Post by christybell on Mar 23, 2014 10:44:45 GMT -5
I'm trying to get my boss cow, Charlotte, in a stall but every time the gate closes behind her she freaks out. She immediately starts trembling, circling, has liquid diarrhea, and trying to get out. She got her head under the pipe gate (horns and all!) and slid her neck up the gap between the gate and stall wall. If she can't go under, she will try to go over. I have a stall that will hold her but I worry about her hurting herself. I need to get her in for several reasons. First, she is a bully. She has food dominance issues! She is aggressive with my other cow over food and will repeatedly charge and hit both Mabel and Mabels new calf. I don't let her approach her feed pan until I have stepped away or she would pushing me around. She has tried to warn me off and got too close which made me a bit nervous. I was unsure what to do so I ended up giving her a swift kick in the nose. Those horns are not quite so charming when they are waved in my direction! She is now a bit wary of me and that's not what I want but I also can't let her be the boss. They are fine all day until feeding time and if I can separate them while they eat the biggest problem would be solved. My second reason is that she is due to calve in June and we have a HUGE cougar population here. Every animal we have gets put inside at night. I'm not worried about Charlotte but her calf would just be cougar bait. Mabel and her baby, Mr.T. Bone, come in every night although it takes about 30 minutes to get Charlotte far enough away from the stall for Mabel and T to get in with out getting charged. Should I just lock Charlotte up and let her work it out? Will she eventually calm down or will she just get worse? Any advice?