The Ambivalent Shepherd

[GLENMAR]

We have livestock and sometimes we have deadstock.

 

[Blue Sky]

We're friends with a cattle farmer. the last few years of knowing him, he has told us several stories of how his cattle die in the oddest ways. His couple most recent were was a yearling steer kept laying down so that his feet were pointing up a hill and then he couldn't get up and kept getting bloat. They found him the first couple times and were able to save him but the last time they didn't get to him before he was too far gone.
Then they lost several because he opened one of his barns to let them get in out of the bad weather and there were big round bales in there. 3 of the cattle managed to get themselves stuck and wedged either behind or on top of/behind the bales and died.
Maybe sheep are worse than cattle overall but seems to me like an any animal can find creative ways to die.

I had a ewe that stuck her head through the square in a cattle panel. Somehow she lost her footing in ankle high grass and wedged her head in that space in such a way that she panicked and strangled. She was in good health, not pregnant, legs and feet ok. All she had to do was rise to her feet and step backward. But nooo….
Today’s ewe, I’m still thinking some kind of poisoning.

 

[Baymule]

And let's not get started on the marvelous ways that horses find to colic their way to death or the ways they find to create huge vet bills and not survive.

 

[GLENMAR]

And let's not get started on the marvelous ways that horses find to colic their way to death or the ways they find to create huge vet bills and not survive.

Yes. Two of my Arabians had to be put down for colic. My gelding was a surgical candidate, but I could not afford it at the time. My 25 yr old mare was not a surgical candidate. Both killed me. I loved those guys. They were full brother and sister.

 

[Blue Sky]

Yes. Two of my Arabians had to be put down for colic. My gelding was a surgical candidate, but I could not afford it at the time. My 25 yr old mare was not a surgical candidate. Both killed me. I loved those guys. They were full brother and sister.

That’s got to be rough. I lost a couple of dogs that way, something went critical and it was that time. You have my condolences.

 

[GLENMAR]

Thanks

That’s got to be rough. I lost a couple of dogs that way, something went critical and it was that time. You have my condolences.

Thanks. It’s been many years now, but my mare I had since she was 2 yrs old. Longest time I’ve had any one animal. The gelding I raised from a baby.