'Stew the Steer' muscled his way out of his luxury accommodations in the barn, got into the feed room and helped himself to THIRTY POUNDS of corn from a 50 pound sack! Granted, he eats about twenty pounds a day now, but that extra 10 pounds got him sicker than a dog. Technically, it's called, 'Over Graining.'
So, after two days spent laying around 'digesting' Beau got a hold of our Vet and Dr. Hannah sold him $250.00 worth of meds; one huge tube of an oral probiotic, one shot for a big vitamin recovery dose and one for pain. Today he was up and walking around and finally ate some hay and drank water.
Repairs have once AGAIN been made to his enclosure and the feed room door is now tightly shut. Unless Stew suddenly sprouts thumbs, he can't get in there again. It was touch and go there - he easily could've died because too much corn can overwhelm a steers system! So, counting our blessings today. And, yes - I realize we're going to EAT HIM in the future, but he's still a 1,000 pound TODDLER right now, and we want him at 1,500-1,800 pounds by spring...if we all survive that long, LOL!
Fun Related Cow Fact: One of a cow's four stomachs is called the 'Rumen.' That's where the word, 'Ruminate' comes from.
Ruminate(v.)
1530s, of a person, "to turn over in the mind, muse, meditate, think again and again;" 1540s, "to chew cud;" from Latin ruminatus, past participle of ruminare "to chew the cud," also "turn over in the mind," from rumen (genitive ruminis) "gullet," a word of uncertain origin. Related: Ruminated; ruminating; ruminative.
I'm sure Stew is now 'ruminating' on what he's done...and wishing he hadn't!
I rendered the Christmas turkey carcasses a couple days ago. That pot is warming on the banjo cooker in the barn now. I've got a pot of veggies softening on the kitchen stove to add to it, and a couple cans of cheap biscuits for dumplings. There isn't anything much better on a cold day than a bowl of turkey dumpling soup.
I caught our orange tabby cat Oliver - one of the two that I saved from starvation a few years ago - peeing blood in Mrs. Augie's favorite chair yesterday afternoon so we dropped him off at the vet clinic this morning. Hopefully it's nothing serious. They're keeping him over the weekend so we should know what's up with that on Monday. Howard is laying on his cushion next to the space heater gnawing on his jumbo size Beneful wishbone and looking quite content.
Got the MRI done on my thoracic spine on the 31st. Everyone was expecting to see bulged disk/bone spur/arthritis type stuff, but that's not what they found. I don't know yet if it's good or bad comparatively, but they *think* what they're seeing is a pair of non-lipid hemangiomas - one on T2 and another on T12. My follow-up appt. with the spine doc is a couple weeks out so for now it's just waiting and trying to manage the pain.
If it feels halfway decent this afternoon I might try to do some pruning on my orchard trees. I bought a pole lopper so I don't have to play on the ladder to reach the higher branches. I didn't prune them last winter and it needs to be done before they get too far out of control. We'll see I guess.