Friday, February 21, 2020

A Growling Cow, and Trimming Horns

Matt took JJ's stitches out on Saturday. She still has to wear a cone because she won't leave the scar alone yet. I think another week and it will be healed enough that she will leave it alone.

Echo hates the cone on JJ!

I'm sure you have heard a cow mooing. Have you heard a cow growl when they aren't happy?



When I first heard that sound I didn't know what it was. It sounded so odd, and I had never heard it before. Maybe Echo was sick again? Maybe she was hurt?

I ran out of the barn to check on her, and realized that she wasn't sick or hurt! She was just warning everyone that something was wrong with JJ. What a funny sound!

Last week we had a scare in the neighborhood. There was a cougar roaming around on our street, and the street to the west. One neighbor saw it on our street. And another one heard it! Yikes!


We made sure Echo and the other animals were locked in the barn to be safe.

No one has seen or heard the cougar in a few days. I'm still locking all the animals up at night just to be sure. A cougar can easily kill a goat or a calf. I'm sure the cougar is just hungry because it's winter, but I don't want to be the one that feeds it.

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Saturday we trimmed horns on SideKick, the sheep, and Teancum, the buck goat.

Echo banged off her horn a few months ago and I was so happy that I found it in the barnyard so I could let you see what it looks like.

Saanen goats have tenacious horns! Even when we remove them when they are 5 days old, they often still grow back as scurs (not full horns)

Teancum's horns were growing into the back of his head so it was time to trim them,



We use a wire saw to trim horns. It's pretty fast, and it isn't noisy like an electric saw. The animals don't like it when we grab their horns and trim them, but it doesn't hurt them. It's just annoying for a few minutes.

Horns grow just like your fingernails. Most people trim their nails when they get too long. We trim the horns on goats, sheep, and cows when they get too long, or when they start growing in a way that will cause problems.

This is Teancum's horn.

Teancum has shorter horns that aren't growing into the back of his head.


We don't trim sheep horns very often, but SideKick's horn was starting to curl around and grow into his face. His horn wasn't attached very well so once we started using the saw to trim it, it popped off.

You can see the place where we started sawing his horn.
No, SideKick wasn't hurt when his horn popped off.
No, he wasn't bleeding, either!
Echo's horn shell popped off last fall. I found it and I've been saving it because I thought it was interesting to look at.

It didn't bother her when it popped off. No bleeding, and no problems at all.

This is the side that the horn shell popped off.
The horn on the other side never attached to her skull so
it never grew. It moves a little bit because the skin around
the horn is what holds the horn in place.

When she was younger, neither of her horns were attached to her skull. When she was about 2 1/2 this one attached itself to her skull. I think the part that popped off was the part that wasn't attached when she was younger.



I don't think her horn will grow a shell again.
I think this was just one of those odd things that happen once in a while.
It's interesting to see the smooth area that used to fit on top of the attached part of the horn.

I hope you have a wonderful week learning more new things!







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