Just when I thought I'd seen it all...

Justjens

....they still can find ways to try and kill themselves.

Calf just gone two days manages to get his R hind leg wrapped around the temp fence where I was strip grazing the cows and calves.

All was fine when I left at 10.30 this morning having failed to locate another calf only 4 days old, bloody AAs love to go walkabout and hide in the ditch/bushes/long grass, so I decided to return after lunch to look for her.

Thankfully for the missing heifer or I wouldn't have gone back 'till the morning. I saw the poor divil twitching, I thought he was coughing, but the closer I got the more I could see it was too regular.

As they are grazing a field on the side of the hill, about a 1 in 4 slope, he was about 25' from the temp fence line as he'd slid down the hill and with the twine caught just above the ankle he was stretched out with his leg out behind him.

Got him standing but his hind leg was still stuck out behind him. Went and got the trailer and just managed to lift him in, surely weighed 60kg (Murphy's Law: it's always the good ones) and with the help of a reel and a few pegs the cow joined him.

With the trailer bumping across the field he decided it was more comfortable to stand, vet had a quick look, gave him some antinflammatories as hopefully it looks like it's just his foot that is the problem having had the circulation restricted.

As he'd been baking in the heat during his defribulation therapy I was about to Lectade him but he hobbled over to the cow for a feed, what relief!

So hopefully he will be OK but it astounds me how they can always find new ways to try and kill themselves.

And how in the name of God did he get the twine wrapped around his bloody leg in the first place.

valtra2

Justjens wrote: »

....they still can find ways to try and kill themselves.

Calf just gone two days manages to get his R hind leg wrapped around the temp fence where I was strip grazing the cows and calves.

All was fine when I left at 10.30 this morning having failed to locate another calf only 4 days old, bloody AAs love to go walkabout and hide in the ditch/bushes/long grass, so I decided to return after lunch to look for her.

Thankfully for the missing heifer or I wouldn't have gone back 'till the morning. I saw the poor divil twitching, I thought he was coughing, but the closer I got the more I could see it was too regular.

As they are grazing a field on the side of the hill, about a 1 in 4 slope, he was about 25' from the temp fence line as he'd slid down the hill and with the twine caught just above the ankle he was stretched out with his leg out behind him.

Got him standing but his hind leg was still stuck out behind him. Went and got the trailer and just managed to lift him in, surely weighed 60kg (Murphy's Law: it's always the good ones) and with the help of a reel and a few pegs the cow joined him.

With the trailer bumping across the field he decided it was more comfortable to stand, vet had a quick look, gave him some antinflammatories as hopefully it looks like it's just his foot that is the problem having had the circulation restricted.

As he'd been baking in the heat during his defribulation therapy I was about to Lectade him but he hobbled over to the cow for a feed, what relief!

So hopefully he will be OK but it astounds me how they can always find new ways to try and kill themselves.

And how in the name of God did he get the twine wrapped around his bloody leg in the first place.

Well I had calf caught in temp fence like that .wire wrapped about her leg and dead she must have ran beside it and kicked back and got caught and always the best one.

Muckit

Lost a weanling before like that in 2015. One of those freak things. Polywire had tightened in to the bone.

Limestone Cowboy

I often said it that you'd never want to be counting them until the day your selling them. I'll never forget a few years ago a couple of weeks after my mother passed away I was driving round the field in the jeep doing the herding and half away in a world of my own, had a lovely heifer calf about two weeks old that was running around playing on a fine day and like as if she was shot just dropped to the ground stone dead as she was running right in front of me for no apparent reason whatsoever. Brought a heifer home from an evening mart 7 or 8 years ago at 11pm and when I was letting her off could hear awful commotion down the field so I went to investigate. Had a calf with meningitis that seemed perfect earlier in the day running into the walls and other cows and his mother was gone daft roaring at him. Managed to catch him and brought him straight to the vets and saved him but if I hadn't brought back the heifer I'd never have spotted him. They'll always find a way to surprise you.

Count Mondego

My best cow calved first this year, in late January. Everything grand with the calf and they were happy in the calving pen. Mother had a little fu#ker of a house dog that for some reason she let out for the night. The little ba$tard went over to the shed no doubt hunting for a bit of cleaning or calf scutter. The cow must have spent an age hunting him out of the pen, and managed to get her head caught under the gate, worked her way up to the narrow section (decent fall in floor) and got stuck. Must have been stuck there a few hours and as a result she decided not to get up ever again. Tried lifting her for a few days and painkillers etc but no good. Dog didn't survive the episode either.

patsy_mccabe

Had a cow get stuck in the V of 2 branches of a whitethorn bush last year. A mad bitch too. To make it worst it was up in an old ring fort we have here. Had to cut the branch with a chainsaw with the saw held up high a few inches from her neck and her hooves about my waist high. Soon as the branch gave way I dropped the saw and legged it. Half expecting her to go for me.
No idea how long she was there but proves how important it is, to see cattle twice a day.

whelan2

Let calves out in a field a few years ago. They had the run of a small paddock for a few days beforehand. One of them ran straight into a gate post and dropped dead.

blue5000

Highest ebi cow here went down before calving, I reckon she was having twins. ICBF don't look at feet when they're doing their calculations, this one had terrible feet, (hoofcare man kept her going last 2 years), so I had her out the field all winter to keep her off concrete. Turns out she missed the mineral bolus and a fluke dose when all the rest inside got theirs. Sh1t happens everyone with livestock.

jerdee

Had a bullock the morning of my wedding go blind from a infection had to get the neighbours to help get him in .eventually we caught him 500kg ch bullock and seven of us dragged him into the crush. Vet came out injected and looked after it.
Ten mins later the bullock was left out and faced for the shed only to jump over the wall into slurry pit.the ****e took ages to clean off before the church.
Ps he was fine by time the honeymoon was over.

tanko

whelan2 wrote: »

Let calves out in a field a few years ago. They had the run of a small paddock for a few days beforehand. One of them ran straight into a gate post and dropped dead.

A dairy farmer near me was walking his cows out after milking, one of the cows was bulling and jumped on the cow in front of her. The other cow panicked, ran straight into a tree, broke its neck and dropped dead.

AntrimGlens

The father bought a crow banger at the weekend to keep the feckers out of the creep feeders. The man he bought it off said "ah shure i only used it the once, tis in perfect nick". My father asked "were you growing barley, or what were you using it for", no says yer man the crows kept eating the meal out of the heifers trough so i thought it would be good idea to keep them out. Did it work my father asked, i dunno says he, the first time it went off the heifers all ran for the gate and one got her neck broke on the feed barrier".

It transpired the silly hoor had the banger inside the heifer house. That would have been some bang!

Says more about him than the animals.

Gravelly

AntrimGlens wrote: »

The father bought a crow banger at the weekend to keep the feckers out of the creep feeders. The man he bought it off said "ah shure i only used it the once, tis in perfect nick". My father asked "were you growing barley, or what were you using it for", no says yer man the crows kept eating the meal out of the heifers trough so i thought it would be good idea to keep them out. Did it work my father asked, i dunno says he, the first time it went off the heifers all ran for the gate and one got her neck broke on the feed barrier".

It transpired the silly hoor had the banger inside the heifer house. That would have been some bang!

Says more about him than the animals.

Reminds me of a neighbour nearby who had a crow banger protecting barley. Got the lad working for him to collect it one evening to bring it home. Yer man disconnected the gas, loaded it into the back of the van and was a few hundred yards down the road before it went off. His hearing came back, but not for a couple of days, and apparently it took longer to get the smell of ****e out of the van.

Biscuitus

Some crazy stories in this thread!

Had a calf stick its head through sheep wire, instead of going backwards it decided to drop down and choke itself. Didn't make any effort judging from the grass around it.

Had a cow ready to go to the factory in just a few hours and she decided it would be a great time to snap her leg.

jerdee wrote: »

Had a bullock the morning of my wedding go blind

Stress!!!

Cattlepen

Angus stock bull was put in shed last night and got his big head stuck in diagonal barrier. No manipulation or coaxing could get him out so I got the grinder and cut a diagonal bar out. He pulled his head in and ran straight over to the barrier on the opposite side of the pen and stuck his head in it. Angle grind again😖😖

Muckit

patsy_mccabe wrote: »

No idea how long she was there but proves how important it is, to see cattle twice a day.

Rare things are rare as they say. I wouldn't go implementing a 'check cattle twice a day' policy over one incident of a cow getting stuck in a tree. How many times did it ever happen before?

Take every reasonable precaution (Good fences, enough grass. Water etc. Management around grass tetany, blackleg etc if applic) But then leave the rest to God.

Cattle will never get seen here twice a day. Once a day is norm. Sometimes pushed out to 2. Whatever happens them in the meantime would happen even if l seen them 4 times a day.

patsy_mccabe

Different here for 2 reasons. 1 - I want to spot cows bulling and 2 - cattle regularly go into deep trenches around here. They will last a few hours in them, but up to 24 hours is pushing it.

Only last week helped pull out a bullock for a neighbour.

whelan2

Cattlepen wrote: »

Angus stock bull was put in shed last night and got his big head stuck in diagonal barrier. No manipulation or coaxing could get him out so I got the grinder and cut a diagonal bar out. He pulled his head in and ran straight over to the barrier on the opposite side of the pen and stuck his head in it. Angle grind again😖😖

That happened here with a round feeder, had a weanling stuck at the hips , cut the bars with a hacksaw and she got stuck in the other side of the feeder :mad:

Muckit

That's fair enough. Of course extra work spotting heats morning and evening.

My point was from a purely herding point of view l personally don't believe more visits is necessarily better. fencing off your drains is your own business.

Pidae.m

Best calf I'd last spring got his foot caught in the slat during the night found him dead in the morning. Tears flowed from my eyes when I saw him.

kerryjack

A lad near me bringing in cows one eve with tractor and shear grab one heifer got too close kicked up and cut leg straight off it was mad poor lad wasn't right for a few weeks it was a quare sight

Justjens

Joules seems to be over his shock therapy, his leg is now working properly again (you can still see where the wire was caught around his R hind) and he now has one fat ankle.

One of the lucky ones!

mayota

Justjens wrote: »

Joules seems to be over his shock therapy, his leg is now working properly again (you can still see where the wire was caught around his R hind) and he now has one fat ankle.

One of the lucky ones!

Jeez ya should have tagged him when he was caught in the fence 😂, he's getting strong now.

kowtow

Justjens wrote: »

Joules seems to be over his shock therapy, his leg is now working properly again (you can still see where the wire was caught around his R hind) and he now has one fat ankle.

One of the lucky ones!

Joules... hahah love it.

Best of luck with him.

J.O. Farmer

Justjens wrote: »

Joules seems to be over his shock therapy, his leg is now working properly again (you can still see where the wire was caught around his R hind) and he now has one fat ankle.

One of the lucky ones!

He was lucky. I lost one in a similar situation. A neighbour saw him caught and went to release him. As he was walking towards the calf the calf kept struggling and the spurt of blood went up. The vet was called but the twine had cut to the bone and the only thing the vet could do was put the calf down.

The part time boy

A new one for me !!

Cattle broke out yesterday evening . There was a round feeder in there paddock . It's there so long I can't remember why it out there . Well they managed to get the feeder up on its side and then roll it into the fence braking the wire ! And away they go

Reggie.

The part time boy wrote: »

A new one for me !!

Cattle broke out yesterday evening . There was a round feeder in there paddock . It's there so long I can't remember why it out there . Well they managed to get the feeder up on its side and then roll it into the fence braking the wire ! And away they go

****........ they are becoming organised :eek:

Sam Kade

Limestone Cowboy wrote: »

I often said it that you'd never want to be counting them until the day your selling them. I'll never forget a few years ago a couple of weeks after my mother passed away I was driving round the field in the jeep doing the herding and half away in a world of my own, had a lovely heifer calf about two weeks old that was running around playing on a fine day and like as if she was shot just dropped to the ground stone dead as she was running right in front of me for no apparent reason whatsoever. Brought a heifer home from an evening mart 7 or 8 years ago at 11pm and when I was letting her off could hear awful commotion down the field so I went to investigate. Had a calf with meningitis that seemed perfect earlier in the day running into the walls and other cows and his mother was gone daft roaring at him. Managed to catch him and brought him straight to the vets and saved him but if I hadn't brought back the heifer I'd never have spotted him. They'll always find a way to surprise you.

Blackleg?

Hagimalone

A well organised coup

Limestone Cowboy

Sam Kade wrote: »

Blackleg?

It could have been, would have thought she was a bit young to get it though.

KatyMac

Years ago a cow slipped down the side of a ditch and ended up held by a strand of wire. Cut the wire and she slid down the rest of the way and walked away without any sign of injury. She calved 2 days later a 6/7 weeks premature calf that we reared in a box in our kitchen until she caught up the few weeks. Made a grand cow eventually.

Pidae.m

A root of a tree wrapped around this cows claw.

sonnybill

Pidae.m wrote: »

A root of a tree wrapped around this cows claw.

Dirty thing really cut into her

Icelandicseige

Only the other day I was getting the cows for milking. One old lady took off to quick when I drove up behind her, her bag is so large and flappy that it get caught behind her two legs and the faster she went(ran) the more the bag was slapping off the back of her legs. The poor thing was ruining around the field thinking someone was behind her, slapping her.

She eventually realised that she needed to slow down in order for the slapping to stop! You will always get entertainment with cows.

Wildsurfer

kerryjack wrote: »

A lad near me bringing in cows one eve with tractor and shear grab one heifer got too close kicked up and cut leg straight off it was mad poor lad wasn't right for a few weeks it was a quare sight

Happened me many years ago was following in cows on tractor and for whatever reason had shear grab opened and down low to ground. Misjudged how close I was and tipped of a young cow in front of me. She threw back a lash of a kick and severed all the tendons in her back leg. One of those moments you'd like to forget but will be forever stuck in my mind.

The part time boy

Went to move cattle tonight .

Bit awkward . Had to move them through 4 other paddocks to move them where they were going . 2nd paddock they got i could not get them out . Spent 5 mins shouting and running trying to get them out the gap.

Said i give up. so i walked into the yard to get a reel to help get them out and low and behold they all come over and follow me out .

Typical ! There a lession in managmemt there !

Floki

The part time boy wrote: »

Went to move cattle tonight .

Bit awkward . Had to move them through 4 other paddocks to move them where they were going . 2nd paddock they got i could not get them out . Spent 5 mins shouting and running trying to get them out the gap.

Said i give up. so i walked into the yard to get a reel to help get them out and low and behold they all come over and follow me out .

Typical ! There a lession in managmemt there !

You might become a horse whisperer yet!!:)