Well, we moved into our new house the beginning of July. All the fences at the new place are in need of repair, so we left our cows at our old house until we could fix something up for them. (we have until the 15th of this month to get everything we want from the old property) Well, after tons of hard work, we finally decided it was time to move our cows home. Saturday we moved our 2 yearling heifers and everything went without a hitch. Well, then Sunday we went back and loaded our 2 cows and their calves from this spring. So we have 4 in the trailor. (We use a horse trailer that can fit 4 horses in it.) We start to get on the freeway and I look back at the trailor because there is a small window in the front of it, and I can only see 1 big cow standing up. (The calves are too small to see thru the window.) Well, I know this isn't good. Cows don't normally lay down in transport unless something is deperately wrong with them. So I talk my DH into pulling over at the rest area about 3 miles away. We pulled into the rest area and I go look in the trailor and see my oldest cow laying down. (She's 9 years old, so she's still pretty young.) I didn't think too much until I saw a HUGE gaping hole in the floor of the trailor!!
One of the boards about a foot wide, had broke out and was gone all the way across the trailor. I ran to the cab of the truck and told DH there was a board missing in the floor of the trailor and then I promptly turned around and threw up. (I guess that's my way of handeling stress) I was sick to my stomach. I thought for sure She had a broken leg and I was gonna have to put her down. I couldn't see her legs as they were tucked up under her, but I could see a small spot of blood on the floor. Well, being Sunday afternoon and it was about 95 degrees out, I was trying to get a hold of the local mobile butcher to take care of it for me since we have no way of cooling the carcass in this heat. (and they do) I couldn't get a hold of either one of them and I couldn't remember their last names so I couldn't call them at home. (Stress induced amnesia.) So I proceeded to call the Idaho State Patrol to see if they could get a hold of someone for me. The poor dispatcher probably thought I was crazy calling them to try and find me a local mobile butcher. But she was VERY patient with me and did her best to try and help. She did find their home numbers and tried to call them for me but neither one was home.
Well, I then called my stepson, and asked him to go to our old house and find SOMETHING I could use to cover the hole in the floor of the trailor and bring it to us. He said sure and was there within 20 minutes. In the meantime of waiting for him to bring us something, my cow finally stood up!!! No broken bones!!!!
It just trimmed her hoof pretty short and it was bleeding a little. Not bad though. When she did stand up, her back two legs came out the hole and she was standing on the pavement. Well, stepson finally showed up and he literally tore off one of the stall doors from the barn, hinges and all, and brought that for us to cover the hole with. We shoved Mama cow to the back of the trailor to get her legs out of the hole so we could cover it with the door. It worked like a charm. Fit perfectly and we wedged a smaller piece of plywood next to it so the door wouldn't move. She's home now and I gave her some asprin that I had got from the vet for another one of my cows last year. It was real close to the expiration date but it's still good. That should help with the sore foot and leg. I'll give her some more tonight. She's walking on all four legs but just gimps a little on the one that got trimmed. I'll watch her real close for a while. I don't think I need a vet to look at her unless she has problems arise from all this. I still get sick to my stomach whenever I think of what could have happened. I thank the good Lord it wasn't worse.
Oh! I didn't mention that DH wanted to keep driving home after I discovered the broken board. He said the cow is laying down, she's not gonna move.
I said we're not driving anywhere!!!!!! One of the calves was only standing about 5 inches from the hole!!
No wonder I felt sick. He can be so rediculious sometimes!!!
Now the trailor has to have a COMPLETE new floor put in it, because I won't have DH just replacing the broken board. Because if one's bad, the others aren't too far behind. The trailor is only 5 years old and we bought it brand new. But it has openings at the top on the sides so the rain and weather gets in it and I think the weather ruined it. It didn't look bad at the time, but now I know better.
I have also decided that wood is not the way to go so I went to the local scrap yard and found enough bar-grate to do the trailer (galvanized) 
