Sunday 6 May 2012

Yoghurt For A Bull Calf.

It's been a  week full of worry down on the ranch (West Cork Smallholding) here in Southern Ireland.  Lightning one of our new bull calves decided to imitate me and grow a beer belly.  I went in to the cow stall and noticed both his sides seemed very swelled.  Lightning is a very greedy calf and he's always the first to the calf crunch in the trough and always last to leave it.

Any road folks.  Lightning's stomach seemed to get bigger and bigger.  So I decided to Google cattle complaints ("Why's it always raining?") like bloat and poisoning....  We put some liquid paraffin down his throat and worried ourselves silly thinking he might have ate some wild Parsnip or deadly dangerous plant. We rang the vet and he asked if Lightning was passing water and making country pancakes (think about it) and chewing his cud?  We told him that Lightning had not lost his appetite and he'd just done a delightful plop.  The vet told us not to be alarmed and to go to the supermarket and purchase him (Lightning not the vet) some tubs of Yoghurt (they pronounce it "Yo -girt" here, rather similar to how you say Yogi Bear.

Anyway I got out my dosing gun and diluted the Yo girt with some milk and attempted to give Lightning some down his throat.  Lightning started to lick the Yoghurt and freely (nay devoured) ate it  of his own accord.  Apparently it's like giving him a pro-biotic for good bacteria to break down any yeast fermentation in his stomach?

 I am pleased to report that Lightning seems to be fine but he's still got a big belly like me.

4 comments:

  1. What an excellent idea! I knew an old Ukrainian bloke who cured worms in puppies by mashing up garlic and putting it in their food - totally worked! They pooed out loads of dead worms!! LOVED yr old film clips, Dave! Am completely convinced that they must be like what Lithuania is NOW!! And, the oxen pulling the load of hay - how cool is that! All we need is Bernard Miles to walk on set! Oh and back to the re-jigging of bridal paths to allow horse drawn vehicles. I bet you the people who would complain would be the rich ones who use 'em to exercise their horses. And I don't reckon there's enough of those people to make up a baker's dozen per path!! And I only know that there's ruddy NO ONE on them bridal paths cos (believe it or not) I used to ride (out in Herfordshire!!) from when I was a kid, say 8, till I was 16 (and had to go to work!).And I can tell you that it wouldn't have mattered if they were tarmaced - the horses all wore shoes! Sorry, I know I'm preaching to the choir!!! Just makes me so mad that you guys haven't got so much as one bus per day, just cos there aren't enough of you to kick up a big enough stink. And then everyone wonders why everyone is moving to the big towns! Sorry, sorry will get off me soap box!!!

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  2. Thanks for that Carol. Yeah I have read about Garlic being used for worms in sheep. I believe farmers used to grow it in far off places like Yorkshire.

    I have a book called: The Complete Herbal Handbook For Farm And Stable : Juliette de Bairacli Levy. There are so many natural remedies available for free or very little.

    I think your bridle paths idea is brilliant. Or why can't there be a new national road built just for cyclists, horses and horse drawn vehicles?

    Here in rural Ireland many houses have 3 or 4 cars. You can go to town on a Friday and there is nowhere to park. I reckon if they did provide public transport most people would still drive their cars. I read somewhere that you can transport forty people in a bus for the same amount of diesel it costs to use a car for one person.

    Regular readers will know my regular hobby horse (like the pun) is to get on my soap box and rant about their being no infrastructure in the countryside - especially public transport. I just don't see why country dwellers should have to have their own transport to get about.

    Thanks Carol.

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  3. Strange cure for a greedy bull calf, but pleased to hear it worked, sounds like this little fella's gonna be a big bit of beef in the not too distant future with an appetite like that.

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  4. Yes you're half right Cumbrian. The yoghurt did help bring his belly down a bit, but I also think like you do - he's very very greedy. A couple of neighbouring farmers told me to leave him and not to worry and it's probably just his breed.

    Thanks Cumbrian.

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