Moving Cows and Treating Calves

Lots going on around here but for now will just mention Monday.  I was just going out to catch Jess and go riding and Neil says he is gonna move his cows out of the oat field so I asked if he needed help and of course he says yes so we had a job for the ride :)

(sure is pretty riding through the trees)

I headed out and its 2 miles to the field so its kinda slow.  Neil takes Bob(the side by side) and so he's faster so I got a head start.  And then he starts at the far side and I come down the road and make sure they don't go down that way.  At least that was the plan.  He went and got a few from the far side and I was still on the way, as I got closer I could see going towards the road would get in the way of the cows coming out the gate but there was some farther down the fence so I went towards them and even though I was on the outside of the fence the cows kept running towards the other cows, was weird to be on the wrong side of the fence though.

(I love the shadow we make )

(Jess looks toward Bob like a friend horse)

We got them out and the cows really wanted to go somewhere else not just out the gate so since he was gonna move them North in a couple days we decided to move them there now.  Well Neil was gonna close the gates and open the ones for the new field and he saw a sick calf.  So while he was taking a picture of it and texting the vet I went to the far side and started gathering those cows.  We were not sure it was water belly (my thought) or a rupture (Neil's thought)

(following the cows into the gate, Jess is a little sore on the gravel 

but she would rather that than walk in the ditch, her choice)

I got the few out of one field and the gate to the alfalfa field was open and so I had to get off and close the oat field gate so they wouldn't go in there and I am so awkward getting on I needed a low spot to put Jessie and then my saddle slipped and so I fixed it and then I saw a rock and so I used that.  I never realized I kept the video on for all of it but I did.

(Little long but I even cut it shorter, 

was 11 minutes but rest was just walking)

The cows run to the dugout and I just followed then and they kept going towards the other cows and by then Neil came up and they were going towards the gate and sick calf didn't wanna go so I left him and followed the cows through the gate and he brought sicky home to the corrals.  I was ahead of him so I opened the gates right into the corral, and he closed the gate where the cows went.  Worked well.  I like that he uses Bob  and so he can close all the gates (well almost)

(there's the dugout)

(I think this pic is really cool, 

I was trying to get the clump grass

 and it looks like the world is round here )

(everything looks so far away in my go pro)

It was a good 2 hours and almost 6 miles.  Pretty good workout for both of us.  Its much easier to ride by myself when I have a job to do.

(sicky is the middle one, not looking at me and not the cow)

(he was quite happy to be left behind)

Turns out the calf had water belly and the vet come out just as Neil got to the corral and he was bloated and not looking good.  Vet figured he had maybe till morning but he had seen others who lived, but with the bloat there was something else going on not just water belly.  And it had been 3 days since Neil looked at the cows and so it coulda been anytime between that and Monday he got a blockage.  Vet says quite often its runty calves and its caused by not enough water and salty feed.  Hes not surprised this year cause it was pretty droughty for most of the summer and if he had a low milking mother coulda happened.  he wasn't really a runt though.  First one I've seen here in 11 years, kinda weird.  I had never seen it on nursing calves but I guess it does happen.

(poor guy, but he sure felt better after that)

He treated the bloat and he looked a lot better after that.  Figured his bladder didn't burst it was a blockage in the urethra and so he cut a couple holes in his belly and boy did it leak out, some blood but mostly urine.  He said if he lives he will just constantly leak out there, it will get kinda rotten on his belly then heal up and be fine in about 3 months then we sell him and he should grow up normal.  poor guy he was not feeling good but looked better after he was less bloated.  We put him in a small pen and he had a good drink of water but had no interest in feed.  Tuesday he still looked good no interest in much and this morning he was lying there dead.  Kinda felt bad for him, I was hoping he'd pull through but looks like he just laid down an died :(  Probly for the best but still a sad way to go.