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This bull is dead, or is he?!

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fence_stretcher

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I took this picture of this bull at 7:20 pm. At 8:30 am he was dead. I'm not kidding.

We culled him from the herd because he has a broke penis We had him in the corral and I was going to take him to the sale barn this morning to sell. Marc and I were pushing him through the corral to load him in the livestock trailer. We were about 40 yds from the trailer and the bull fell down on his knees and laid down and just looked at us. We thought it was strange but not out of the ordinary. Sometimes they just do what they want to.

Marc got off his 4 wheeler and kicked him in the butt a couple times to get him to move and he just looked at us. A few seconds later he started quivering. And the first thing I thought was that he must be having a heart attack. He started groaning loud and breathing very heavy and then laid on his side, this went on for a couple minutes. It was clear that he was dieing. His eyes started to pop out of his head. He gave a last, very deep breath and then a long groan on the exhale and died. His eyes were glazed over too. We just stood there astonished. Marc said he had never seen that before. The bull is only 5 years old and healthy except for his broke penis.

At least 2 minutes went by and he started breathing again. Slow, big gasps. I said, "Can you believe this?!" Then his breaths became more and more normal. He's still laying on his side. Feet straight out and stiff. Marc went and got the hot shot to try and get him up. It didn't seem to work. Marc said, "well let's just leave him and he'll be dead for sure later." Couple seconds later he sits up on his side and starts looking around. Couldn't believe it. Came back a few hours later and he's standing. Went out about an hour ago and he was standing there looking normal. Strange to say the least.


Must have been a stroke or seizure?
 
Had a similar thing happen to an older horse. The kids came racing into the yard, one riding him and the other on a different horse, hollering that he had been bit by a rattlesnake. He did just like your bull did. I thought sure he was dead but in a bit he got back to his feet. All I could think was that he had a heart attack or something from the venom. He lived quite a few years after that.
 
Jinglebob said:
Had a similar thing happen to an older horse. The kids came racing into the yard, one riding him and the other on a different horse, hollering that he had been bit by a rattlesnake. He did just like your bull did. I thought sure he was dead but in a bit he got back to his feet. All I could think was that he had a heart attack or something from the venom. He lived quite a few years after that.
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Never thought of a snake.
 
Soapweed said:
JF Ranch said:
Wow! That's quite a story.

I sorta hate to speculate, but could the snake have bit him in the P.... ?

Makes me queazy at the thought of it!

I hope you give us a progress report.
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A deer fly is bad enough. :wink: :)
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:lol2: :lol2: :lol2: :lol2: :lol2: :lol2: :lol2:


:help:
 
I think it was a stress thing. I have seen similiar things happen. I don't know just how it works but think they might produce to much adrenaline or something. You have probably heard about toxic shock in dogs that try to work to intently. Cattle usually try to pass urine as a way to release waste, then may go down and get sulky. Have seen this happen when you try to work cattle with a horse, that have never been around horses. I believe it is best when they get sulky that way to just leave them alone. If this bull recovers, I wouldn't be surprised if he shows symptoms of founder.
 
Had a cow once with a nerve damaged in her back from other cows riding her when she came in heat. If you smacked her in just the right place on her back hip she'd sieze up in a very similar manner. She went down in the creek on the way to the barn and laid there all day. Took 2 days to get her to the barn.

In all the ruckus that cause the broke penis....others could have ridden him down and hurt his spine and ya'll just happen to hit the right spot.
 
We had a heifer calf that would shake, roll her eyes and pass out whenever we put her in the headgate. It was like a panic attack. After she did it a couple of times, we just handled her very quietly and she was OK.

Our big problem is that we forgot about it completely when we were picking replacements and we kept the darn thing for a cow! :oops: :D :D :D First scour vaccination, and down she went! Other than this problem,she's a really good animal, so we always handle her quietly now with no more passing out. Actually I think she might be growing out of it, because now that she's older she can handle the chute a lot better. We just make a point of not catching her head.
 
Some good thoughts here.

Our neighbor (an animal lover) had an old Gelbvieh bull that had been injured fighting. (Never pick on young guys when you get old!!)

One day when it was raining, she found him down in the corral in mud. She was frantic. I said to leave him alone, but she insisted on getting onto dry ground. We put a log chain carefully about his neck and she hooked the other end to her four-wheel drive Dodge and eased ahead. The bull slid down hill about 50 feet real easy, but when we took to chain off, he stiffened up, peed all he had in him, rolled his eyes up and quit breathing.

"Damn, we have killed him," I said. And as we stood there looking at him for a minute or two, I ws expecting the neighbor to start railing on me. Suddenly, he picked his head up, took a deep breath and looked around as if nothing had happened.

The neighbor covered him with a tarp and carried food and water to him for a couple of weeks. Once she talked me into helping him get on his feet. We actually got him up. He stood there like a tree getting ready to topple over, then crashed to the ground. I walked off and told her to do the bull a favor and put him down - which she did about a week later.

P. S. The bull originally could get up and down after he was hurt, so we couldn't figure why he had finally gotten to the point where neither of his hind legs worked. We found out 9 months and 10 days later. The cow he was with gave birth to a nice bull calf. The old bull had injured his second leg breeding one last cow.
 

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