Farm Fresh Blog

Remember Bully the Blind Bull?

  Read: Hindsight

We shot him up on antibiotics and gave him a month.  If Bully did not show a marked improvement within the month it would take the antibiotics to get out of his system, we would have to butcher him. Life on a ranch is simply too dangerous with a blind bull. Today was Bully's due date with the butcher.

We've watched him closely. He was separated and placed in a board arena with a "Seeing Eye Cow" and we saw a bit of improvement. He could navigate the arena and was gaining weight again.  Last week we turned the girls back in with him. He did fine navigating them.  Today he proved to us that he could see a little. We turned them loose in an area with a pond. I worried that Bully would fall in the pond and drown, but he did fine. I'm not sure how much he can see, but part of his vision appears to have returned. Most of the blue is gone, but you can still tell that some is there.  The important thing is that he can see us and can navigate the pasture again.  The infection appears to have gone. The rest of the herd is fine.

So we made the decision to keep a bull calf from this year's crop (just in case), and cancel Bully's appointment with the butcher.  For now, this fella has dodged the bullet.