December through March seems to be the worst months for attending to starvation cases. Winter in Maine shows no mercy to those animals that don't hibernate. This winter, a state humane agent had a starved miniature horse trucked to the clinic for emergency care. Even though the filly could still stand, she was literally skin and bones. The trucker, a cattle dealer from Pennsylvania, made a very perceptive comment. He said, “Look how tight the skin is over the bones. If the horse had just lost this weight over a few weeks as the owner swears, then the skin should be loose!” A very astute observation, I thought. She died the next day.

In February, Mr. M. came to the clinic for a confidential meeting with me. It seems that a family in his church needed to borrow money from him and they had about 20 horses that he had concerns abut. He told me that he didn't know much about horses, but that there was some hay out for the horses in their pasture.

“Is that okay for them?” he asked.

I replied, “Probably not for the following three reasons.”

“First, you must always remember that a group of animals will have a pecking order. This is very significant for the animals at the top of the pecking order will eat well whereas those at the bottom will be the first to starve.”

“Secondly, not all hay is the same quality. Remember the history of the British navy and scurvy. They had plenty of food but not enough food with vitamin C so that their sailors would die of scurvy during long voyages. By taking limes on their ships they could prevent scurvy, hence the nickname “Limey”. Likewise, horses fed poor quality hay can suffer from vitamin and mineral deficiencies, i.e. Vitamin A, Vitamin E and Selenium.”

“Thirdly, not all horses can tolerate the cold temperatures as well. A fat Morgan horse with a thick winter coat may not need to produce more body heat until the temperature reaches 30 degrees Fahrenheit, whereas a thin Thoroughbred with a poor winter coat may have to produce more body heat at 40 degrees Fahrenheit. This same fat Morgan horse when it becomes very old with Cushing's disease will have a change in critical temperature that may require it to produce extra body heat at 40 degrees Fahrenheit. And this same Thoroughbred on a cold, windy, rainy day may need to produce more body heat at a temperature of 45 degrees Fahrenheit. Cold horses will shiver.”

A photo of Topper, one of my own ponies, in the never ending Maine snow.

This has been one of the coldest and snowiest winters in my 30 years in Maine. I've posted a few photos of my "East View" farm where the snow has been endless this year.

Cattle can sleep standing up and lying down often with eyes open. However, they don't experience REM sleep due to evolutionary pressures – herbivores are eaten by carnivores. (They can experience REM when sleeping lying down) This means that they must always be on the defense – day and night.

The January full moon was called the “Wolf moon” because of the sounds the wolves made while hunting at night outside of the Native American villages.

A few weeks ago, I was startled by a loud joyous chorus of voices coming from the woods behind my home. The source of the sounds puzzled me at first, then I realized that they were from coyotes likely pursuing an unlucky deer. Suddenly, the sounds ended – the coyotes are probably eating well during this particularly hard winter. For more information on wolves and caribou, read Never Cry Wolf by Farley Mowat.

I remember the lecture a Quebec wildlife veterinarian delivered at a Maine Veterinary Medical Association meeting in the mid 1970's. He explained that the wolves were critical in maintaining the health of the caribou herds. Every day the wolves gave the caribou a “physical exam” which resulted in the elimination of the weak and sick caribou. The wolves also kept the caribou moving thus preventing overgrazing and reducing the ingestion of parasites within their range.

During a routine farm chore one summer day, Eugene Andrews, along with his two grown sons and the farm dog, went into the cow pasture to drive a freshening (about to give birth) heifer into the barn. Eugene never saw the young Jersey bull coming up behind him. Knocked to the ground, he told me that he didn't think that he could last long as the bull crushed his chest against the ground. Alden, Scott, and Skeeter, a Border collie, were able to drive the bull away in time to save Eugene. The bull was just protecting his cows.

The final point of consideration before entering a cow pasture is that not all breeds of cattle are docile. Herefords have an easy going temperament, but Texas Longhorns can be very excitable.

 
These docile Hereford are resting at a farm in West Gardiner at the intersection of High street and Hinkly road.  Remember that they are not so docile when they have calves with them.  One year on this road there were 3 calves and a horse diagnosed with rabies on different farms.

Incredibly, Adam would not believe me! By the time my oldest son was sixteen he had gone on many farm calls. Dehorning, delivering calves, rectal exams and treating sick cows were all part of his childhood memories. He was always instructed to mind his barn manners and assist me as needed, i.e. holding nose tongs or cranking the calf puller. Whenever we drove through the countryside, I would educate or quiz him on breeds, type, and age of cattle.

But one day while driving by the Clemedow Dairy Farm, sixteen-year-old Adam casually mentioned that some of his high school friends had gone cow-tipping.

 “Adam,” I blurted out, “There is no such thing as cow-tipping!”

“But, Dad, my friends said that you can sneak up on them at night when they are sleeping and push them over.”

“Adam,” I reasoned, “When did you ever go on a farm call with me and see a cow that you thought that you could walk up to and push over?”

 But all my logic failed to convince him. The entire incident was forgotten until Adam was about twenty-five years old and sent me this URL: www.timesonline.co.uk/printfriendly/0,,1-2-1858146-2,00 (cow-tipping myth hasn’t got a leg to stand on – Britain-Times Online) Adam wrote, “Wow, Dad, you were right!” Mark Twain once observed that as teenagers grow up they begin to see the “old man” as smarter.

When I was asked to speak to a high school class I decided to make copies of this cow-tipping myth article for the students. After my presentation on the myth of cow-tipping, one young lady in the back of the room asked, “Are you sure?” Then she gave the names of the two boys who claimed to have tipped cows. And so, the urban legend lives on!

Dr. Margo Lillie at the University of British Columbia and her student Tracy Boechlen did a wonderful analysis of the physics of cow-tipping. They concluded that it would take 2.07 people to tip a static cow, with the caveat that it would not resist or move!

As a veterinarian, there were times when I needed to drop a cow to the ground for the purpose of rolling the cow to correct a twisted uterus (usually counter-clockwise) or a displaced stomach (abomasum-LDA—as in counter-clockwise position). Most of the time this did help the cows. In order to drop, or “cast,” a cow, I would administer an intravenous sedative in the tail vein then use a lariat to squeeze a cow down.

Google “cow-tipping myths” to find many interesting articles, and even You Tube videos.

Florida news reporter Eddie Glenn did a very good article on “Cow-tipping: Myth or Reality.” <tahlequahdailypress.com/features/local_story_349092342.html> Tahlequah large animal veterinarian Bill Elliott perhaps didn’t take Glenn’s research very seriously.

“We can’t vouch for the accuracy of the following quotes from Elliott: ‘Cow-tipping? Yeah, we’ve gone out and found entire herds on their sides,’ he said. ‘We try to put them back upright, pointing toward the North Star if it’s nighttime, and toward the east during the day, so they can find their bearings. There are always empty beer cans around, but we can’t tell if they’ve been consumed by the cows or the people who tipped them.’”

And so, the urban legend lives on!

A typical Maine barn built in the late nineteenth century. Note stone foundation used to raise the barn floor to create a cellar. Also, stonework used to create a ramp to the main front door and to the cattle door. This barn is located on Route 32 near Round Pond, Maine. Often new twentieth century milk barns were added to the side of the old barn.

A small herd of Jersey cows have been kept at the Cecil Johnson farm in Wales, Maine, for making butter. This is a typical Maine pasture with a stone wall. Note that this cow was never dehorned.