A farmer came by told me he lost a cow. He said that he had to pull a calf that was dead. Dragged the calf about 200yd. off
to the tree line. He stayed with the cow all night, come daylight he went home. The cow had gotten back on her feet during the night. When the farmer went to check on the cow it
was dead. It had went to the dead calf, something had taking
it down kill it and started eating the side of the cow. He had
a vet. pull the calf and gave it some med. The only place the cow was tore up was on the ribcage there were no tears or bite
marks any place eles. What do you guys think? P.S. this is the second cow killed this way and eaten.

If there were no other injuries to the cow than at the ribcage then I would say that the cow died on her own and something else came along and took advantage of the free meal. I would think that there would have to be some injury around her neck if it were a predator.

That is what I thought, I told the farmer that there should be some cuts or other marks around the neck and hind end. He said there was no other marks. I didn't argue with him, told him that me and Dinger would go see what we could find.

Sounds like Sigourney Weaver's been playing with his cows to me,,, don't take Ronnie out there,, bad enough things already come outta his belly,,

Usually there will be bite/claw marks on the hind legs if it's canine or bite/claw marks around the neck/throat area if it's feline. If the cow had gotten back down after the farmer left, predators wouldn't have necessarily waited til she expired to start eating on her, although they start in the 'soft' areas, ie the paunch, loin areas. JMO.

well there could have been internal bleeding that might have killed the cow could have been some kind of infection that the vet missed i too think the cow probly died before somthing started eating on it just my 2 cents worth

I would say the cow died and something ate on it. I don't think any predators killed it.Besides it didnt get drug up a tree!

Well Dinger and I went out to look at the cow. We both think it
died on its own and some thing just started feeding on it. Never
seen a shoulder ate out to the bone. You can see all the shoulder
joint and about foot of bone plus 1/3 of the rib cage.

So...

Did you find a good place to sit? I'd be coming back to watch that one.

So... I have never seen that before. Didn't know I was borring you.
Sorry!!! You don't have to come back nothing to see.

Well I think Eddie read something into Toms post I didnt hear, no Tom there is not a very good place to get very close. Its very wide open, hard to get there and not be seen. We are thinking we may be getting into a neighbor squabble, about dogs, so we are going to very carefull on the way we hunt it.

Eddie, no matter how it died, everything will eat on it. I think what nikonut meant was are you planning on setting up over the bait?

You don't always have to set on the cow either. They gotta come from somewhere and usually a good place to ambush em can be found. You know where they will be, now all you need to know is when. Course it may be too late already, I've seen em clean up a cow pretty quick.

We think it may be a domestic.

Sounded like it to me and most of the time it usually is. Coyotes will eat but rarely kill calves and even more rare is for them to take on a cow.

That still doesn't mean coyotes won't stop by for a snack and get blamed.

Dogs however kill for fun or at least run them till they can't run no more.

I would bet the cow was back down after the night before. Might of not been dead when what ever started eating on her.

We have all heard about coyotes killing calves, I asked Carrol Ray who has worked the Duncan/Bueford ranch all his life and he is around 60 now if he had ever seen it he just smiled and said I have never seen a calf that was healthy killed by coyotes and unless the momma left it even sick ones are not eaten until dead. I myself have watched coyotes run like he** from cows and have just quit trying to tell people any different year now I just tell'em to let me kill off the coyotes around the cows and they will be able to sleep in peace knowing the horrible killers wont be eating there poor little cows anymore. Hope you guys get to smoke a few off the dead cow, it's my favorite stlye to hunt them cause you can set up way out there and practise your sniper skills and if you miss you didnt make them call shy either

good post waylon

Thank you sir

In my experiences ... it was neither cougar nor coyote that killed the cow. But most likely coyotes, coy dogs or wild dogs that began eating the cow once down.

Chances are, as with a lot of our cows that have gone down during birth ... she prolapsed and tore a gut ... which bled her out internally and dropped her back down. Once down and unable to get back up ... consumption began.

I have seen coyotes kill calves, but not a grown cow, and never a calf when the momma cow is close to the calf. However, I have also never seen a coyote kill before consumption or predation. All I have witnessed have always began consuming the calf alive until enough was torn from the calf to either bring it down due to muscle loss, exhaustion or blood loss.

Looked just about like that.