Chook Me!

Does anybody know about raising cows?

I feel it important to mention that none of these animals are here for any purpose other than companionship. We don't milk cows or gather eggs except to clean the coop. We do eat meat and drink milk but the friends I have here have all struggled through a lifetime of emotional mostly and some physical trauma. The psyche is the last one to heal too sadly. It comes from when people yell for extended periods. "No no no nonono you bad bad bad bad bad dog" Or something like that. My chickens are my darling ladies. My princesses. They are my flowers in the morning and my favorite rascals by afternoon. I love their evening "Darn it's getting closinterestinge so I better get all the last worms." or something like that goes through their heads. Then they sing and talk about what they are doing and soon go to bed. My chickens are entertaining, slapstick, interresting in just how a group of them can live together so peacefully. I so honor my chickens and their aware state of mind. I wish that I were smart enough to read chicken body language butDobiesok because my chickens are very patient in teaching me or telling me something. The same with the cows. It's not just them. The dogs back off and give their food to the chickens.The dogs are dobermans. Dobies are so scared of their own shadow! I bet that is how people get bitten because the dog is scared. I am just learning about cows. I can tell you this for certain though I love cows!! Oh what sweet little babies they make! Their darling little eyelashes batting rapidly over big HUGE deep eyes. What an animal! I have only bottle fed two and both are still babies. The other two came afraid of people cause of cattle prods :o( I am often reminded that other people do not feel the same way abot them that I do.. My oldest calf is the one with the leg issue I need help so bad!!! Maybe he just needs a prosthetic. Do calves often grow p with one short back leg that they have ofSeriously ground while standing? I have one who's life was nothing but misery the first three weeks of his life. I took him and turned his front and one of his back legs so that they are now facing forward. Yeah! Seriosly that abused!! Anyway he is fine now exceptseverallyt leg and it keeps making him fall and or trip :0( He is hundreds of pounds by now. Has to be. If you know anything at all about cows and calves please let me know. I am such a beginner. My nearly adult severaly hundred pound bottle drinking calf paints a picture almost perfectly to how it goes around here a friend said :O) The bottle makes him happy and in return makes me happy. I like to hand hold the bottle the bottle for my cow friends makes me so happy. Hehe I am writing about it and found that I was smiling. Earlier today he gave me a hard time because I didn't kiss him on the cheek on my way in and out. He was dirty though so I faked it but he was too smart for me Thank you for reading. I hope you have new stuff to teach me about any kind of animal at any time you want! I love it! Jeannie The Crazy Chicken Lady.

Public Comments

1. if a calves back leg is bigger then the other it usually means that it has hip problems, if you really want to you can get a ciropracter out to fix it.
2. The leg issue certainly is not normal. A calf should have all four feet planted firmly on the ground, with no leg that is shorter than the other. I suspect your calf may have had his leg broken early in his life (a clean break perhaps) and has just regrown abnormally, causing his leg to be shorter than the other three. As for the tripping issue, he's also probably has an issue with the tendons in his legs, or at least that one leg, that probably causes it to stiffen out instead of curl up, causing him to trip or stumble over it. From the sounds of what you're talking about it could be the front leg and not the hind. Don't keep him on the bottle for long. And be careful how to play with him. He could injure you if you're inviting him to play with you with his head and all. He should be weaned from the bottle at around 3 months of age (no more!) and be on grass and hay and water, not the bottle. You'll have to start by gradually watering down the milk you give him day by day, and feeding him less and less often, until you're almost giving him straight water, and are completely stopping the bottle feeding. He may complain for a few days but DO NOT give in. He will be an adult by the time he's around 2 years of age, where he will be a full-grown bull if you do not castrate him. Depending on his breeding, he could become a bull that will hurt you, even when he doesn't mean it. Castrating him will make him more mellow, but still be careful of how you get all friendly with him. By the time he's an adult he will be weighing over 1000 lbs. Right now he's probably only like 100 lbs or so, and he's still a baby yet, not an adult. But I've no idea how old he is or what. If he's got little horn buds, those should be clipped too. Horns can cause damage, even to other cattle, trust me I've seen it happen.