Cow stuck in mud!

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AldacoCattle

AldacoCattle

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Dayton, Texas
This was a fun way to end thanksgiving. Found this lady stuck in mud. We got her out gave her food and water and she’s up walking. Slowly walking but walking. I gave her a shot of Vitajec B, multimin and gave her electrolytes to get her back on her feet. Is there anything else yall recommend I can give her?

I am reaching out to the vet as well. I just like to hear from experienced cattlemen as well.
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AldacoCattle said:
This was a fun way to end thanksgiving. Found this lady stuck in mud. We got her out gave her food and water and she’s up walking. Slowly walking but walking. I gave her a shot of Vitajec B, multimin and gave her electrolytes to get her back on her feet. Is there anything else yall recommend I can give her?

I am reaching out to the vet as well. I just like to hear from experienced cattlemen as well.
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Watch her close and keep her out of the wind. Being wet like that for hours is a real risk of hypothermic reactions, even if it's just the legs. Once an animal gets cold they may have a hard time controlling their own temperature. That can last a long time, well past what you might think it would. She needs to be kept warm.
And she looks underfed, but I see grass in the photos. There may be some other issues.
 
all depends on how long she's been in there and why she got in there in the first place... if she's up and walking, then a few days good food and water and keeping her away from slippery surfaces and you've most likely got your cow. Yes, she will have got cold and got cramped muscles while waiting to be rescued.

See what the vet thinks she may have weakened enough to get stuck because of a pre-existing health condition, or she may have sucked water down the wrong way and got an inhalation pneumonia; if she does have that you'll soon know all about it I haven't always managed to save cows that got inhalation pneumonia when down (milk fever can cause that on dry ground, they can bring up and inhale rumen fluids without you knowing it happened). But antibiotics might save them... and you'll know within a week if she has it, from my experience, or the vet can tell you.
 
If she’s able to stand and eat then that’s a good sign.
Good idea to check with a vet.
She does look thin, do they have a good water source. We have a pond that has gotten low due to dry weather and had a cow get down in it. Pulled her out and she got up after a little while and was ok . Then this spring Jersey cow get down in the mud on the edge of it. Didn’t end well that time. I think the timing of how long they’ve been down plays a major role in the success.
 
If you well meaningly suddenly dump a lot of feed for them they are not used to or change their roughage (I see a bale of compressed alfalfa) it can mess up their rumens and they go off feed. Feed changes need to be made gradually. At least for dairy cows anyway. The fermentation vat of the rumen is a big source of heat for them. I would give her all the grass hay she can eat and go up on the grain gradually, like by a couple of handfulls a day.
 
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I had one a couple months back. She was in similar physical condition and old. Not sure how long she was stuck but it had been six hours since I looked at them. It was close to dark but I got her out and up on the tank dam. After about a hour she stood up and I was thrilled but she didn't act like she wanted to move. During the night she walked 3 or 400 yards out to where the other cows were at but was dead the next morning when I went out to check on her.

I don't have much luck with them. The only one I have saved was the neighbors cow that I mentioned in a previous post. That one I know was stuck at least 8 hours.

The treatment you gave her is probably the best you can do. To see her up and eating is a good sign, just watch for bloat.
 
AldacoCattle said:
This was a fun way to end thanksgiving. Found this lady stuck in mud. We got her out gave her food and water and she’s up walking. Slowly walking but walking. I gave her a shot of Vitajec B, multimin and gave her electrolytes to get her back on her feet. Is there anything else yall recommend I can give her?

I am reaching out to the vet as well. I just like to hear from experienced cattlemen as well.
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So what is the update? Please don't just ask and run... We learn from your results, too.
 
The worst thing with them is the hypothermia, tough for them to recover from. Sometimes they will go into the mud because they're feverish... and then get stuck... already "weakened" by the fever/illness, get stuck, get chilled through, can't generate enough body heat because of their rundown metabolism... can't process feed fast enough to generate the heat they desperately need. "Warming them" is one of the most important things to do at that point, before even "treating" whatever may have been ailing them in the first place, although you won't go wrong by giving antibiotics "just in case". Sounds like you've maybe gotten her around the bend at least. Wish you the best. I've probably only been able to save 1 out of 3 that had gotten stuck like that in creek water/mud... very cold in that.
 

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