Down Cows

We have had to deal with several "down cows" lately.  It is not an overly joyful experience and generally we have one in for or five that never get back up.  This past week we have had two down cows.  Both cows decided to go down on slippery concrete during milking time.  The one that I have pictures of had to be drug off of the feeding pad before we could load her in the bucket of the tractor to take her to a place that she could hang out for a while without getting stepped on by the other cows.

 
Fortunately, the manure actually acted as a grease that made so that us dragging her off of the pad didn't scrape her up.  Unfortunately, the manure is what made so that we had to drag her off of the pad before we could pick her up, because it was too slippery for us to work in to get adequate footing for what we needed to do.

She managed to go down right after milking, so we couldn't clean off the concrete without moving her first.  You can
see the line where we dragged her off of the concrete. 

Next, we loaded her into the loader bucket on our tractor.  We HATE dragging cows anywhere, because they are much more likely to get injured--just the opposite of what we are trying to do.  Loading them onto the bucket looks awful, but besides being uncomfortable, but they aren't in pain and it allows us to move them to a clean place where we can take care of them and keep food in front of them.

Finally, we arrive at the destination.  Nice clean grass with sure footing so that she can have a better chance at getting up if she tries.  Also, it is a small paddock where the other cows can't swarm around her and eat her food and drink her wanter.

She is scowling at us, but in a much cleaner environment then the manure caked pad that she fell down on.

We got the vet out later that day, and he gave her some calcium and magnesium.  He said she should get up.

He was right!  Later that day she was standing up, and now she is back in with the milk cows!  Praise the Lord!