Monday, February 21, 2011

Cutting up

This is Jet.


Jet is one of our Dexter herd matrons. She's about nine months pregnant but we no idea of exactly when she was bred, so we've been keeping a sharp eye on her. For Dexters, I've learned that when their udders suddenly go turgid, birth is a couple hours away.

So anyway yesterday evening while Don was feeding the critters, I walked over to peer at her udder and noticed... a nasty wound. A piece of skin about an inch across had been torn off. How? No clue. Perhaps Ruby caught her with her horns. Perhaps Jet caught herself on a nail or tree branch. We'll never know.


At any rate I'm not too worried about it. Cows have an astounding ability to recover from some seriously ugly wounds. One time a calf tore a four-inch strip of skin from her leg. We snipped off the dangling skin and she recovered just fine.

Nonetheless I hopped the fence and, by pretending I was scratching her, I managed to smear some triple antibiotic ointment over the wound.


Such is country life.

3 comments:

  1. You need trail cameras out in the pasture so you can see what's going on out there while your backs are turned. Obviously your animals are into some wild hijinx while you are not looking. I suspect they are playing horseshoes and use Jet's horns in lieu of stakes. Matilda had a similar wound a week or so ago.

    Anonymous Patriot
    USA

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  2. Sounds like a cat I've got. I have to pretend I'm just giving him a nice scritch to doctor his wounds, and he gets a number of them. He's a bit on the low IQ side, but thinks he's hot enough to fight anything that wanders by. And giving him medication? Like.... well, like pilling a cat!

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  3. Critters amazingly tough, aren't they?

    Can't wait to see the new calf.

    You're becoming a sure enough cattle rancher!

    A. McSp

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