a story and a half and foot rot is the problem

[rockridgecattle]

So i know the problem, but got a story behind the problem
So this year has been bad for foot rot. Just the right conditions i guess. The cows are out on pasture a ways from home and hubby does not want to make a small working area for that 1/2 section.
So to treat these cows we have been using the range gun. Of the 6 cases, one needed two shots in 8 days, 4 got over it with one shot of LA 200
The other however seemed not herself with the first shot of LA 200. Since this requires the speed and agility of a billy goat to get two shots in the cow on the same day...dang needles not equiped to handle enough LA200 for one shot. So we went with the second shot 4 days later with nuflor. Two days later we to check on her and thus begins the saga.
We need to bring her home. She is bad. 6 days of meds in her system have resulted in worse footrot. She is a mile from home, no working system there so a truck and trailer and pannels are out of the question...Nevermind that the trailer got pressure washed out and is in the midst of hauling honey supers.
So we decide to walk her home the whole mile. Through the bush, hiding, open areas. And some how we got this skittish cow (remember she has had three range gun needles and trusts us like none too much) with her calf in the hay meadow....intended. How we got her separated from the cows, and how she did not double back several times is beyond me. Hubby said to himself "this could go wrong a hundred ways from Sunday" especially after he was on one side of the bush and i was on the other. Me I kept saying "the Lord is in control"....yes i did. Any how after the mile journey totaled about a mile and a half, we got her home...cows never take the straight path...lol
We got her in the chute and what a mess. Called the vet for advice. Soak in water and epsom salts. Anafin and LA 200. The soaking went well. I had bought a boot wash mat for the honey house, that i do not use now, got it under her feet. It holds 5 gallons of water. She had her foot sumberged up to an inch above the hair line. Almost all the absess. So we kept pouring salt water on wound. You know it is bad when you can move the foot yourself and she does not care. Any how she is pend up and ready for treatment tomorrow. Figure if i have to give anafin daily she can get Oxy LP daily too For a few days. I think it has gone to the joint and the vet does not hold out much hope. She said to treat for a while and if it does not get better then she will have to be cullled. We are culling her any how since two treatmetns have not resulted in a cured cow.

 

[rockridgecattle]

pictures. While hubby went to get the camera, she decided to drain the bath with the other foot. She however got a good 15 minutes of soak in so that was good

moral support from the heifers

and was she a bellerer when it came time for the needles

 

[I luv herfrds]

Boy I hate it when that stuff happens. Hope you get her well enough to ship, if not a bullet is pretty cheap.
your lucky you had your hubby when this happened, I had 2 kids, a bucket of barley and a load of borrowed panels that some wise apple decided to hook the chains together in the stock trailer.

 

[rockridgecattle]

if not a bullet is pretty cheap.

Hubby's thought exactly, only she has a calf at foot and we usually wean and ship in October and in the grand scheme that is not so far away. She might be sooner though. Depends on her BCS and the calf.

 

[S&WSigma40VEShooter]

So i know the problem, but got a story behind the problem
So this year has been bad for foot rot. Just the right conditions i guess. The cows are out on pasture a ways from home and hubby does not want to make a small working area for that 1/2 section.
So to treat these cows we have been using the range gun. Of the 6 cases, one needed two shots in 8 days, 4 got over it with one shot of LA 200
The other however seemed not herself with the first shot of LA 200. Since this requires the speed and agility of a billy goat to get two shots in the cow on the same day...dang needles not equiped to handle enough LA200 for one shot. So we went with the second shot 4 days later with nuflor. Two days later we to check on her and thus begins the saga.
We need to bring her home. She is bad. 6 days of meds in her system have resulted in worse footrot. She is a mile from home, no working system there so a truck and trailer and pannels are out of the question...Nevermind that the trailer got pressure washed out and is in the midst of hauling honey supers.
So we decide to walk her home the whole mile. Through the bush, hiding, open areas. And some how we got this skittish cow (remember she has had three range gun needles and trusts us like none too much) with her calf in the hay meadow....intended. How we got her separated from the cows, and how she did not double back several times is beyond me. Hubby said to himself "this could go wrong a hundred ways from Sunday" especially after he was on one side of the bush and i was on the other. Me I kept saying "the Lord is in control"....yes i did. Any how after the mile journey totaled about a mile and a half, we got her home...cows never take the straight path...lol
We got her in the chute and what a mess. Called the vet for advice. Soak in water and epsom salts. Anafin and LA 200. The soaking went well. I had bought a boot wash mat for the honey house, that i do not use now, got it under her feet. It holds 5 gallons of water. She had her foot sumberged up to an inch above the hair line. Almost all the absess. So we kept pouring salt water on wound. You know it is bad when you can move the foot yourself and she does not care. Any how she is pend up and ready for treatment tomorrow. Figure if i have to give anafin daily she can get Oxy LP daily too For a few days. I think it has gone to the joint and the vet does not hold out much hope. She said to treat for a while and if it does not get better then she will have to be cullled. We are culling her any how since two treatmetns have not resulted in a cured cow.

I had a cow this year that got really bad even after numerous treatments with dex, la 300, nuflor, etc. She wound up loosing her hoof. She hops around on three legs now and eats good. I plan on slaughtering he here real soon. The other cow had it in both feet and after numerous treatments and vet care she finally came around.

 

[milkmaid]

From that pic she really doesn't look that bad off. I've seen them worse... and shucks, my 311 cow had footrot much worse than that and she's still with me and sound 4 1/2 years later. Is she bearing any weight on it? main problem with those things is that if they don't walk on the hoof it doesn't get blood flow, which means no antibiotics are actually making it to the hoof. You also get lower antibiotic blood concentrations with the IM/SC route than if you go the IV route. IV her with oxytet if you can and I'll bet you'll see a much better response. Soaking it is good; I always used hot water and epsom salts. Also, if you can, might see if you can't flush out that draining pocket with water and iodine or chlorhexidine.

 

[talldog]

From that pic she really doesn't look that bad off. I've seen them worse... and shucks, my 311 cow had footrot much worse than that and she's still with me and sound 4 1/2 years later. Is she bearing any weight on it? main problem with those things is that if they don't walk on the hoof it doesn't get blood flow, which means no antibiotics are actually making it to the hoof. You also get lower antibiotic blood concentrations with the IM/SC route than if you go the IV route. IV her with oxytet if you can and I'll bet you'll see a much better response. Soaking it is good; I always used hot water and epsom salts. Also, if you can, might see if you can't flush out that draining pocket with water and iodine or chlorhexidine.

Chlorhexidine is great stuff !!

 

[hillsdown]

That actually looks like strawberry foot rot and it is hell to cure and spreads quickly.

We would use coppersulphate for the bath and hit them hard with an antibiotic for quite a few day like excenel or trivetrin not pen. I think you should still be able to help her. Try a steroidal anti inflammatory to get that inflammation down and then you can give her anafin for pain. I like anafin as well, but only after the inflammation has gone down and they have started putting weight on the injury or in this case the infected foot.

Had a few feet look like that in dairy and they usually all pulled through and went on to have careers in the bus.

Good luck.

 

[rockridgecattle]

Thanks all, we are using and anti inflam...anafin. It also has pain relief properties. And Liquidmycin LP The vet recommended it since it was what we had on hand. Asked about Dex cause I have that, but she said anafin, so...
MM, I do not know how to IV a cow, so i will rely on the IM. Thanks for the thought though, maybe something i should learn.
She is walking on it but in a bit of a run she goes on three legs and man can she motor. It looked better this evening. I also sprayed the wound with the purple stuff for pink eye. Seems to help keep the flys off it.

Thanks

 

[jerry27150]

koppertox would surely help it. doen't look bad to me either. they used to have 5 day sulfer pills but i think they only have 3 day now.