Bovine injury

Our normal evening livestock procedure is to go out to the barn around 6 pm to button up the animals. We close the corral gate, put Stormy in the calf pen, and fill the feed box with hay for the rest of the animals.

The nice thing about livestock is they're creatures of habit. Once they're trained to do something (like coming into the corral at night), they'll do it without fail.

For this reason, we got concerned when we went out to the barn last night and saw ... nobody.

Maggie (our Jersey) and Stormy (her calf) were in the pasture just above the corral, and they came in without a fuss when we called them. But where were Mignon (our Angus heifer) and Romeo (our young steer)?

Way out in the pasture, we heard some agitated mooing. This did not bode well.

Keep in mind that since our entire property is sloped, it's something of a (muddy) climb to get up to the pasture from the corral. It was pitch dark. Since I was the only one wearing boots (the corral is pure mud), I took a flashlight and went to explore. Somehow, stomping all around a large pasture in pitch darkness illuminated only with a flashlight while searching for black cows made the pasture seem a whole lot bigger.

If you remember, we had subdivided that pasture last spring. After ten minutes of searching, I found Mignon and Romeo on the other side of the fence line. They were both on their feet and seemed fine, but disinclined to move. Why?

To get to the other side, I started following the fence line toward the open walk-through gate when I saw it: One of the T-posts had been bent at a 45-degree angle, and the field fencing around it was pretty mangled. To bend a T-post to this extent must have taken a tremendous blow.

As I approached the animals, it wasn't hard to piece together what happened. Mignon was in heat. Romeo, even though he is a steer, was all over her. Evidently at one point he had slammed into Mignon and sent her crashing into the T-post, tangling her up in the wire of the field fence. I could deduce this because even as I approached, randy Romeo was still trying his best. (Removing the equipment takes away the ability but not the interest.)

I didn't see any blood, and since Mignon was standing on all four legs, she hadn't broken any bones. But clearly one of her legs was injured, possibly a sprain or perhaps a strained tendon or ligament. And Romeo wouldn't leave her alone.

By this point, since I had been gone for some time, Don risked his sneakers in the mud and came up to help. Together we were able to gently shoo both animals toward the corral. Except Romeo, that randy twit, would not leave Mignon alone.

We got to the muddy sloped path leading down to the corral gate. Don held back and tried to keep Romeo at bay to give Mignon a chance to gingerly pick her way down the steep slope. Then Romeo broke free and once again tried to have his way with her. As a result, poor Mignon slipped and slid down that muddy slope and crashed into the fence just outside the gate. Grrrrr.

We finally got both animals into the corral and closed the gate. Once we filled the feed box, everyone settled in to eat, and we left them alone to calm down. I checked on Mignon just before bedtime, and she was laying down inside the barn, chewing her cud and looking okay.

This morning, after I finished milking Maggie, I kept the animals in the corral to keep an eye on Mignon. (Her heat cycle clearly wasn't quite over, if Romeo's behavior was anything to go by). She was on her feet and favoring her left front leg, but not cripplingly so.

Later we released the livestock into the lower pasture below the house. This, too, is a sloped area (nearly everything on our property is sloped), but there are some reasonably level portions that hopefully wouldn't strain Mignon's injury any worse than it already was. Also, this pasture is closer to the house, which meant we could keep a closer eye on everyone.

While the other animals grazed, Mignon spent a lot of time laying down.

At one point, Romeo came up and started licking Mignon's face. It would be anthropomorphizing to say he was apologizing for injuring her, but it was kinda sweet nonetheless.

Here you can see Mignon laying down on the left, while Stormy, Maggie, and Romeo pick at the grass nearby.

At one point she extended her injured leg in front of her. I'm sure it was very sore and tender.

Later I photographed the T-post and mangled fencing in the upper pasture. No wonder she got hurt.

We'll keep the animals in the lower pasture for the next couple of days and see how Mignon does. The fact that she can walk, however slowly, is a good sign.

And the fact that her heat cycle is over is an even better sign.