Help with a crazy steer

My steer this year is for lack of a better word, a complete nutcase. I've worked with him a ton, and he's really good with me. He really trusts me, he sets up well, leads good, and all that stuff. But if anyone else goes near him, he immediately gets really heads up and will run as far away as he can get. His whole body shakes, I've never seen an animal react like that before. Because I'm the only one in my family with cattle, I'm the one handling him all the time. My parents have been coming out and scratching him and stuff when I have him tied up, but even when he's tied he gets all shaky, and within about 5 minutes his crap is complete liquid, even if it was good before. If I lead him out of his corral he just spooks at anything at all. The other day he saw a snow pile and refused to go any farther up the driveway. I took him to the a jackpot in March, hoping that he might calm down for the show, but he refused to eat and drink the whole time. I could barely show him and he wouldn't let the judge or anyone else get behind or near him. It was just really embarrassing and I was pretty much ready to kill him. I've put a radio in the barn so he gets used to other noise, but he's pretty freaked out by it. Today I was leading him up my drieway and my parents came to towards me to talk and he jumped away, went through a big snow pile, through a barbed wire fence and ran around the pasture until we finally got him back into his corral.

He's also not eating or gaining very well because he's just so high strung.

I've put a ton of work into him, but I'm honestly just ready to send him to the auction mart. I'd at least like to show him at my 4-H show on May 25, so that I can sell him, but if he's going to be dangerous then I'm not going to risk taking him. When I bought him he was not broke, but he was really quiet, now he's just a nervous wreck.

I've never used Melatonin or Ace, but I'm thinking one of them may be my last option. What are the differences in the drugs, how do you know which one to use, and what dose do you give? Any other ideas on how to deal with the steer?

We had a steer like that last year - always "on alert" & wary of strangers.  Read on SP about giving 100mg Melatonin daily & tried it - really made a difference for us.  He was still very alert but didn't go postal all the time.

Larissa, I was going to suggest the same thing.  Use a calming agent on a daily basis and see if he makes progress.  I have heard however that Ace can have on opposite effect on some cattle, so I may steer clear of that.  Good luck.  Another product that has worked well for us in the past is Peace Pellets from Sullivan's.  I believe the active ingredient is Triptophan.  It is something that they would have to eat (very, very small amount everyday) and if eating is a problem....  Good luck.  It sounds like you are doing the right things.  As for the radio in the barn I would leave it in there.  He will eventually get used to it.

I would start with 100mg a day (33 @3mg) and then increase or decrease depending on how he reacts to it. We had a steer that was the same way, the pills helped him quite a bit, he still was alert just took enough edge off he did not panic. Have also had one calm down enough that he no longer needed the melatonin once he realized nothing was going to hurt him.

A friend of mine told me about this product.  http://oxyinfo.com/zen/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=23_26&products_id=104
She said she tried it on a bull she was halter breaking and it was the best day had ever had working with him.  Like your steer, he was just a nervous calf.  She just used half of the recommended dose. 

The  melatonin works. If he won't eat the pills in his food get a syringe mash them down into powder add water and try to give it to him that way. I've never seen ace have any adverse effects, but as far as I know that's a drug only obtainable from a vet. Good luck!

Grow and Shine will work will work as well if you have problems with the pills.  I have also put the pills in bolus capsule.  G-Luck

Thanks for all of the advice! I'll try Melatonin first (because it's the most accessible) and go from there. We have a mock achievement day/ demo day on the weekend, so I'll start giving it to him tonight and see how he acts on Satuday.

willow said:

Larissa, I was going to suggest the same thing.  Use a calming agent on a daily basis and see if he makes progress.  I have heard however that Ace can have on opposite effect on some cattle, so I may steer clear of that.  Good luck.  Another product that has worked well for us in the past is Peace Pellets from Sullivan's.  I believe the active ingredient is Triptophan.  It is something that they would have to eat (very, very small amount everyday) and if eating is a problem....  Good luck.  It sounds like you are doing the right things.  As for the radio in the barn I would leave it in there.  He will eventually get used to it.

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Actually the half life of tryptophan is only about 3 hrs.  If its hit its half life at 3 hrs, then after 6 hrs it should be inactive in their system. 


Id tie his head to a poll 12 hrs a day with a blaring radio.. I had a steer in HS the same way.  I would tie him up every second I wasn't either asleep or working with him..  He would be so thankful to be untied he'd be on his best behavior when Id untie him..

-XBAR- said:

willow said:

Larissa, I was going to suggest the same thing.  Use a calming agent on a daily basis and see if he makes progress.  I have heard however that Ace can have on opposite effect on some cattle, so I may steer clear of that.  Good luck.  Another product that has worked well for us in the past is Peace Pellets from Sullivan's.  I believe the active ingredient is Triptophan.  It is something that they would have to eat (very, very small amount everyday) and if eating is a problem....  Good luck.  It sounds like you are doing the right things.  As for the radio in the barn I would leave it in there.  He will eventually get used to it.

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Actually the half life of tryptophan is only about 3 hrs.  If its hit its half life at 3 hrs, then after 6 hrs it should be inactive in their system. 


Id tie his head to a poll 12 hrs a day with a blaring radio.. I had a steer in HS the same way.  I would tie him up every second I wasn't either asleep or working with him..  He would be so thankful to be untied he'd be on his best behavior when Id untie him..

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Thanks XBAR, I've been putting him in the barn with the radio blasting and fan going all day for about a week and he's now okay with both of those things (took him a few days though). I tie him up from 5-8pm daily and then lead him from about 8-9pm. As long as I work with him by myself in either the barn or his corral he's awesome for me, but if there's someone anywhere near us or I take him outside of the corral/barn, that's when he goes nuts. I'm scared to tie him up when I'm not around just on the odd chance that he might spook unexpectedly and hurt/strangle himself. I'm not usually worried about them acting like that, but he's just too unpredictable for me to feel comfortable risking that.

Larissa... I'm late on this one but you didn't say is the steer alone in the pen?  Has he calmed down?  If not IF you can find the calmest most gentle animal you can find to put in there with him.
The best way to tame a crazy animal is to find a calm one to work with first at the same time. (maybe a strange person working with that one)  Also have a friend with you each time if you can when you're working with him.
Put the radio on a more talk program too not crazy loud music... sometimes I think that makes them worse.  Don't tie him up when the friend is around just both of you walk around and slowly try to maybe work with him on the halter.  Hope this helps.  Very common steers getting attached to the one person.  Good luck!

I had the same problem with a heifer of mine a while back. No amount of calming aid helped until I got a donkey and chained them together. As strange as this may sound it really works, and with in 3 days complete strangers were able to walk up to her and lead her around.

Thanks for all the advice, I took him to my mini show after getting 100mg of melatonin for two days, and he was a lot better than I had expected. He was still very alert and a bit nervous, but he let other people touch him and was able to relax enough for me to handle him.

kobo_ranch said:

Larissa... I'm late on this one but you didn't say is the steer alone in the pen?  Has he calmed down?  If not IF you can find the calmest most gentle animal you can find to put in there with him.
The best way to tame a crazy animal is to find a calm one to work with first at the same time. (maybe a strange person working with that one)  Also have a friend with you each time if you can when you're working with him.
Put the radio on a more talk program too not crazy loud music... sometimes I think that makes them worse.  Don't tie him up when the friend is around just both of you walk around and slowly try to maybe work with him on the halter.  Hope this helps.  Very common steers getting attached to the one person.  Good luck!

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Thanks kobo_ranch, he had a buddy with him, but I recently switched to a different animal in hopes that this one will help him calm down. On the weekend one of my friends came out and we worked with him a bit. The first day he was really jumpy around her, but the second day he was a lot better and let her touch him while I held the halter. Once I tied him up he wouldn't let her near him but was fine with me. We were wearing very similar clothing and are the same size, so I was hoping that he might allow her to get near him, but as soon as he was tied he didn't trust her anymore. I've switched the radio station to a mostly news and country channel. The radio does not phase him anymore.

TexanGertGirl said:

I had the same problem with a heifer of mine a while back. No amount of calming aid helped until I got a donkey and chained them together. As strange as this may sound it really works, and with in 3 days complete strangers were able to walk up to her and lead her around.

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Thanks for the info, there are no donkeys in my area, that I know of, but I may have to go find one if worst comes to worst!

A few more questions that hopefully someone can help me with: Are there any effects of long term use of melatonin and is there a withdrawal time before he can be butchered? 

I don't think there's a withdrawal time. It's naturally occurring.

*Pick yourself up some melatonin. Take 20mg before bed. You'll have a wicked vivid trip dream.

TexanGertGirl said:

I had the same problem with a heifer of mine a while back. No amount of calming aid helped until I got a donkey and chained them together. As strange as this may sound it really works, and with in 3 days complete strangers were able to walk up to her and lead her around.

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Wonder if I could use this method on a 2yr old heifer??

You could. just make sure you get a large donkey. I have tried the donkey method on an older heifer and it still worked like a charm.
If you have any mmore questions about this just let me know. (thumbsup)

There are no side effects from the melatonin, it is also used to promot hair growth, fed to the animals for at least the last 90 days prior to their final show. There are no withdraw periods and it is not a substance that is tested for. I think you need to just keep doing what your doing, keep working him into different situations slowly, and let him find out that it is all okay.
I would bump him up to 120 mg on days that he is going to be shown, feet trimmed, or there is extra amounts of activity and see if he is more relaxed. The 100 mg is what we fed daily just for the hair, it may take more to get him to his happy place.

You might try and feed him Glu-Coat, we fed it to a steer that had some issues (similar to your calves) we knew we had our work cut out for us by the the fact that he already had a soar jaw from fighting the halter at the sale. We had worked with him for a month with some success but it was a very slow process, it was suggested that we try the glu-coat. After about 2 weeks on Glu-coat his attitude took a sudden change for the better and stayed that way the rest of the time, we kept him on it the whole time. The calf would not let you touch him, when we brought him home you could not use the blower on him past his hip, he did not like the comb or anything else, between just working through it and the glu-coat, he went from climbing the rail to letting my son blowout his head. It may not help your steer but if it does it sure makes it easier.

TexanGertGirl said:

You could. just make sure you get a large donkey. I have tried the donkey method on an older heifer and it still worked like a charm.
If you have any mmore questions about this just let me know. (thumbsup)

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Yeah, she is a big heifer w/ a mind of her own.  I have never had one this high strung before.  I need to try something.