Silo's and snow

Another morning of silo unloaders that like attention.  Bruce is now thinking the corn silage unloader needs taking apart and cleaning.  Perhaps the grease isn't getting where it needs to go and it's sticking.  The vet visit was a pleasant surprise this morning in the fact that the cervical prolapse is just something that will happen when she lays down and isn't a serious problem and, at this point, she doesn't have the displaced abomasum (DA) we expected. When there is stress and a feed interruption the abomasum will sometimes fill with gas and then flip over causing a blockage on both sides of it. Bruce compares it to having a ball (feed) in a tube sock.  The weight of the feed keeps it hanging as it should but if you flip it, it twists. Thats what can happen to cows. A common name for this condition is "twisted gut".  If she would have had a DA they have to do surgery to correct it.  So far, so good, but given how she feels we will keep our fingers crossed.  She did test positive for the start of ketosis.  That's not a surprise since it's pretty common also with stress and feed interruption.  When a cow doesn't eat enough it sets up a chain of events that causes ketosis. What happens is that she doesn't get enough energy from the feed she is eating so she starts to rapidly metabolize her fat stores.  This process frees up ketone bodies in her system which cause depression and lack of appetite.  So if this starts it's a vicious cycle....the cow doesn't eat....she feels poorly...she doesn't eat..... Untreated she dies but generally its easily treated with IV glucose and oral propylene glycol.  This condition is critical in human diabetics.  This is why, in dry and fresh cows, keeping them comfortable, happy and eating is critical.  Delivering twins commonly sets this situation in motion.  In the case of the current cow we think the fact she was standing next to a milking cow allowed her to steal the dairy TMR and not eat her dry cow feed.  By the time Bruce got done feeding today he had set the doors down in both the haylage silo here and the silo at Ed's.  Unless one of them gives him trouble he shouldn't have to climb them for awhile.  The haylage silo here has 20 ft in it.  Its nice if we can get it empty by spring.  We have a little more than 3 months til harvest.  Now that the driveways are all open Bruce spent a couple hours cleaning the excess snow out of the goat yard and their feeder.  The dog found it to be great fun since Bruce had to leave a gate open and he was in charge of returning the heifers and goats to where they were supposed to be.