat and drink.  That should help her heal.

Is this going to be an annual event each Fall?  A cow with an injured hoof?

I got a couple of old bad hay/straw bales and spread them under the barn lean to.  This will provide a little protection / warmth for the calves and injured cow to lay on on these cold days and nights as the overnight temps are below zero F.

As you can see the calves fur has gotten thicker and the snow has not completely melted off their backs.


During the storm I had been feeding small bales to the cows three times a day.  With the injured cow out of the way I could herd the others out of the corral temporarily so I could pull another large bale into the corral.  The pallet had froze to the ground so I had to jerk it several times with the pickup before it broke free and began to move.


It was so cold my livestock well froze!  Actually... what froze was the short garden hose from the hydrant to the water trough.  The hose doesn't go straight down but at an angle.  The temperature was cold enough the water froze in the hose before completely draining.  *sigh*  I took the hose off and thawed it in the house.


The wind and snow had quit by morning as the storm moved on.  Still cold.  Snow had blown everywhere. Inside the barn, under the pole shed and tool shed even though those openings were away from the wind. It seemed like the wind swirled in addition to blowing at gale force.

It started to clear at sunset.  The mountains looked nice.

After dark Daisy went outside.  At first she wanted to go until I opened the door and she felt how cold it was.  She then complained to me about the weather.   A short time later she saw something outside and was meowing at one window and pawing at another window.  This time she went outside when I opened the door for her.  She wasn't outside too long before coming back in.  No more meowing or pawing... she is laying by the wood stove.

Winter storm

I want global warming back!  This is the second winter storm this season and it is still only November.

In front of the storm we had above normal temperatures for a few days, and rain.  Friday I pushed a lot of water off the tarp where it had pooled. I should have let it freeze.  By midnight the wind switched from the south to the north and the temperature started to drop.  Sometime in the morning the wind picked up.  At 2 am Daisy wanted to go outside.  That didn't last long.  At 7 am she again wanted outside.  By then the wind was howling and the snow was blowing.  I opened the door and she looked, wrinkled her nose and turned away.  She meowed to complain about the weather but there was nothing I could do.  So she ended up using her litter box inside the house.

The house windows this morning...

In regards to the cattle, the timing of the storm sucked.  By the end of Friday the cows had eaten down their big hay bale in the feeder, and if there was no storm I would have pulled a new bale into the corral today.  Before midnight I put out a small bale of hay each for the calves and the cows.  In the morning the calves still had plenty of hay but the cows needed more hay.  So I got them a couple of small bales and put the bales in the two wooden feeders.

The wind was howling and the snow was thick.  The temperature was 4 F and the ground was hard and a little slick due to the frozen water and mud.  The 6 inches of snow from earlier in the week?  The warm up Thursday and Friday melted all the snow. (So much for my two days of shoveling the driveway and yard!)  The melted snow and frozen ground meant water standing everywhere.   As I put the first bale of hay in the feeder the cattle quickly came over.  One cow slipped and fell down.  It took several tries before her feet stopped slipping and she could stand back up.

A few days ago another cow developed a limp. I first noticed it the night I separated the calves into the other part of the corral.  I don't see a reason for the limp and am watching her.  I suspect another cow may have rammed her and she twisted her leg.  This cow slowly limped over for the hay.

The calves had plenty of hay but they and all the cows were covered in snow.

The storm is supposed to move out tonight and cold - below zero - temperatures settle in after the storm leaves.

The strong wind blew back the tarp.  The old railroad rails and some of the other metal posts were blown off the tarp.  The rest of the boards, pipes and water on the tarp held the rest of the tarp in place.  Maybe I should have left all the water on the tarp.

And lastly...  (I'm old enough the remember all these - and other - pronouncements.)

Lots of crying

When Dan stopped by Tuesday night to pick up his branding iron I asked him to help me separate the calves into the south part of the corral so I can wean them.  The sorting process ended up being more of me herding the cows and bull out of the south part of the corral and leaving the calves.  It was tricky to herd Buddy the bull out.  He was standing and intently watching and trying to figure out what was going on.  Not a good thing to try to herd him along right then.  What made herding tricky is the cows would go stand by him when I was herding the cows.  Eventually the cows would amble towards the gate which Dan was managing.  Finally Buddy followed the last cow to leave.

Within minutes the calves figured out what had happened and were getting anxious.  I put out a fresh bale of hay in the feeder I built south of the barn to distract them.

The next morning lots of crying and calling.  Some of it was by the mother cows; mainly Momma and one or two other cows.  Beulah and the other cows seemed fine without their calves demanding milk.

So the day was filled with mooing, bellowing, crying and calling. I got to hear it over and over and over as I shoveled snow.  Each one has their own sound.  One calf varied between sounding like an elephant trumpeting or a bull elk calling a female.  He and another calf have piercing cries.

Rose was handling it better than the others.  Momma was more upset than Rose was.  The cattle can stick their heads through an area above the water trough.  When Rose was drinking water Momma put her head through the opening and briefly licked Rose's neck and head.

Last year thoee calves barely made a fuss when separated for weaning.  This year... it's going to be a long few days before they get over calling.

They get interested when I run the water from the pump.

As you can see, and I just found out today, this little steer calf is growing horns.  One can either cut them off, or put bands on them to make them fall off.  Once he is weaned I will try to remove his horns.  Not only can the horns be dangerous, the price one gets is reduced if they have horns.

Here is a video of the calves, then of Momma.  Of course when I took the video they were fairly quiet.  Later when I didn't have the camera the calves all started calling at the same time.

http://youtu.be/_w1_DtnPQO4
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Some snow and cattle

We had a little snow last night with more forecast this week. You can see the recent clouds trying to slip over the mountain tops this morning.

The cattle had been eating in the pasture the past week, but this morning I allowed them back into the corral and the hay.

This is Beulah's calf from last year.  Being a little smaller she got hay on her back from eating at the large bale.

Tarp and ice

A side effect of placing a tarp over the large hay bales is that water collects in the low areas.  Then freezes into blocks of ice.  This makes it harder to get new bales as I need to remove the tarp from the bale before moving it.  For the last bale I moved it was a challenge to get several sections of ice off the tarp as the ice froze to the tarp.

Saturday the temperature got above freezing so I spent a few hours removing more ice blocks.  I had almost 20 ice blocks to remove.  I got all but two removed.   Some areas where the water pooled was shallow and the ice easily removed.  Other areas were quite large and difficult.

After I got the ice off the tarp I removed the chunks from near the bales.  I didn't want them to freeze to the ground preventing me from dragging a bale and pallet to the corral.  Some chunks were so large I had to slide them across the ground as they were too heavy to lift.  I moved the largest blocks near my little pine trees.

The final two pieces of ice.

 
Saturday when I removed the ice from the tarp Daisy was inside the house sleeping.   Sunday morning I went out to take photos of the ice and Daisy was running around outside.  Of course she saw me outside and came over to 'help' me.

Hey!  What are you up to?

I'm coming to 'help' you.

Climbing up on top of the large bales: not a problem for Daisy.  She jumped up the side of the bale and hooked her claws into the hay.  Then she 'rock climbed' quickly to the top to join me.

Then Daisy walked around the tarp and found a few tiny pools of water.  To help me remove the water she licked it up.  Of course, her love of water outside her water dish had nothing to do with her helping me.

Any more water over there?

Nope.  No water over there.