Butchered a heifer tonight.

[Olga]

Her name was Marguerite, Maxine's daughter from August of last year. All the local processors are doing deer only, so I picked today, first truly cold night, to put her down. As overnight temps will be in the upper 30's, I've left her hanging for at least 24 hours, may be more, depending on tomorrow's temps. The full story "why" tomorrow.

[zephyrhillsusan]

We lost our favorite butcher when he decided to only butcher during deer season.  We'll still use him if we have one to do in the fall, but we had to go with someone else when we needed him this summer.     Waiting to hear your story . . .

[legendrockranch]

Yes I too am waiting to hear the story. It's never easy to butcher a cow or heifer, but sometimes there is just no alternative.

Barb

[Olga]

Marguerite was born on August 14th, 2013. I was busy with preparations for our County Fair in early September, then spent 5 days at the fair, then recouped the week after - thus I didn't see the cows much. At some point, I noticed that the calf had a bit of nasal discharge but she didn't appear sick. I attributed the snot to allergies, as often during this time of year the horses and the cows walk around with yellow rag-weed pollen all over their noses. Then I was gone to Russia for 4 weeks and wasn't back till early November. On some days I noticed that Marguerite still had snot, mostly out of the right nostril, and her right ear looked a bit droopy. Since winter was upon us, I decided to see if cooler temps and absence of pollen would help her recover. In December she still had it, and some of the snot would occasionally have green cud in it. I called Doc. Wink in early January but he had retired. Having lost my cow-vet, I called my horse-vet who used to do cows and he suggested to check for a cleft palate. I weaned Marguerite and brought her to the house. I checked her over as best I could, looking down her ears and nose, feeling her soft palate as deep as I could - and found nothing wrong. Then in February, I believe, I took Marguerite to a cow-vet, they administered a long-lasting antibiotic and her vaccinations - which made her sick for a couple of days. In the following months I noticed that he discharge was mostly out of the right nostril, the right ear drooped consistently, and the snot/obstructed breathing was most evident during times of physical exertion and eating. Thankfully, mealtime troubles could be avoided by the wetting of the feed. Finally Marguerite went out to pasture in Spring with Macy, her heifer Penelope, and Jupiter the steer. She did really well until mid-August. Everytime Marguerite had a heat, she had a hard time with Macy and the steer going after her; she started to lose condition. Now in October, I could tell that Penelope, who was born in January of this year, was several inches taller than Marguerite and had at least a 100 pounds on her. So I decided to go ahead an butcher Marguerite before she lost anymore condition.
Last night we isolated her in the barn and dispatched her with one shot. I examined the soft palate and esophagus and couldn't find anything amiss. The lung tissue looked really healthy and pink, uniform in color and texture; cross-section didn't reveal any abscesses or nodules. There was some fat cover, not much. There was fat tissue in the udder region and plenty of internal fat in all the usual places - the carcass looked like any other carcass of a healthy young animal.
I still don't know what caused Marguerite's issue. While chronic pneumonia has been suggested, I don't find it to consistent with the snot coming from the right nostril only - 95% of the time I saw it. The lung tissue didn't look sick or having been sick (no scar tissue). It could've been an issue she was born with, or one she acquired from a foreign body that lodged in her nose or throat. Either way, it wasn't something that she was able to recover from on her own.
The carcass in hanging till tomorrow, when we will process and package the meat for the freezer.

[midhilldexters]

Great write up Olga, sorry about your heifer but glad you told the story. It's good to hear about the unusual things, it's how we all learn. Enjoy you meat. Maybe another write up on the killing and the butchering??? I've never had to do a cow, but like to learn, just in case. I'm getting ready to do my first lamb, not looking forward to the kill at all, but looking forward to learning the butchering side.

Carol K

[RedRidge]

How strange. I so hate mysteries. Wonder if necropsy of just the organs would reveal anything...
Thanks for sharing.

[RedRidge]

Carol, lamb is sooooo much easier to butcher than steers. Very similar to butchering venison. Steers are heavy and cumbersome. Having a large enough place to hang for long enough is tough too. Lambs are the second easiest animal to butcher imo. Rabbits and squirrels are the easiest. And chickens are just a headache (says the person who just did another 12 - ugh!).

[midhilldexters]

Sheri that is good to know, if you get the time pm or email me with how you do the kill, size of weapon etc. plus any other good tips you may have. All of mine have gone to the butcher, but my dog and some of the cats are on a raw diet, so they eat lamb, and paying the butcher to do that is dumb. I'd like to take the loin and a couple of the other decent cuts and chunk the rest. Makes me feel better you saying they are one of the easiest, I've also been doing chickens over these last few weeks, and they suck.

Thanks,
Carol K

[zephyrhillsusan]

I'm sorry about Marguerite, but it sounds like you made the right call. It sounds like she'd have had a hard time keeping condition while carrying a calf and nursing. It makes me wonder about a chronic sinus infection, which I guess you wouldn't see unless you sawed into the skull. The drooping ear could go along with that if the infected sinus caused referred pain like in humans. I can have a sinus infection but the pain is in my jaw.

[Olga]

I did reach into the nasal passages through the upper soft palate, but the area was full of bony debris from the kill shot. If this was a sinus issue, the evidence was lost.

[kansasdexters]

Here is a YouTube video that shows the process of slaughtering and cutting the carcass of a home-killed Dexter. It is very graphic, but for anyone that wants to process their own beef, it covers all the bases:

www.youtube.com/watch?annotation_id=annotation_1760759975&feature=iv&src_vid=8ztJBEJhBok&v=FYXH3f48W44


Patti

[Olga]

I will do a write up on the butchering process soon. While there are many ways of doing it, mine is different from the one in the video and, of course, I think mine is better

[emgiger]

Hi Olga,

I am so sorry to hear about Maguerite. Losing a cow, let alone a heifer, is never easy. One thought came to mind that I would like to share. Droopy ears and nasal discharge are classic signs of a mycoplasma infection. Mycoplasma is extremely difficult to treat unless you have the right antibiotic. Last spring I had a heifer with two droopy ears (derived from an inner ear infection), nasal discharge and general lethargy. My vet had never seen droopy ears, was puzzled, decided to give Nuflor a try. A week later with no improvement I dug in, contacted a friend for advice and did my own research. My little heifer had mycoplasma and only one drug, Draxxin, proved to be effective. Fast forward another two weeks and my heifer was back to herself.

I have no idea if this is what may have been wrong with Marguerite or not. Regardless, it never hurts to share experiences with one another.

Eileen

[zephyrhillsusan]

Thank you for that, Eileen. That is so good to know, especially if it's possible that vets wouldn't even be aware of it. I'm going to file that one away in a corner of my brain where I hope to never need it, but hope I can find it if I do. It's great that you figured it out, and I'm glad she made a full recovery.

Olga, please don't let this make you feel bad. You did everything you could for Marguerite, and from what I read after I looked it up, the answer for chronic cases is to cull them because it is contagious and difficult to treat. So if that's what she had, you did the right thing.

[Olga]

Draxxin is the antibiotic Marguerite received at the vet. It had no effect. The discharge was mostly clear, any color came from cud - you could see short grass bits in it. I really think that it was a mechanical issue, something to do with swallowing.