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Post by lakeportfarms on Mar 3, 2014 8:03:27 GMT -5
Well, Sheril and I are a little bummed...we were doing some BoSe shots, tetanus for the upcoming steers, and ear tags yesterday and some of our calves born in the past couple of months have some frostbite on their ears. Even though we brought most all of them in and completely dried them off and warmed them up by the wood stove immediately after they were born, and they were in stalls for several days afterward, it still obviously got a little too cold to prevent some frostbite. Fortunately most are going to be steered, so I suppose if there is a lesson to be learned, it is on the steers, but we did have one little shortie heifer that looks to have some, not as bad as the others.
Obviously the -30 plus (or should I say minus with negative numbers?) actual temperatures and windchills are a bit too much even for new calves in a barn or outside after a few days, and the extended number of them this year made the situation more pronounced.
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Post by midhilldexters on Mar 3, 2014 10:03:37 GMT -5
That's a bummer Hans, what are the ears looking like? Has the skin sloughed off yet? I had the same thing with a lamb born inside the barn, Mom did a great job and we moved them to a jug. I went back two hours later and again felt ears etc. When I picked him up he had the very tip of his ear frozen, but the end 4" of his tail was solid and his umbilical cord was the size of a egg. I think it was leaking but the end froze trapping the liquid in the umbilical which then froze. I tried the hairdryer but ended up bringing him in until I knew he was totally dry. I think the issue is they feel dry in that bitter cold but moisture still in the coat freezes so quickly. Little ram lamb did fine but glad I caught it when I did. Hopefully this will be over soon.
Carol K
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Post by lakeportfarms on Mar 3, 2014 10:34:40 GMT -5
The skin is still on, but the edges of the ears are hard and curling quite a bit. The heifer has the bottom part of one ear like that. It's hard to say on the tails, we may have one that has just a bit at the tip. We brought all of them in for at least an hour or more with a very hot wood stove and put them right next to it. They were very warm and dry when we took them out again to their moms. Then they spent the next 3-4 days in a stall in the barn. When they went outside, they have little huts filled with straw to hang out in. Part of the problem was that even with the cold temperatures the wind was coming out of the SW and even South. Very unusual! All of the huts had the openings facing South. Normally the prevailing and cold winds are out of the Northwest or North during the coldest months. The huts are of course half buried in snow, and frozen to the ground so I couldn't move them around. As I said, most are steers, so it wasn't as bad as it could have been.
From the long term predictions, it looks like the Great Lakes are in the core of the colder than normal temps for the next month. I hope this week this is the last below zero weather we have, but from what I read there are few if any chances to get to 40 degrees until April. And May and June will probably be pretty chilly around here since the lakes are for the most part much completely ice covered. Inland a bit may not be so bad, but I recall times with a 20 degree difference in temperatures during the spring between the lakeshore and just 10 miles or so inland. So 70 degrees in Detroit equals 45-50 degrees here...fun! We don't plan to go, but if we went to the AGM our Dexters would still have their winter coats!
Good thing you checked on your lamb...this has been a tough year temperature wise for a lot of people. I can only imagine what some folks have had to deal with that aren't used to it have gone through.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 3, 2014 15:52:04 GMT -5
I had never thought of frostbitten ears and possible tails when reading about your polar freeze over there. What a shame on any potential show stock you have Saturday we had showers and rain all day and where did our 'fairy-breads' spend their day - in the shelter Our boys are worse than the girls / calves, as soon as it begins to shower, they are off to the shelter. The girls with calves at least wait until it is actually raining. I can only imagine how the boys would react if it begun to snow.....................they would demand their own fireplace and blankie *LOL*
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Post by lakeportfarms on Mar 3, 2014 16:09:27 GMT -5
I had a call this afternoon from a fellow Dexter owner who suggested putting Bag Balm on the ears. The antiseptic and lotion worked very well for them to soften up the skin and reduce the damage. Thanks for the advice, and I wanted to post here in case anybody else runs into it. Thanks to her for contacting me to let me know.
Donlin, we really thought we had taken the necessary steps to prevent it, I guess it was just too cold for tender ears even though they were fully dried off. It's only one heifer that we have that we are upset about. She's out of Mike and cow we have named Pilar that is a very, very, long but not tall girl. We were thinking the combination is going to make for a really pretty and long shortie girl. We'll see, hopefully the Bag Balm will help with her since it wasn't too extensive.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 3, 2014 16:15:23 GMT -5
My fingers are crossed for your little heifer's ears
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Post by lakeportfarms on Mar 3, 2014 18:32:05 GMT -5
That was really thoughtful Gene. Too often we focus on all the physical things and neglect other attributes that make our Dexters special. I'll work on that story and thank you for the reminder.
Hans
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Frostbite
Mar 3, 2014 21:38:07 GMT -5
via mobile
Post by ssrdex on Mar 3, 2014 21:38:07 GMT -5
Sorry for those ears Hans! No doubt they'd have lost more than the tips of their ears had they not had the wood stove warmup. I'd personally rather have the heifer with the frost bitten ears...adds character! Good luck with the extreme cold calving to all going through it
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Post by Julie on Mar 4, 2014 6:58:37 GMT -5
Poor ears! Luckily the ears seem to heal fine once the frostbitten part falls off. With the cold temps you all have had, it is certain you all did everything you could! I had a goat kid born during the "original" polar vortex, and he had the most beautiful long velvety ears. Unfortunately the bottom third of his ears were frozen when I found him. The vet said matter-of-factly that they would probably fall off. Poor little thing did loose the bottom of his ears, and looked like he had a page-boy haircut! As Gene said, these frosty cows will have a story to go with them! I am wondering if this winter is going to put everyone's bulls in solitary confinement this spring so that no one calves next winter!
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Post by lakeportfarms on Mar 4, 2014 8:37:07 GMT -5
Thanks Julie! We had one a few years ago that had frostbitten ears and a tail. It's clearly noticeable but the owners don't mind it at all. She's their little pet cow and nothing will change that! We tried to be a lot more careful following that incident but this winter has just been too much for them. I don't know how the Northern plains and Canadian folks calve in January/February, but many of them do! I'm going to chalk up the cold temperatures as a rare thing since the lakes have frozen and don't moderate the temperatures like normal, and just keep running the bulls with the girls all year. However, next fall I'm going to make absolutely certain I put a priority on cleaning up unnecessary junk all the areas that I like to clear of snow LONG before the first snows are expected to come. It was my biggest worry this fall and rightly so. I think I'll also figure a way to extend the height of our fences in the winter holding pens using temporary posts and a single hot wire, since my biggest problem now is that they are walking over the fence and getting out to where I'm storing the hay, and with the snow piles along the drive to the adjacent property they can just walk over those too. Fortunately the feed has stopped them first, in fact a few times I've left the door open to the stalls in the barn where we keep a bin full of "emergency" sweet feed that we use to lure them if they get outside the property. How do they know it's there??? They pop the lid and devour it. I've had to replace it twice now One thing is for sure, when you think you have a reasonably good handle on things there is always something else that reminds you that no, you don't have it anywhere close to figured out!
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Post by legendrockranch on Mar 4, 2014 10:42:09 GMT -5
I've only seen pictures of frostbitten teats, hope your girls are spared that problem, and that this winter is over sooner rather than later for you.
Barb
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Post by dexterfarm on Mar 4, 2014 11:37:33 GMT -5
We dont calve in the winter if I can help it. we have always had some of our adults get slight frostbite on the very tips of there ears. some times a little hair loss on the tips and the edge might curl just a little but when summer comes you would never know. This is the first year ever had teats get frost bite. Our oldest cow got the bottom inch or so frost bit. It is just black and crusty now. to soon to tell if she will loose the tip or just the skin. We are just watching it and keeping a close eye out for infection. I dont think she is ever going to be able to calve again anyway. I think this will be her last winter. You can tell it has been hard on her.
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zephyrhillsusan
member
Caught Dexteritis in Dec. 2009. Member of this forum since Oct. 2013.
Posts: 1,502
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Post by zephyrhillsusan on Mar 4, 2014 12:42:31 GMT -5
You'll have to give her a name like Frosty or Inuit or Polara or Anna or Elsa (from "Frozen") and let it be a reminder of her story, which could have been so much worse if you hadn't been so vigilant. She'll be the easiest one to spot in the herd!
And just to add something in case an animal ever loses part of a tail to frostbite, there's a thread on KFC where a very creative gal made a false tail for her cow whose tail had been cropped at the dairy she came from. It allowed her to swish flies!
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Post by marion on Mar 4, 2014 16:18:28 GMT -5
I keep cows that are still nursing calves inside when it's very cold. Wet teats, sub-zero temps and windchill, not worth the risk..marion
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