AdamT
New member
Located in north Texas, small town East of McKinney Texas.
First and foremost thanks for reading this and I am relatively new to the whole cattle arena. Love it... but new to it and the only exposure I have had has been the last 3 years- all dealing with show heifers and steers, no claves until this year. My daughter on the other hand wants to go to Vet school at Texas A&M and has a tremendous amount of exposure and work eithic. She has volunteered at the vet over 800 hours and is in a vet science class, ranked #1 academically to try and better her chances of getting accepted into vet school. The only reason I tell you my daughters background a little is to show how determined she is in trying to get this bull calf right.
She (junior in high school in FFA and 4H) currently has a Chianina, bred earlier this year. The Chi was breed by Ai to Ali Solution (smaller birth weight calves typically). The Chi gave birth to a bull calf on 10/19/14 @ 9:30PM ~65 pound calf, took 2 1/2 hours before the calf stood up - didn't think it was normal. Did not notice him eat for 12 hrs so we took him to the vet that morning where he was given colostrum via a tube feeding, a couple of shots - I think antibiotic and steroid of some sort (didn't write it down and should have - lessoned learned), and iodine on the cord. By 5PM that day he began eating off of mom and has been eating ever since.
Initially I thought he looked awfully stiff when standing and moving around but figured it was just that he was a new born. Here is the problem as of today, 11/12/14. I will post a video if it lets me but he is still really stiff (especially when first getting up) when walking, mainly his back legs. A few days ago I talked to one of our breeder friends and sent him a video and he said they call them "swingers-i.e. back legs stiff and wing" and he said there isn't much you can do about it. My daughter whom is determined to make this calf right called the vet this past Monday and he is having us give him a shot of Dex (I think 1CC daily) and 1 shot of Bo-Se weekly (behind the shoulder subcutaneous- don't know the dose off hand). My daughter is also doing what I call massage therapy and stretching (per vets recommendation) on all his limbs 3 times a day. She goes after school at about 3:30PM and does it for about 15 minutes per side - 30 minutes total , then again at 10PM and again at 6:30AM before school. It does appear to help but only short term. He likes to lay down a lot probably because he is so stiff so once he lays for awhile he stiffens back up.
The cows are kept at our AG barn in pens that are 10' x 18', they are let out in the turn out area daily for majority of the day (thought was to help loosen him up more) with other cows and they are brought in at night. Sometimes we just bring them in for feeding and turn them back out. My daughter is determined to get this calf right and be able to show it her senior year so I was hoping some of the more experienced people on this site could help us with any other possible solutions to get this calf loosened up and too stay loosened up or whether or not your think we on the right path and just continue what we are doing. Thanks so much for any insight you may have...oh and by the way the calf appears to be totally fine outside of his walking described above. Thanks again and I cant figure out how to get the video in here.
First and foremost thanks for reading this and I am relatively new to the whole cattle arena. Love it... but new to it and the only exposure I have had has been the last 3 years- all dealing with show heifers and steers, no claves until this year. My daughter on the other hand wants to go to Vet school at Texas A&M and has a tremendous amount of exposure and work eithic. She has volunteered at the vet over 800 hours and is in a vet science class, ranked #1 academically to try and better her chances of getting accepted into vet school. The only reason I tell you my daughters background a little is to show how determined she is in trying to get this bull calf right.
She (junior in high school in FFA and 4H) currently has a Chianina, bred earlier this year. The Chi was breed by Ai to Ali Solution (smaller birth weight calves typically). The Chi gave birth to a bull calf on 10/19/14 @ 9:30PM ~65 pound calf, took 2 1/2 hours before the calf stood up - didn't think it was normal. Did not notice him eat for 12 hrs so we took him to the vet that morning where he was given colostrum via a tube feeding, a couple of shots - I think antibiotic and steroid of some sort (didn't write it down and should have - lessoned learned), and iodine on the cord. By 5PM that day he began eating off of mom and has been eating ever since.
Initially I thought he looked awfully stiff when standing and moving around but figured it was just that he was a new born. Here is the problem as of today, 11/12/14. I will post a video if it lets me but he is still really stiff (especially when first getting up) when walking, mainly his back legs. A few days ago I talked to one of our breeder friends and sent him a video and he said they call them "swingers-i.e. back legs stiff and wing" and he said there isn't much you can do about it. My daughter whom is determined to make this calf right called the vet this past Monday and he is having us give him a shot of Dex (I think 1CC daily) and 1 shot of Bo-Se weekly (behind the shoulder subcutaneous- don't know the dose off hand). My daughter is also doing what I call massage therapy and stretching (per vets recommendation) on all his limbs 3 times a day. She goes after school at about 3:30PM and does it for about 15 minutes per side - 30 minutes total , then again at 10PM and again at 6:30AM before school. It does appear to help but only short term. He likes to lay down a lot probably because he is so stiff so once he lays for awhile he stiffens back up.
The cows are kept at our AG barn in pens that are 10' x 18', they are let out in the turn out area daily for majority of the day (thought was to help loosen him up more) with other cows and they are brought in at night. Sometimes we just bring them in for feeding and turn them back out. My daughter is determined to get this calf right and be able to show it her senior year so I was hoping some of the more experienced people on this site could help us with any other possible solutions to get this calf loosened up and too stay loosened up or whether or not your think we on the right path and just continue what we are doing. Thanks so much for any insight you may have...oh and by the way the calf appears to be totally fine outside of his walking described above. Thanks again and I cant figure out how to get the video in here.
