My bull has strayed

[dori36]

<<Last night I had to give him the same shots again.  My bull did not want to get his shots.  I had to take a club to him.  He is moving better..tried to run over me and has never done that before.....he is moving better than me with my knee, but after I broke it on him and chased him around the lot for a good many times and  again a couple more times he went in the chute and just stayed there while Ann got my medicine ready and he took the 6 shots like a man.  Both of us were huffing and puffing...the bull and I, not Ann.  Pickup and car lights and a flashlight are not the best way to do this.......sunshine would have been better but some how it was gone.....the night stole it I think....  It was so dusty I could not see the bull and he could not see me and I missed several times with my stick.......  I really thought after dark I could not see the dust and my a....>>

Don't really mean to be overly critical nor judgemental here, but I've gotta wonder if you could use a better set of alleys leading to your chute.  And, doesn't your chute have a head catch?  Why were you straddling hi m to give the shots?  Thinking more of your safety than being critical but I know that even for my small herd of gentle Lowlines, I have a small  (90 degree) sweep tub with a short alley to a good Priefert chute w/a head catch.  I do all my work alone and wouldn't work cattle any other way.

 

[Joe Boy]

First, I was trying to be funny...

Second, I could not get him out of the small lot into the crowd pen... he acted like he had been in trouble in a crowd pen sometime... when I shot him the first time it was straight from the trailer to the alley. 

Third, My alley is unique.  4 years ago I bought a place that was a show place when I was a kid and bred some of the best horses in the world.  The alley is individual stalls large enough for bulls and horses.  They use to wash horses there.  They have a sliding gate between them and at the ends.  they have side gates.  I get on the gate and stand on both sides of the bull and give him his shots under the skin in the neck in 6 different locations.  He has no problem with the shots.  He only raise his head up and down once in a while.... he is a puppy.... but for some reason he was not going to go into the crowd pens.....  I think it is due to ill treatment while he was missing.

Fourth, thanks for your concern.... i need it..... two bad knees, two shoulder surgeries, one knee surgery, one wrist removed, pinched never in lower back where leg goes to sleep, misplaced finger, and a few other scars show me I ain't what I use to be.. my optometrist said I cannot afford one more hit on the head or I will have to have eye surgery... he said, "Knot head, no more knots on the head" ...  most of my friends wonder what is next....

 

[jason]

Glad you found him, 42 days is a long time.

 

[farmboy]

another example of not giving up  (clapping)

 

[ELBEE]

Joe Boy, we have a guy that lives in our little town reminds me of you. We call him Lucky!

 

[showfordough]

Whoa, I just read through all the pages, 

You are a lucky man sir.

 

[Joe Boy]

I am fortunate.  I was helping a church in Kansas re-roof a house they bought from a doctor in 1992 when a thunderstorm built right above us.  It was a tall steep English style house.  I was trying to get the felt nailed on it and was all the way to the top.  It started raining and I lost my footing and slid down 32 foot to hit on concrete.  I caught all my weigh with my left arm.  Broke at the elbow, and tore everything up but the skin.  My clothes were ripped from me.  It was right across the street from the high school and happen right at noon.  In the ambulance they asked me what doctor I would see and I told them.  Dr. Ball met us and x-rays were taken.  I did not sleep for two days.  Had the monortering equipment on my right arm and IV's.  Every 15 minutes I got my blood pressure taken.  I passed blood from my kidneys.....lots of bone spurs on my spine were broken off, my glutenous maximus was pulled, had hard time breathing, and could not void for a week.  My Dad came and got me, as I told my wife I had a broken arm....did not want her to worry.  I got home on Friday...Dad did not stop to eat and I could eat but had to stop twice to urinate.  Dad turned as white as a sheet and did not speak to me all the way back to Texas.  Mom had died a year before and I know he thought I was going too.  Sunday I taught my class and preached both lessons from a chair.  Until I came hope I could not stand or walk and a friend brought me a walker.  It was a long two years before I could raise my arm above my head.  One month after surgery I called a football game.  My wife altered my shirt to keep my arm held up by a sponge.  One nice fan from the stands yelled after my second roughing the quarterback call, "Take him back to the rest home."  The coach said "If you keep that up (flag throwing) your other arm is going to be like that one."  So, I loved the game and had some good laughs but no one knows what I was going to go through or had already faced.  I went to therapy for two hours every day but Sunday at noon for a full year.  They missed getting one muscle back in the right place and mechanically it will never be right but I manage.  Three years after the accident bone spurs in my right arm cut the bicep muscles and I have only half of a muscle today as they grew together and it frogged often for the first 3 years.  They cut lots of bone out of the way to allow the bone spurs to have room to move and now no doctor will touch it.  It is not pretty when you look at the x-ray.  I still manage to do a days work, it just take a week to do it...ha..  Before all of this I was pretty strong.  I have put a large round bale from the 5 foot John Deere baler in the back of a GMC 4 WD pickup by myself.... now I dug the ground down under each rear wheel, let the chains loose on the tailgate, and used a fence post to get it up off the ground...and got the alfalfa bale in the pickup.....  I have lifted a Holstein dairy cow that had been knocked into a concrete feed trough with her feet straight up in the air out by myself...she broke my nose and glasses but I took her head and neck and rolled her up until she could see what we were trying to accomplish and we won....  I was athletical and played 3 college sports... I ran track, 4:15 mile, and was a catcher on the baseball team after I quit track and lifted weights to hit longer balls, and I let my roommate talk me into playing soccer one season...ripped a groin muscle as the only American on the team....so I have always had a problem with injuries I guess....  Yet, God has blessed me with good health in spite of me.....

 

[shortyisqueen]

Wow, you are one tough cookie!!!!!

 

[afhm]

Do you have before and after pics of the bull so we can see the dramatic changes and monitor his progress.  I am curious how long it will take to get him back in shape.

 

[Telos]

  Afhm, to heck with the before and after pictures of the bull. We need to see the before and after pics of Joe Boy.

  The next time I am in an emergency situation I'm calling Joe Boy direct, before 911. He has more experience dealing with that sort of stuff.

  ...and Joe Boy... How about composing a Spiritual or maybe a Country and Western Song and titling it, My Bull was Lost, but now He is Found. Just an idea.

 

[farmboy]

how far was he from your place?

 

[Joe Boy]

I loved the thought Telos...  thanks for the laugh.... I am not worthy of pictures but have lots of scars...lots....but am fortunate...too many other people do not get the second chances I have had...

He was 1/2 a mile from home.  The bull in the next pasture disappeared a year ago and has not been seen or found....

I have pictures of all my cattle but some are when they were teenagers (in cattle terms) and not a mature photo.  He looks so bad that I do not want to take his picture.  He is improving.  His hair on his legs is coming back but the right rear is still very large half way to his knee.  The knee has gone down.  He drags both back legs to balance himself, I am guessing.