Working Eight Weight Heifers With The Fairchilds

"I believe Hell is a place full of cheap socks that constantly fall off your feet and sit in the toe of your boot as you chase cattle up the chute, running on a slippery sloped ice and muck covered path."   -Fairchild Farmgirl

It sure was cool working these little shavers today.  No back tags, no nuts and only one grody mess to work with. 

I dare say...it was almost boring!

The funniest thing of the day was Fluff dog stealing Big D's Lemonade.  Then she dropped it in the poop in front of him like, "fine have it!"

So after all that, we decided we were going to do "killer" first.  She was the only cow we had to work today.  When working with dogs, I have always been aware of the little ones will get ya, while the big ones have a serious bark. 

Seems to always go the same with cows.  She was a smaller cow and she wasn't nice!  We had her penned up with a bull and they hated each other.  Then she saw us...

and tried to jump the gate.

So we finally got her in the chute because she has a bum knee.

We poked a hole in the front and joint fluid came out with the puss.  Then, she started jumping around and she broke it open.  That's puss on the door of the chute.   You know it's cool, don't deny it.

The infection was so bad we felt it's track all the way up to her shoulder.  Again, she came here with that...were just fixin' what's broken.  Next time you are getting your soda from a chain restaurant, think of this.  Doesn't it look like she's pressing a button for root beer or something? Yukky!!!

So now that you know how to drain a knee joint abscess, lets move on to better things:

Dehorning a heifer

Let me just say that our vets are awesome.  They let me take pictures of EVERYTHING and if it's annoying, they don't say it.  Actually, I have the best time when their here...we talk up a storm.

So the tool above is a dehorner.  I know I've shown you how to do it with a string saw, but I thought you'd like to see this too.  This pinches the horn off.

This is what it looks like when the horns off, before you pull the veins.

Here, Kristen found the vein and is pulling it.  You can make the picture bigger to see it.  It's literally in her clipper.

It always amazes me that these little worm looking veins (red things on her head) are what each side bleeds so badly from.  CRAZY! 

SO...now that you know how to dehorn cattle both ways, (someday I'll show you cauterizing the veins) I'll show you something a little crazier...I sure hope you can handle it.

It's our boy, coming from nap in his room.  Unfortunately his room is by the "too small" clothes tubs and he has to walk by the hat & mitten box.  Hence the girls skirt with a cowboy shirt and a ski mask. 

Just like his daddy. J/K!

Please don't let Big D read this tonight!

Fairchild Farmgirl