Hi I’m Mike, when I get up every morning, I have no idea what I’m going to deal with.
But today, it’s a cow with what might be a broken leg, I saw her last night, too late
in the day to do anything about it but now its time to deal with it, and dealing with
a hurt animal of any sort, can lead quickly to disaster on our Wyoming life.
Welcome back, last night, while out checking cows I found one that had a major limp, number
127, a 5 year old black angus cow in our breeding herd.
She has a swollen left from knee and obviously hurt it somehow.
Shes pregnant of course and this morning I went out to bring her in and start the process
of taking care of her.
Today, I want to tell you how that went.
We are kind of working backwards here but I want to let you know that by the end of
making this video.
I was only a few minutes away from thinking I might have to shoot her, and not because
she had a hurt leg, but because of a situation we ended up in that took some quick thinking
and problem solving on my part.
I have never seen an animal go so quickly from being completely ticked off to being
scared for her life as she got herself stuck in a very awkward and painful position.
This is what happened today, and how my day went from normal to almost terrifying in a
few seconds.
Number 127 is a good cow, up to now she has had 4 calves for the ranch, each one a bull.
This morning she is out with her friends but obviously something is wrong.
My guess is that she slipped and fell on the ice.
All winter long and through April, ice will be a continuing problem on the ranch.
Snow melts and freezes, we have cows creating ice through compaction and there is no way
to get rid of it all.
With all this ice, cows fall, and occasionally they hurt themselves.
When that happens, we have a protocol in place.
The first thing we have to do is get a cow into the barn.
The more we can limit her movement while she heals the better, and the best way to do that
is to put her in a stall in the barn.
Which she will hate.
This morning I took a bit of time to get the stall ready for her, a added straw to an empty
stall, this one right next to our head catch, in case we have to work on her.
Then I put in a bale of hay for her to eat, and we will start filling her water, she’s
gonna be thirsty by the time she gets in here.
Obviously she is hurt, and we don’t want to hurt her any father, but we do have to
get her in to treat her, so our goal is to group her up with other cows, at least part
of the way and move her from pasture to pasture, each one smaller and smaller, to get her closer
to home.
Our lead steer crackerjack helps move her toward the gate we need to go, good job cracker
jack and then its just her, down to the corrals.
Once she is in, its easy to see she is aggravated, but we don’t give her much of a choice and
put her in
her new home, where
she
can reflect.
**Car Stuff** A quick call gets the medication we need,
called banamine, an anti inflammatory that will bring down the swelling around number
127’s knee and hopefully make her feel a bit better.
For now that is all the medication she will receive.
In a few days, we will check her for infection , although I don’t anticipate any.
The vets office is a quick stop and after getting our salt, its back to the shop, where
we can transfer it to the gator.
Regular ice melt that you find at the store will cost you anywhere from 30 cents to a
dollar a pound.
In reality, salt is salt and salt melts ice by lowering the freezing point of water.
When we spread it on ice, it makes a brine and starts melting ice that it is in contact
with.
There is no special formula or recipe, its just salt and for that reason I use softener
salt as my ice melt.
Its usually cheaper than salt that is marketed as ice melt, these I can get a 50lb bag for
about 5 bucks or 10cents a pound.
Another good reason to go with just plain salt, is that the cows will eat it, and I
don’t’ have to worry about that.
Today we are going to try to spread it with a scotts fertilizer spreader, a little 20
dollar gizmo that have had for a few months.
I think Erin used it in the garden this summer and now its time to see if it has a winter
use.
It doesn’t.
The granuals are clogging the spinning wheel, so, its about as useful as a coffee can, which
would do the same thing.
After spreading a couple of bags and leaving it to do its thing, its back to the shop,
where we can go and deal with number 127.
She needs some medication for her swelling and I promised her it would make her feel
better.
We load up 12 ml of banamine, using ia 1 inch 16 guage need and of course cap it back up
before we head out to the barn.
Once there, its obvious that number 127 is a bit claustrophobic, she wants out of this
stall.
Really this is the best place for her to be and the safest, or so I thought.
With her being so riled up, I know I am going to have to bring her into the head catch to
give her a shot, and with her still looking for a way out, when I am on the other side
setting up the alley to take her into the head gate, she gets her self into a position
that may be her last.
While attempting to jump the gate, she gets her bad leg caught in between the gate and
the post.
This may not look like a life threatening position but it may very well be.
Quickly we take advantage of her being in this situation to give her a shot, then its
time to start solving the problem.
This white part of the gate is the latch.
I can’t open the gate with her weight sitting on it.
I cant cut it because when it does come loose she is going to be putting all her weight
against the gate.
If I cut from the right side, the gate slams into me, and if I cut from the left, she runs
me over after she falls through.
The more her and I both try to move her hoof the more its obvious that she is realy stuck
and as her breathing becomes more and more labored, she starts to go downhill fast, and
something has to be done.
Our only hope is to cut through the post and hopefully be able to get enough cut out for
her to pull her hoof back through.
This is also her already hurt leg, which isn’t helping the situation any.
This is tricky, her face is on the other side of the post, I don’t want to accidentally
cut her but I have to cut completely through the post, about 8 inches around.
A hammer and a chisel helps start to move the wood out of the way, although number 127
keeps slipping closer and closer to the floor, making it harder and harder to free her.
Its at this point that I begin thinking that I may have to put her out of her misery.
A cow that starts rolling her head back is never a good sign and usually means the cow
is giving up.
But I decide not to.
And keep at it.
Maybe this experience will change her attitude a bit, either way, she deserves a treat, and
a bit of cake.
Number 127 here is still a bit cranky, probably for good reason, and it’s the first time
we have ever had a cow get herself into the that position, her hoof stuck between boards
in the barn.
This will prompt us to look for other potential hazards for cows but really there is no way
to catch them all, and if there is a pitfall to be found, a cow will find it.
I’m glad shes ok, we will keep an eye on her for the next few days, she will get a
few more doses of banamine, hopefully in the head catch, and not stuck in the gate, and
we anticipate she will be ok for many more years on the ranch.
As for us, we are winding down 2019 and our final video of the year is coming very soon.
This weekend we will be skipping our usual Sunday video to give us more time to finish
up our 2019 wrap up.
That episode will be released Monday evening and I am sure you all will enjoy it.
You will be able to catch us Sunday however on the beyond the ranch channel, with our
weekly livestream and a look behind the scenes, as well a sneak peek into next year.
Last video I told you that in January I will be in North Carolina, and today I can give
you more details on that.
We will be in Lexington North Carolina on Saturday January 18th and if you are in the
area I would like to invite you to come hang out with me at Maxburger Bar and Grill for
lunch that day.
We will have the chance to hang out and get to know each other and it should be a lot
of fun.
For more details, be sure to sign up for our newsletter at ourwyominglife.com, where you
can also find out about other appearances coming up next year, including Grand Junction
and Rifle Colorado and Las Vegas, and a whole lot more.
Be sure to catch our year end wrap up video on Monday as we say goodbye to 2019 and hello
to a whole new adventure.
Until then, have a great week and thanks for joining us in our Wyoming life.