Castle Bottom Lookers

Castle Bottom Lookers

Friday 27 April 2012

All cows and ponies healthy

Hello All,
Just seen all the cattle together (ish) and the ponies not too far off too. The Little Calf was tricky to spot at first but was found wandering nearby and soon caught up with the rest of the herd. One thing we did spot was a small bald patch on one of the adult cows, which I haven't seen before (pic below). It didn't look sore, there were no flies or maggots to be seen, and the cow was walking and grazing as normal, so I don't think there is anything to be overly worried about, but it is definately something to keep an eye on.
Hope you're not all getting too wet in the rain, we somehow missed all the showers today!
Natalie

Wednesday 11 April 2012

The Little Calf

Thanks everyone for keeping your eyes out for the little calf, just to put your minds at rest I saw him this afternoon.  It seems he likes to spend a fair bit of his time alone and hidden deep in the mire, making it very hard for you lookers to locate him.  He is eating, wandering about and healthy so even though none of you has seen him in a while there really is nothing to worry about.

All we can really do is continue to keep an eye out -when you post on the blog continue to let us know if you have/haven't seen him and we will also continue to go out regularily to check on them all as well!  We'll keep you updated every time we see him (we'll go wading in the mire if we have too), and hopefully over time he may start to spend more time with the rest of the herd!


In the mean time -we know you all worry but please try not to worry too much it seems he's just a bit of a loner!

All the other cows and ponies were fine as well!

Thursday 5 April 2012

All Present and Correct!

The livestock were checked today and thankfully, all the animals were located....even the elusive calf! They all seem to be doing well grazing near to the corral. They followed me for a short time "mooing" gently before leaving me. I met some of our Lookers on-site, which was very reassuring, to know the animals are being checked regularly. You do tend to get quite attached to them over the months. Our bull decided to have a nice scratch on one of our signs, so no doubt this will need replacing at some point. They seem to find the new signs irresistible! I got a nice shot of some of the herd, so here they are....


Sunday 1 April 2012

10 Highlands now remain on Castle Bottom

Sadly, the Highlands this year have not coped very well during their first week at Castle Bottom. It is thought that they were brought onto the site unwell, perhaps with a mineral deficiency, or other illness/weakness. As soon as the cows were introduced to the site, one pregnant female lay down and was unable to get up. After a couple of days of monitoring her, and trying to help her stand, she was then removed from the site by her owner, to be seen by a vet. Sadly, she did not respond to medical help, and had to be put down a few days later.
A few of the other cows seemed similarly weak, and had to be rescued from the mire as they could not get out by themselves. All cows were successfully rescued from the mire, and were closely monitored for the following days. During the cattle check on Wednesday afternoon, one cow was missing, and was found dead at 7pm (many thanks to the vigilant walkers that found her and called her in). On Friday, a second cow was found dead in similar circumstances. It is still a mystery as to the cause of death of these cows. Possible causes of sudden death in cattle include magnesium deficiency and a clostridial infection.
The remaining 10 cows appear to be healthy and sticking together (with the exception of one very independent young brown calf), but will need to be closely monitored for the coming weeks. The rangers will be out looking for them as often as they can, but ask that volunteers please check them as thoroughly as possible during checks, and let us know as soon as possible if any are missing/showing signs of distress.
Kinds regards,
Ranger Natalie