Even on "vacation"

My first day of Christmas break was very tiring.
It was one cold, windy, miserable day.  That was the day that Mom and I helped Ms. Jennings and Alan catch and load and sort close to twenty heifers to take to the vet.  Some of them did NOT want to be caught, so we got in a little cross-country running.

We caught up all five of my heifers and several others belonging to many other dairy showmen.

We took them in to get their calfhood shots and the tattoo and ear clip that goes with them.  Prim also had a special procedure to remove the one extra teat she was born with.  Last, but not least, almost all of them got dehorned.  Some had already had it done.  Some weren't done well the first time and needed the scurs taken down.  Stopnstare is naturally polled (genetically, she was bred to be born without horns.)  

If the conditions were right, we would have used dehorning paste on Prim when she was born, but she was a summer calf, so there were flies, and we didn't want her to get infection from that, PLUS we had her on a nurse cow, and she couldn't be rubbing that paste on a cow's udder and belly!  YOWCH!  That would have done some damage.    So they cut off her little horns, and of course I saved them:  hers and Fara's.

Personally, I think Juicy should have hers touched up, but nobody asked me.   

My grand total for an afternoon at the vet:   $96.60.  

We had to take their woven nylon and chain halters off of them before they got in the chute.  I had to leave them off for about ten days while they healed and the swelling went down.  This meant that they just ran loose in the pen and I didn't catch them up every day.  Boy did they get ornery in that time!  Sassy and spoiled!  So they are having to learn how to be tame again.  (Not fun for me or them.)

One cool thing about the trip to the vet was that they each got weighed!
1004   Apple Juice
832     Carmelita
502     Stopnstare
494     Fara
348     Primrose
Fat and sassy every one of them.  Now, just like some women get ready for swimsuit season, these girls need to get ready for show season!