Our annual Vet day has come. Christina needed her annual TB test and pepper needed all his baby work: immunizations, dehorned, and castrated.
We started with Christina. She immediately knew something was up. She huffed and bounced her rear end away from the Vet whenever he came near. She really can move very quickly. But he got a hold of her and she got a shot. My husband and I put our hands on her side to calm her and I could feel her trembling. Poor Christina.
Then she was done and it was pepper's turn. As soon as we got him tied up, Christina got upset again. She huffed and mooed.
While the Vet worked pepper's back end, I put my arm around his neck and told him how he was being promoted to a steer, just like jerky. It must have impressed him because he didn't fight as much as you would assume.
But he did fight about the horns. His horns are so little they didn't need to be cut, just burned. The hot iron burns the horn bed so they won't grow. It singed the hair and made a bad smell.
Finally it was over and pepper just stood there, posing with his new horn work all done.
When we turned pepper back into the pasture, Christina tried diligently to get to him for a comforting lick. She tried to stick her head through the gate. She ran over to the fence. She struck her head through the feeder to get to him. But that little pepper did not present for a licking. Naughty calf.
The Vet said that Christina doesn't look skinny to him, pretty normal for a cow at her stage of lactation. That was comforting.
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