Results

This photo shows a steer that doesn’t feel very well.  He has a sluggish walk to him, he carries his head down, and he is not very bright eyed.  This picture was taken early in the morning.  After putting the camera up, he was injected with prescribed drugs.

This next photograph of the same steer was taken on the same day, but late into the afternoon. Note the remarked improvement in his health.  He was actually coming up to the pickup truck wanting some feed.  This was a result of doctoring him early when the symptoms first appeared by use of a dart.  I avoided the stress he would have undergone if I had run him a half of a mile by horseback into the squeeze chute for medication.

The first picture of  #76 shows a steer that had not received additional antibiotics since their arrival 31 days prior.  After a period of rest for two days, they were processed. This entails administering vaccines, antibiotics, castration, dehorning, deworming and treating them for external pests.

The steer contracted what I refer to as “quick pneumonia.”  If not treated immediately, he will be dead within 24 hours.  During this last week, I had been checking the health and feeding them only once a day as opposed to twice a day during the initial three weeks.  I thought I was over the “hump” as far as having anymore heath problems.

This steer was fine the previous day, had a healthy appetite and showed no symptoms of being ill.  (In photo 2 note the yellow discharge in the corner of his eyes, which I might have missed)  After I fed and checked them that day, a cold rain and high winds moved in.

On this next day, he was laid out with his head on the ground, coughing, breathing hard, and had a dull look in his eyes.  He weaved somewhat after being aroused by the first set of darts with prescribed drugs.

The rest of the 85 cattle in the pasture had been surrounding ole # 76, and were eating in the feed troughs located about 75 yards away from him and doing fine.  He did not move the entire time I was feeding and counting the healthy cattle.

This next picture shows him standing after being darted. Dart placement of this shot is in the neck, where the drugs will enter the blood stream promptly.

As the shot was made, the gel collar attached to the stainless steel needle of the dart holds the dart in the animal while the medicine is deployed.  The body temperature present will dissolve this collar, and the dart will fall out in a time span of 15 to 45 minutes.  This type of injection seems not to cause any more pain than conventional means.  I have had many cattle (in an earlier stage of sickness than this one) go right back to eating with the rest of the bunch, paying no attention to the dart dangling from it.  Sometimes the other cattle find it interesting though, as they sniff and lick it.

With his critical condition, I also loaded a 10cc dart to give him another dose of medication on the opposite side of his neck.  Note in the next picture the dart placement is positioned low on the neck, below the heavy muscled area where some loose skin is present.

The following morning shows a photo of #76.  It is very foggy; visibility is only 100 yards.  The cattle were scattered all over the 160 acres, for when I honked the horn to call them, they came from every direction.  Given the condition of #76 the previous day when first observed and darted, I had serious doubts about him coming, and was concerned about finding him in such dense fog.  (If he was still alive) He felt much better. 

The last photo listed is what I consider to be a poor shot placement as it struck near the point of the shoulder.  It happened due to a combination of the steer moving and a light wind.  On this particular shot the steer was being “led”.  The sight was just behind his jawbone when the shot took place, however the combination of the aforementioned resulted in this dart placement.  It worked out fine, for this in an intermuscular injection. Had the dart hit another three inches to the right, where the skin is loose behind the shoulder, it would have been a suitable site for a sub-q injection.  The main thing was the medication did its work, and the steer was never darted again.