Post by hillsideacres on Jul 15, 2015 15:25:53 GMT -5
I’m traumatized and want to know if I’m a weeny or justifiably horrified.
My friend arraigned to trailer Maybelle to a large 250 hd dairy nearby for her pedicure. She traveled well. We get out to chat with the hoof trimmer and I started to panic. We passed 6 cows with bloody feet held off the ground in a holding pen slick with urine, pus and blood – just awful to me.
One cow was in the tilt shute and the guy was tearing into her foot with his knife, blood and puss were flowing out of abscesses. He kept muttering about Vets and Nutritionists. He glued a block of wood onto the half of hoof without the hole and set her free. The next cow was drooling and went into the shute only after being prodded hard by a stick. She too had her hoof tore open till it bled and the wood block shoe. I heard 8-9 out of 10 cows there had the same treatment. Then it was Maybelle’s turn and I barely kept it together and begged to guy not to gouge her feet open. I could not watch, but stayed at her head singing to her. The guy said she had good feet and just rounded off the toes. I left ASAP and was not very gracias in my mad dash to leave. Maybelle had a foot wash once we were back home since we walked through the holding pen on the way out.
I asked my friend about the Vet and Nutritionists muttering and was told that the cows were getting 25 lbs of grain a day and standing in wet confined areas which was leading to soft feet and laminitis or enbedded rocks – hence the abscesses. He talked like the condition of the dairy cows were normal. “ Well… they have been able to keep 250 head for years” “I’ve seen worse”
My question is: Is it normal to have most of a large dairy herd lame?
So friends…
Am I a Weeny or justifiably horrified?
My friend arraigned to trailer Maybelle to a large 250 hd dairy nearby for her pedicure. She traveled well. We get out to chat with the hoof trimmer and I started to panic. We passed 6 cows with bloody feet held off the ground in a holding pen slick with urine, pus and blood – just awful to me.
One cow was in the tilt shute and the guy was tearing into her foot with his knife, blood and puss were flowing out of abscesses. He kept muttering about Vets and Nutritionists. He glued a block of wood onto the half of hoof without the hole and set her free. The next cow was drooling and went into the shute only after being prodded hard by a stick. She too had her hoof tore open till it bled and the wood block shoe. I heard 8-9 out of 10 cows there had the same treatment. Then it was Maybelle’s turn and I barely kept it together and begged to guy not to gouge her feet open. I could not watch, but stayed at her head singing to her. The guy said she had good feet and just rounded off the toes. I left ASAP and was not very gracias in my mad dash to leave. Maybelle had a foot wash once we were back home since we walked through the holding pen on the way out.
I asked my friend about the Vet and Nutritionists muttering and was told that the cows were getting 25 lbs of grain a day and standing in wet confined areas which was leading to soft feet and laminitis or enbedded rocks – hence the abscesses. He talked like the condition of the dairy cows were normal. “ Well… they have been able to keep 250 head for years” “I’ve seen worse”
My question is: Is it normal to have most of a large dairy herd lame?
So friends…
Am I a Weeny or justifiably horrified?