Farm Friday - Doctoring Cattle

As parents, we are responsible for the health and well-being of our two children.  On our farm, we are responsible for the lives of over 500 animals who also rely on us for some of the same needs.  Food, water, safety, and their health are needs that we meet for our animals everyday they are under our care.  We take these responsibilities very seriously.  Today's Farm Friday is focused on how we take care of our sick animals.  We do use anti-biotics on our animals when it is necessary.  We feel it is better to treat our animals than to let them suffer from a treatable condition and the meat from the animal is still safe to eat.  We eat it too. 

So the first step is to identify the sick animal.  Some of the symptoms we look for are excessive slobbering and/or snot, limping, bloating, excessive panting, or if the cattle are lethargic.  If any of the cattle show these symptoms, they are separated from the rest of the herd and brought into the corals for closer examination.  There are some symptoms, like a lump in their jaw, that we know right away we can not treat and will require a trip to the veterinarian.  If they do not have any of these symptoms than we continue with our evaluation by taking a rectal temp (sorry no picture of that, haha).  A regular temp. is between 100 - 102.5 degrees and if it is higher than that, than an infection is present.  Some of the common ailments our cattle have are conjunctivitis (Pink Eye), Bovine Respiratory Disease, or Bovine Virus Diarrhea.  These conditions are treatable with anti-biotics that we use as directed by our veterinarian.  We only ever give the amount as prescribed by our vet to insure the animal is getting proper care.

Once we determine that medication is needed, the animals are brought through cattle panels into a squeeze shoot.  This helps to keep the animal contained so we can do the procedures on it and neither us nor the animal is harmed.  The animal gets the anti-biotics through a shot.  Some also receive a vitamin injection (like when we take vitamins) to help them receive extra nutrition to help fight off the infection.  None of our cattle ever receive steroids.  Most only need medication for a few days and are able to get healthy and regain the herd. 
Again, if you have any questions, please feel free to ask them in the comments section and we will try to get you an answer.  Have a great Friday.