Afraid of the girls and not sure how to get over it

[Cheryl aka JM]

I bottle raised Bessy and Bossy~ and I've never been afraid of them before. But after spending the last couple months recovering from a broken hip that was most likely broken when the neighbors cow kicked me....

Well I'm walking again~ I'm slow and it hurts if I walk a lot but it doesn't hurt nearly as badly as before and I am walking now (7 weeks in a wheelchair SUCKED!) Bessy and Bossy are just over 2 years old and pregnant. I'm not sure of due dates because they did not take at AI so I had to borrow a bull to do the job. Last night I was talking to them through the fence and I saw that Bessy's udder is very full and drippy~ and Bossy had what looked like a very gruesome wound on one teat of her udder! So I went out to separate the girls from the rest of the cattle and bring them in for a closer look.

It was TERRIFYING! Bessy just wanted the grain I had so she was right on my heals as I tried to hussle across the pasture as fast as I could gimp with my two friends out there trying to help me (one was slower moving than I am so I was trying to keep the cows away from her, and the other friend was watching the bull and keeping him away from the humans and cows) So there I am gimping across the pasture full speed slower than snot....worrying about Bessy knocking me over when Bossy decides she is in fact a ballerina. Jumping up in the air~ all four feet in the air and pirouetting and slamming the ground. I found a little more speed then.

When I finally got across the pasture and them in the round pen it was almost dark and Bossy was having entirely too good a time playing Ballerina still to get any where near her or into the pen with her and Bessy. The sore on Bossy's udder didn't look nearly as bad as I feared....but I need to get a better look at it and I'd like to get the halter on her, and I want to start working with her again she used to be halter trained and tame....

But I'm afraid of her and not sure how to get over it.

[linn]

Start carrying a fiberglass rod with you and teach them to stay back a proper distance. A smart tap on the nose will help teach them not to invade your space. This may take several lessons as it sounds like they were used to getting up close and personal. After you are better able to negotiate and they have learned to stay out of your face, then you will feel more comfortable. For now, stay out of the pasture until you can walk well.

[wendle]

Can you set up a pen to feed them in where you don't have to walk across the pasture with grain? Personally I wouldn't do that even with a mob of sheep let alone cows. It's just asking to get run over. Is there a way you can get to the round pen without going through the pasture then call them to you? I set up a few sorting pens off a round pen to move the cows in a more confined area for vaccinating or anything else needed. One of the sorting pens narrows down to a walkway that they can be blocked into with a headgate at the end and the sides are heavy gates that I can easily reach through. Even if the cow kicks they aren't as likely to get you through the gate.
You probably don't have a herding dog, but another option if you did would be to train the dog to keep the cows off you until you get to where you need to go with the grain. I just skip the grain part and have the dog move the cows where they need to go.

[G. Seddon]

Is there anyone who could keep an eye on them until you are better? You are smart to be afraid (I'd call it cautious) so you don't get reinjured. I like wendle's idea of having a smaller pen in which to place the grain is good too; then you could carefully open the gate without being in their path.

[Cheryl aka JM]

I do have a smaller round pen for that~ but if I put grain in there and called all the cows ~ the two I wanted, a cow/calf pair, two freemartins, a steer and the bull would come into the round pen and it would be even more dangerous to wade in there and pull the two I wanted out. My plan was to go out there with a little bit of grain~ show it to Bossy~ put a halter on her and bring her up so I could look at her injured teat. What happened was Bossy played keep away while Bessie desperately begged for the grain so I hussled as fast as I could across the pasture knowing that Bossy almost surely would follow Bessie and my friend Carol kept the bull and the steer from also following. The freemartins and the cow/calf pair are not willing to be close enough to me to get the grain from me so they stood back and watched the show.

I think a good stiff stick would be a good idea for Bessie~ she wants to be in my pocket. But I already am having a horrible time convincing Bossy not to play keep away with me~ my biggest fears with her is getting hurt trying to put the halter on her, or trying to look at that udder, or as in last night when she gets too rambunctious and wants to dance....I'm reasonably sure she has no better idea where she is going to land when she launches into the air than I do!

I'm going out now to put water in the round pen with them. I still need a better look at Bessies udder~ I don't think it's as bad as I thought last night but I can't go in there and look at it close right now~ even if I can work up the courage I need someone else home in case an accident occurs while I'm in there.

[wendle]

Bossy must be the one who is usually last to the gate? Have you tried getting everybody in the round pen then gate sorting them back out? If Bossy is the lagger, she would likely be the last one out of the round pen. If she is the first to the gate, you can hopefully get the halter on then.

[Cheryl aka JM]

That is an idea. I have to finish a little more work on the sorting gate. I was building one onto the round pen this spring~ being kicked by the neighbors cow had me convinced I was so lucky not to have broken a leg. When I spent about $600 on supplies to build the pen and sorting area I justified it to my husband with "It will cost much more than that if someone gets kicked and breaks a leg!" We didn't know at the time that I had most likely taken a stress fracture when I was kicked and it broke through and put me out before I could finish the sorting gate. So it's on there~ and I have the supplies to finish it....but right now it's just a round pen that opens into the pasture~ the other side that can pin a cow between two gates is built but the part that leads back into the pasture is not built yet.

[wendle]

If you have a cell phone keep it with you.

[Cheryl aka JM]

I am thanks. And I'm going to get this done and get over it. I just really hate that feeling in the pit of my stomach when I think about getting close to her. Two years ago I bought these calves with a plan to use them for milk and as nurse cows~ now it's close to time and I have to work up the nerve to get in close with them.

[eggzackly]

Just for this one thing, isn't there someone you can hire to help you get her caught? Working up your nerve to go do something that is very risky when you are gimp'd up sounds "counterintuitive" to me... just be safe! No cow, no cows udder is worth more than you are.

[Cheryl aka JM]

My friend Carol came over and helped me again. We got her pinned between the gates, haltered her, took pics of her injured teat~ doesn't look too bad~ put vetricine and blue cote on it. We took pictures for y'alls opinions~ I'll try to get them up later today. I have a Dr appt this afternoon so it might be quite a bit later. I also got pics of Bessie and her full udder. Then we put the girls in a smaller pen with a bale of hay. They both have thier halters on so I can start reminding them how to behave. Bossy has a length of chain hanging off her halter so I can snag it easier (hopefully she is smart enough not to chew on that chain!) and Carol found me one of the horse training sticks (clinton anderson stick and string stick) to remind the girls not to walk on me.

So~
That was scary but I did it!

[linn]

Congratulations, I hope things go better for you and your cows. Take care of yourself first.

[starjj]

I ALWAYS take a metal walking stick with me. My girls are pretty tame but show them a grain bucket and your free game to them. They show enough respect when they know they are going to get a sharp rap on the nose for any misbehaving.

[tinknal]

It takes work, planing, and money, but you can design a system that a human never has to be in the same pen afoot with a bovine.