Cows and 10 degrees..it's always something!

Right now, 10 o'clock at night, it's a brisk -6, with a nice stiff wind. Brrr!!
Last winter, we had a cow go lame on us, and we had to call the vet out. It was 15 degrees and VERY windy. He told us then, no more emergency calls allowed when it's 15 degrees outside. OK!

This morning, we noticed, one of our steers, Yo-Yo, was puking..What!? Cows don't puke!  So I called the vet, and he came out mid-afternoon. 10 degrees and windy, to his dismay.

We got Yo-Yo in a nose lead and halter, and tied him up. The probability was he probably had something lodged in his throat.  Tom dug out all the yuck hay and slobber stuck in the back of his mouth and ran a metal tube down his throat. Then he passed a flexible pipe through the tube and into his stomach. Our helper pumped warm water through the flex-pipe. This procedure was meant to break through any blockage in his esophagus.
No item was found, but we hope it was simply a small stick that got shoved on through to his stomach.

THEN, Tom realized I was taking pictures...and posed for the camera.

Before Tom arrived, we had to get Yo-Yo into our holding pen, which is next to our 'stone hut'. The stone hut had a sow and piglets in it just as the ground was starting to freeze. The hog panel front became frozen into the mud before we had the chance to remove it.  We have been using one of the loading gates to keep the pen blocked off from the cows.  So, we removed the gate to help guide Yo-Yo to where we wanted him to go. OF COURSE, in the 10 minutes the gate was down, our Pinzgauer bull, Tank, decided in the stone hut was a better place to hang out. When we were finished, I tried to get him to leave.

Alas, no dice. Here is a picture of me jumping on Tank. Isn't it funny, how so many people, due to the wonder of cartoons, think bulls are so dangerous? I don't for a second believe any bull is totally safe, and none are completely trustworthy. Alot of bulls ARE dangerous, especially those of the dairy breeds.  We never let down our guard around the bulls.

BUT, Tank was bottle-fed. He's such a big mush pot and I love him. After jumping on him, I took a break and sat down..on him. He could not have cared less. I eventually gave up and he came out later on his own..but only after Beefy joined him for a private bull pow-wow in the hut.

Ahhh, what a day. Wait!  It's never over. As I type this, one of our heifers, Firecracker, is in labor. What a night to give birth! Guess I won't be getting to bed this round...