Anyone w/ experience w/ frozen hooves on valuable calves?

[WalnutCrest]

The brace adds about 3" to the length of her leg.

The idea, as I understand it, is to engineer the leg brace to be able to be modified a couple of times as she grows so that it maintains a good fit and so that she's able to maintain her posture.

I'm pleased with her development and progress.

 

[Ozhorse]

Thanks for posting all those photos. Dr Jolly has a very positive attitude toward keeping the animal going and some very innovative approaches.

 

[WalnutCrest]

I agree about his attitude.

I'm pleased with how this little lady looks thus far. We'll see what the future holds ...

Thanks again for pointing us his way.

 

[hillsdown]

Very interesting thread . Good luck with her, I hope she progresses well and you can at least harvest some embryos form her . :tiphat:

 

[WalnutCrest]

Heifer continues to do well.

The current effort is to get skin to grow over her stump, and then for that skin to toughen up. Right now, skin has grown over about 1/2" of the side of the nub. The vet is very pleased with how she's coming along.

I've been SLAMMED the last several weeks, hence no updates. Maybe I'll have time over the next couple of weeks to get some more photos up.

 

[branguscowgirl]

Wow! I am very impressed with her progress!
Sounds like a great Dr. Doing some wonderful stuff!

 

[Ozhorse]

Thanks for the update. I get what you mean about life not giving you a break to do photos or anything not urgent important.

 

[nurseynicole]

One word! WOW! So very impressed!

 

[WalnutCrest]

Things are going really well for our little heifer, Begonia. The vet has been very impressed with the quality of our little calf ... superior muscle development in spite of the injury and confinement. I'm hoping life will allow me enough of a break to get some new pictures posted soon.

Begonia is going to stay at Step Ahead Farm for a while longer ... but mama (Xenia) is coming home (hopefully for a flush to the heifer's dad (Andalou), and then an AI back to him, too). We're also flushing mama's half sister (Yarrow) to the him in a couple of weeks with those eggs going into recips fresh.

Giddy up!

 

[WalnutCrest]

If I'm smart enough, I'll get a video up of our little lady... I'm quite pleased with her development and improvement.

...where is some wood I can knock on?

 

[Ozhorse]

I will look forward to seeing how she is going.

Here is a link to a photobucket site of progress on one of the feet of the sheep with burnt feet we had after the bushfire I said I would post. The photos are not organised just how I want them and there are some I am missing in the later stages, but if I wait for perfection I will never get these pics posted and your calf will have granddaughters by then.

http://s968.photobucket.com/user/runnin ... t=6&page=1

Warning - there are a few gruesome photos.

 

[WalnutCrest]

Inside of the brace:

April 9, 2014 -- 2 months, 4 days old ... 20 days into treatment

April 15, 2014 -- 2 months, 10 days old ... 26 days into treatment

April 15, 2014 -- 2 months, 10 days old ... 26 days into treatment

April 18, 2014 -- 2 months, 13 days old ... 29 days into treatment

April 18, 2014 -- 2 months, 13 days old ... 29 days into treatment

April 25, 2014 -- 2 months, 20 days old ... 36 days into treatment

May 13, 2014 (standing without the brace on) -- 3 months, 8 days old ... 54 days into treatment

May 13, 2014 -- 3 months, 8 days old ... 54 days into treatment

...still trying to figure out the "loading a video" thing...

 

[WalnutCrest]

Also, for those of you who don't know exactly what you're looking at ...

* The dark red is granulation tissue with lots of blood flow (healthy and clean).
* The pink/white band around that is epithelial tissue (i.e., young skin growing over the stump).

The idea is to get the skin to cover the stump and then to get it to callous over. Our current expectation is that this will last until sometime around Labor Day.

 

[hillsdown]

She is doing extremely well and things are looking really promising . You should all be very pleased with the results you are getting with your dedication and commitment to her .
Thank you for the update , wishing her continued healthy healing . :tiphat:

 

[WalnutCrest]

She is doing extremely well and things are looking really promising . You should all be very pleased with the results you are getting with your dedication and commitment to her .
Thank you for the update , wishing her continued healthy healing . :tiphat:

Thanks. It's my opinion the reason she looks good because she's the product of good genetics and is in the hands of a diligent vet. We didn't do anything fancier than taking her to Arkansas.

I think he's modest, but he pretty much says that the key to the whole thing is (i) keeping the wound clean, (ii) doing everything you can to improve circulation to the wound site, and (iii) keeping the wound aired-out. So, every two or three days (never four!), he's changing the bandaging, cleaning the wound, and putting new bandaging on. He says the place that most people miss the mark is by not doing this simple step very religiously.

PS -- As an aside, we weaned mama from her calf and brought her home to take on a recently orphaned heifer ... and within 45 seconds of being introduced to one another when we got home, the mama took her new calf with pride ... and 36hrs after being introduced to one another, mama and the formerly-orphaned heifer are now enjoying life in the pasture. A huge thumbs up to Xenia (the mama cow) and her maternal instincts! Our local vet said that he didn't think we could do it because Aubracs are known for excelling on range and aren't typically known for being handled a ton, and so he thought it'd be a low-probability deal for mama to take the orphan ... I didn't know if it'd work, but I knew I had little to lose in trying. Very glad it worked out.

 

[Ozhorse]

I have always been impressed by Dr Jollys theory, and also practice, and also the cheapness of dressings and practicability in his approach toward wound healing. He is also a nice guy and very accessible. Hence why I referred him. I am glad it has worked out so well.

"He says the place that most people miss the mark is by not doing this simple step very religiously."

I think Dr Jolly is so right here.

Our sheep's feet dressings were only changed once a week. This was probably not enough particularly in the early days.
I had a lot of backup from a friend in treating my sheep feet. She came up almost every weekend for 9 months to treat and photograph the sheep. I was overwhelmed at the time and on the few occasions when she didnt come, and I didnt get dressings changed for a fortnight, the result was not nice. While that was not ideal it is what we could provide.

I found we were always juggling between keeping the feet padded with neoprene, and therefore softer for them and lessening the insults to the new soft tissue, but also wetter and less air and stinkier and more infection on the one hand; and leaving off the padding and getting more air and a drier healing site on the other. This was made worse by keeping them inside on the shearing shed floor which is wooden slats and extremely hard and unforgiving, but dry and clean. If it rained outside would have been in the mud so they had to be inside for long times. I dont have a stable or barn to keep animals in.

If one is not set up to give the right environment and regular care (even if that care does not take long in theory) then it is much better to have the animal at a place like Stepahead farms.

 

[Workinonit Farm]

Thanks for the photos and update.

This has been fascinating.

Katherine

 

[WalnutCrest]

The vet told me yesterday that, if all goes well over the next few months, there is an outside chance she may be able to roam around in our pastures and calve her own calf ... if we can get her good leg strong enough and the pastures she's on aren't too rocky.

The plan is still to flush her once or twice ... and ... then, maybe (!), just maybe, to AI her and see what happens...

 

[Ozhorse]

That is good to hear.

Just a tip from me to think about - With sheep it is much easier to deal with injuries like burnt feet, arthritis in joints, broken bones etc with a light animal than a heavy one. The heavier the animal the more likely it is to have a) an injury or illness in the first place, and b) not be able to recover from it.

Foot abscesses in sheep are often related simply to the weight of the sheep. Heavy sheep put more pressure between the toes than light sheep and the weight itself predisposes to foot abscesses with turn quickly into infection in the foot joints. Foot abscess in rams is much much more common in ewes. Also from my few years I have needled bulls quite a few times for abscess, but never have I had a cow with foot abscess.

If it was my calf I was trying to keep going I would try to keep her weight down. She will not look as good. Because of the drought, bushfire, snow at wrong times etc etc, I have a few small undernourished young cows. There is nothing wrong with their fertility.

 

[WalnutCrest]

That is a good thought ... in all events, we will be keeping the nutritional plane high until the skin regrows over the stub.