02/11/2025
🐮 Cows and Balloons 🎈
Perhaps this video looks cute and harmless, but it’s not always what it seems. Cows are curious by nature and use their sense of smell and taste to explore the world. Sometimes, that can be detrimental.
As cattlemen, you hear horror stories of cattle choking on balloons and plastic bags or even swallowing them and causing digestive problems but I can honestly say this was my first experience. What the video doesn’t show is the chaos that ensued shortly after while trying to retrieve the balloon.
I knew it was important to keep the heifer relaxed and calm to avoid advancing the balloon further into her mouth but as I pulled into the pasture the cattle assumed that meant feeding time and began to run in excitement. As I scanned the herd looking for the heifer with the balloon, there was no balloon. I quickly scanned the ground where they had run to see if it had come out on its own and again, no balloon. I suspected the worst. I identified the heifer that I thought had the balloon and pulled my rope from the truck cab. With a quick neck loop, I tied off to the trailer hitch (thankfully these herefords are calm) and walked up the rope to her head where she was pulling against it. I could partially see the balloon sticking out the side of her mouth. I had the correct heifer. I grabbed hold of the balloon and pulled it from her mouth as a four foot string trailed the way. It was over. Just like that. I released the heifer and she went about her day just fine but it could have been much worse. I could have found this heifer dead or battled months of digestive issues with slow weight loss not knowing the root cause. As for me, I learned a great lesson in animal husbandry and can verify those horror stories told by cattlemen before me about cows and balloons.