The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Cattle => Shetland Cattle => Topic started by: Tighnaneun on June 08, 2015, 09:42:55 pm
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Here are some pics of our kye, Tom(asina) 4, Xena 8wksish, Judith 11 and Gunna 16
Tom, Xena and Gunna are just down from Ronnie at Uradale, we met him at a young crofters gathering a couple of months ago. Xena is just a wee toot, love her to bits.
(http://i58.tinypic.com/ta4v2e.jpg)
Gunna
(http://i58.tinypic.com/10igcxc.jpg)
Tom and Xena
(http://i59.tinypic.com/m2atk.jpg)
Xena being shy!
Judith is from Glachbeg on the Black Isle. She's not doing very well, we've had all sorts of blood tests, dung tests, she doesn't have mastitis, given her antibiotics, fluke treatment, licks, magnesium, calcium.. At one point we thought she had Johnes but those tests came back negative too. :( She's still not doing well. She lost her calf in February and hasn't been right since. I'm climbing the walls trying to find out what is wrong with her, even the vet said we should cut our losses. One neighbour reckons she just needs time on good grass to get over the loss.
(http://i60.tinypic.com/2hg4to7.jpg)
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Hi,
I guess you've spoken with Bob - did he have any suggestions?
Sad if she's not well, give her some time & some TLC - most of our Shetlands love carrots, some like mollassed beet, others prefer beef nuts - maybe try her on some such treats and see how she goes.
The Ustaness cattle look fine - a nice wee herd you have there.
Sue
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Isn't the the breed Rosie and Dan have - can they give you any help?
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Hi,
I guess you've spoken with Bob - did he have any suggestions?
Sad if she's not well, give her some time & some TLC - most of our Shetlands love carrots, some like mollassed beet, others prefer beef nuts - maybe try her on some such treats and see how she goes.
The Ustaness cattle look fine - a nice wee herd you have there.
Sue
Haven't heard from Bob since we told him the calf was lost. We've been giving her a couple of scoops of harbro mag rolls and a wee bit of sheep crunch every few days which she wallops down, I wondered for a while if it was something amiss with her teeth as she seems reluctant to chew. No way of getting her head to stay still to check though, we are in the market for a crush and halter/gate set-up isn't safe enough.
Thanks Sue, I'm dead chuffed with Ronnie's cows, they are fab.
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If Paddy's seen her, then go with what she says.
One of ours lost a calf and she was very 'sad' - almost as if she was mourning - silly to give beasties human emotions but...
Some of our Shetlands like a bit of extra attention - a brush down, tail rubs, ear scratches, one of them even enjoys a hug around the neck - OK maybe that one is a bit different, but perhaps Judith has a sweet spot somewhere.
Hopefully Judith will recover - is she bulling - and if so do you intend to get her in calf again?
Sue
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Sorry - meant to explain - Rosemary is the Accidental Smallholder - you are posting on her forum, and Dan is her OH.
Sue
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Ah I did wonder, I knew the creator had Shetlands but didn't know her name! Should have done my research.
Judith doesn't like me going anywhere near her, I've been trying to get close since we got her. She will tolerate me putting a hand on her shoulders or scratching the base of her tail if she has her bucket of bribe but after she's done she'll kick and toss her head about then storm off. I guess it takes time.
Your Shetlands sound really lovely!! I'd love to be able to hug one of these ladies round the neck some day.
She has been bulling, a couple of weeks ago I thought putting her in calf and giving her a chance would be the way to go but I was told about a horse someone knew who had similar symptoms and was put in foal - turned out the horse had cancer and was in tremendous pain throughout the whole pregnancy, then lost the foal. I really don't want to put Judith through that if she is in pain, so I'd like to get to the bottom of her problem, but maybe I am just being overly sensitive.
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My apologies, I assumed everyone knew that Dan and Rosemary Champion are THE accidental smallholders. :innocent: Not that there's any accidents these days! :excited:
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Pass newb initiation test #1: find out who Dan & Rosie are!! What a terrible forum-goer I am. Ah well now I know!
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Pass newb initiation test #1: find out who Dan & Rosie are!! What a terrible forum-goer I am. Ah well now I know!
Lol. Yes, we have Shetlands.
We bought two heifers in 2010 off Shetland and currently we have four cows with calves at foot, two of last years heifers, a 2013 bullock and 2014 bullock and a young bull called Wharncliffe Kingmaker. We have just sold one of this years bull calves to South Wales and a cow with calf at foot and her two daughters to a breeder in Yorkshire, so we should be going into the winter with four females in the shed and two bullocks and a bull outwintering. We've just started milking two cows by hand - got a machine but not ready to use it yet :)
I'm sure Paddy will be a fount of all knowledge.
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Rosemary, machine milking may be a bit quicker (though is it when you think of all the taking apart and cleaning of equipment, putting it back together etc.) but I always found hand milking the most relaxing and soothing of occupations be it cows, goats or ewes. Not for nothing was it called the "farmer's rest time"!!
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Hi. Are you the new Shetland keepers in Rogart? We have never met but in our small world you hear about people! We have 3 Shetland cows, some calves and a bull just south of Inverness. You would be welcome to come by and see ours if you are ever in the area.
Ours all have different characters. Some love a scratch, some will only tolerate it when their head is in a bucket of food.
Tim
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Hi. Are you the new Shetland keepers in Rogart? We have never met but in our small world you hear about people! We have 3 Shetland cows, some calves and a bull just south of Inverness. You would be welcome to come by and see ours if you are ever in the area.
Ours all have different characters. Some love a scratch, some will only tolerate it when their head is in a bucket of food.
Tim
Hi Tim, yep that's us! It would be great to see your herd, I'll send you a PM. Will you be at the RHS? we're catching the Rogart bus on Friday with Alec
RE Judith's problems, it could be a twisted stomach (or left displaced abomasom). Stress, mastitis, change of scenery, calving and fresh spring grass can bring that on I've been told, and her symptoms match.. The only thing is that the vet did do a twisted stomach test (where he flicks the rib while listening to the gut with a stethoscope to hear a characteristic LDA 'ping' noise) and said he didn't think it was twisted stomach. the ping test doesn't always work though (australian study) so he could easily have misdiagnosed. What's freaking me out is that she's been like this for months, and if she has had an LDA, there could be more problems further along the line in her intestines, which can tangle and decompose, explaining her pain
But enough gloom, there is a cattle-stomach-problem expert vet getting in touch so Monday we may have an answer :fc:
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Hi Tighnaneun!
I am following this thread with interest as I also have a very skinny cow. We have had to take her calf off her at 4 weeks old as her milk dried up. We have had loads of tests done but no answers. I am very interested to hear how your girl develops and any ideas anyone has about her.
B
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Hi Tighnaneun!
I am following this thread with interest as I also have a very skinny cow. We have had to take her calf off her at 4 weeks old as her milk dried up. We have had loads of tests done but no answers. I am very interested to hear how your girl develops and any ideas anyone has about her.
B
Hi Bekka
Not good news I'm afraid. We went to a third vet today for a consultation and when we told him all the symptoms he said "this is why vets get a bad name. I'm not going to see your cow, I could take your money, but I'm not going to because that combination is not good news. If she is in pain, and she's 11 years old and has those symptoms, she needs a bullet and she needs it sooner rather than later"
3rd and 2nd vets both ruled out a twisted stomach as she would be dead after 4 months of it. The current thought is that it may be a tumor. If you moot that to your vet they may be able to work with it?
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Oh dear, that's sad news. I assume you'll be following the last advice.
That's one of the things about keeping livestock I guess - we have to take the hard decisions about their welfare because we care about their welfare.
Poor Judith, poor you.
Sue
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:( Well, you couldn't have done any more :hug:
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That is an awful start to your cattle keeping career.
I hope you don't loose heart, your Shetlands will reward you in the end.
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I hope it gets better. Poor Judith.
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Aww I am so sorry. Not a nice decision to have to make.
My girl is only 4 though so feel like I should keep fighting! She is really good in herself, just incredibly skinny. On the upside, I do have an amazing friendly Shetland hand rear calf best friend now!
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Douglasbrae came at half seven this morning. The driver was very understanding, quick, professional and friendly. She was skin and bones and had stopped eating altogether in the last couple of days, so I was glad to see her out of her misery, but so utterly heartbroken that we had to do this at all. I hate losing animals.
The driver mentioned there are a lot of cases of Johne's going on up in Caithness, almost double the usual. We had her blood and faeces tested for Johne's and they both came back negative so we are okay (for now).
We tried to organise a post mortem but Douglasbrae (the only knackers up north) won't take carcasses to the SRUC center in Inverness, they have to have a totally sterile lorry with no other bodies in it to do that and it just isn't economical for them or the farmer. We couldn't transport the body ourselves as you need a leak-proof stock trailer and various paperwork and we couldn't take her down live as that would have been a welfare issue. The vets would have charged us at least double what SRUC charges (£160+) so in the end we had to accept that we would never find out what it was that was wrong with her.
Judith had a lot of symptoms of Johne's but we ruled out that and a few other infectious diseases, after speaking to Animal Health and SRUC they think it was either a tumour or liver failure. One other dairy farmer I spoke to thought it may have been that she had a wire or something in one of her stomachs. My theory was that she had bad teeth brought on by stress of losing the calf in Feb, but when we checked before she went on the DB lorry her back teeth were okay, her front teeth were about to fall out.
There isn't one conclusion to Judith's story, no one thing that would have saved her, but we have had a steep learning curve, have learnt many lessons about keeping cows. Happy to say that the other three are still going strong though, Gunna is like a pig.
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Sad to hear there wasn't a happy outcome. Glad the othesr are well and thriving - thaht's how they usually are. You coming to the SCBA AGM in October?
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I hope so, October is a busy month for me but I'll try to get down to it.
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I am sorry to hear about that, its never nice to lose any animal. I have attached some quotes I hope you like :)
The road to success is not easy to navigate, but with hard work, drive and passion, it's possible to achieve the American dream.
Tommy Hilfiger
Life is not easy for any of us. But what of that? We must have perseverance and above all confidence in ourselves. We must believe that we are gifted for something and that this thing must be attained.
Marie Curie