Posted: Mon Dec 06, 2010 1:36 pm
We found that we had lost a cow yesterday, one whose breeding was unique within the herd. She had been checked Saturday evening by a well trusted employee who said that she and her two companions were well. We arrived home 24 hours later and Echo was dead.
We will never know what killed her because the weather is very warm and moist, and she was in the half acre behind the pub. We couldn't let her get revolting and fly-blown with being in town so close to neighbours.
Graham and a friend on the shire checked her for gunshot then used heavy machinery to dig a hole and bury her in the bush. Whatever killed her, she must have died on her feet, and set like a statue when she dropped. She had buckled at the knees and hind fetlocks, and rested on her mid-underline in perfect symmetry, like a sphinx but with her chin on the ground. Her feet hadn't moved and she couldnt have had any death twitches or she would have toppled. She had blood from the nose.
Not pulpy kidney because she was up to date with her vaccine, so maybe a massive heart attack or embolism perhaps. Any other ideas?
She was due to have her first calf on the 16th this month, had started to make an udder, but if she had died calving there would have been signs of stuggle. She is a huge loss and we feel we have been kicked in the stomach, but it seems she had no time to suffer, and it also seems we would not have been able to save her if we'd been here.
I have to ask, ... Why her?? Why her when we have ten others on our sales list for this year!! Grrrrrr.
Margaret.
We will never know what killed her because the weather is very warm and moist, and she was in the half acre behind the pub. We couldn't let her get revolting and fly-blown with being in town so close to neighbours.
Graham and a friend on the shire checked her for gunshot then used heavy machinery to dig a hole and bury her in the bush. Whatever killed her, she must have died on her feet, and set like a statue when she dropped. She had buckled at the knees and hind fetlocks, and rested on her mid-underline in perfect symmetry, like a sphinx but with her chin on the ground. Her feet hadn't moved and she couldnt have had any death twitches or she would have toppled. She had blood from the nose.
Not pulpy kidney because she was up to date with her vaccine, so maybe a massive heart attack or embolism perhaps. Any other ideas?
She was due to have her first calf on the 16th this month, had started to make an udder, but if she had died calving there would have been signs of stuggle. She is a huge loss and we feel we have been kicked in the stomach, but it seems she had no time to suffer, and it also seems we would not have been able to save her if we'd been here.
I have to ask, ... Why her?? Why her when we have ten others on our sales list for this year!! Grrrrrr.
Margaret.