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NellieBelle

11217 Posts
Posted - Feb 13 2015 :  09:17:56 AM  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
I just want to say once again how sorry I am over the loss of Milk Dud. It's never easy. We get so acquainted with our animals, feeding and working with them. My heart is saddened. Please know that I'm thinking of you both today.
To laugh is human but to moo is bovine. Author Unknown

Sydney2015

1156 Posts
Posted - Feb 13 2015 :  09:20:49 AM  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
Me too. I hope you aren't too sad. Milk Dud was a good cow.
A good laugh overcomes more difficulties and dissipates more dark clouds than any other one thing - Laura Ingalls Wilder

I live on a small farm of seventy acres called Green Forest Farm, with 10 horses, a donkey, 5 beef cows, 2 beef heifers, 3 Hereford heifers, around 60 chickens, 8 dogs, my amazing cow, AppleButter, and her little Jersey calf HoneyButter!
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tcboweevil

338 Posts
Posted - Feb 13 2015 :  10:05:51 AM  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
We are too.... ((((hugs)))
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maryjane

7074 Posts
Posted - Feb 13 2015 :  10:06:35 AM  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
Not knowing why an animal dies is haunting because we're constantly trying to get better at animal care and a big part of that is prevention. But how can you prevent what you don't know? It makes you feel so helpless. I remember how impacted I was for days when I found Emma on death's door in the middle of the night. I've wished since then I'd taken her in for a necropsy.

Yesterday, I found two strands of the blue twine (knotted together) that binds our hale bales on the ground in one of my cow shelters. After Maizy's death, we decided we'd start knotting the strings together so they stay in our pockets better. Anyway, the one I found yesterday had popped out of someone's pocket and by the time I found it, one end had been chewed on by either Miss Daisy or Lacy Lou. Fortunately, it didn't go down but it sure could have. I'll post a photo later today of it and also what we found in Maizy's stomach.

When they ingest something metal, it's so common that it actually has a name, Hardware Disease.

I also took a photo of the type of magnet I'm putting down all my cattle. Takes me back to the days of having a toddler who wanted to put into the mouth everything found on the floor.

Before Maizy's death I certainly wasn't keyed into the notion that I could lose one of my cows that way. And I was glad I did an necropsy on Beaumont to find out that he had hip dysplasia.

If you're up for it Mike, sometimes the only comfort you can find is an answer to your why.
MaryJane Butters, author of Milk Cow Kitchen ~ striving for the stoicism of a cow standing in the rain ~
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Mike

1667 Posts
Mike
Argyle WI
United States of America
Posted - Feb 13 2015 :  1:30:54 PM  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
Hi all and thank you for your well wishes and thoughts.
Valerie just came back with Dud in the truck. There are no signs of anything.....except he's dead. Well fed, watered, all the obvious things. I asked about salt last night and he's getting his salt. He was pooping and cudding fine.

We can't afford a necropsy, we've used the UW Vet pathology lab in the past with heritage pigs.

Maybe a clue will surface with time.

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