Every day Facebook entries document some horrible health event where a cow prolapsed sideways, gives birth up-side down, whole layers of hair fall off with lice, broken horns and hanging-chad bones. It would almost make one never want to deal with the accidents and fate of cattle ownership.
For a fact, things can happen. Most can be solved with a good large animal veterinarian's house call. Not so on Facebook. Could be dozens of "experts" will offer home remedies for saving the victim. For experienced cattle people many Facebook amateur recommendations wouldn't even work on a cat with nine lives.
I heard an interesting one last week. A bull started dropping hair from lice and the owners heard about a process where the bull would get a vinegar-body bath every day then get fully rubbed down with Preparation H.
In veterinarian school it is taught that an animal not be allowed to suffer. Many critters could have been saved, but the decision by the vet was to "put them down" to stop the pain. That is a contemporary school of thought.
At DCC we had a beautiful Watusi cow in 2009 with a new calf, and for some crazy reason she broke her stifle. The vet said it was one of those things that could not be pinned or successfully cast. I ask Linda what should be done. "If you were the cow, "Ieesha" and you just gave birth to this beautiful speckled bull calf, would you want to be "put-down" or would you like to live on and raise this calf enduring the pain?" Linda's reply was, "I would want to raise the baby." And that was the verdict-- from a motherly instinct.
We placed Ieesha in a small pasture with a lake and no other cattle. In the Fall she weaned a huge bull calf named Predator. He was stunning and now is regarded as one of the top sires in the Watusi breed for high selling progeny. Although her life was shortened, she had the mothering joy to raise one great calf.
On April 14, 2019 Over Lap gave birth to a heifer calf sired by Clear Point. Over Lap was a beautiful cow that had won an ORVTLA Grand Championship Female when she was 11 years old. She calved at DCC at age 18. She has a 1368 lb top weight and faithful to her Victory Lap sire, a lot of correctness.
As a coming yearling she was registered as Clearly Over. She was in every way sound and optimistic about her future. DCC is always happy to retain heifers out of faithful cows who calved regularly into the upper teens.
Then it happened! Our men spotted her struggling and swinging her right front leg like a rubber pretzel. With quick observation by our good vet it was determined that she had broken numerous bones in the knee, canon bone and ankle. His humane recommendation was to "put her down" to avoid the excruciating pain she was suffering. No amount of pins or casts would attach this jumbled mess of bones back correct.
No one saw anything happen, which is normal for livestock injuries. Some of these things no one would believe how they did it. Some believe horses have herd meetings at night brain storming for new ideas of suicide. Cattle are not that bad. The ranch's decision was to place her in a small, lush-grass pasture with plenty of water and some grain twice a day. She slowly developed a way to get up and down on 3 legs and hopped around eating grass. No cast was applied, just time and the Good Lord watching. In about 2 months she was placing some weight on the bad leg, then in a year she walked carefully with one stiff leg. No one ever touched her. The muscles just pulled the parts back into a reasonable connection--and the bones regrew.
Today her leg has a weird shape. She walks like a pirate on a peg let, but stays in good shape and produces in a genetic fashion she was bred for.
This is Clearly Over today with her Cut'n Dried AI calf. It is the third calf she has enjoyed raising. She shows no sign of any pain. She moves out with the herd and with only close observation, the bad accident of 7-14-2020 in most cases, would not be noticed or remembered. To identify some lessons from Clearly Over, first, a good large animal vet is a wonderful assett to every ranch. Second on really drastic issues the state university vet school normally takes out-patients for good diognistics and some amazing surgeries. And third, for many different injuries of livestock, if the owner did not see them and came back a few months later they would never know it happened. Texas Longhorns have an amazing ability to heal, on their own, especially when given plenty of space--and be left alone.
As in Poor Richard's almanac, "A watched pot never boils." Perhaps for this conclusion, "A watched wound never heals." Just don't look. It worked for Clearly Over.
