Calf with weak ankles & knees

[ohiobeef]

I have a calf that's a week old tomorrow that can't stay up on his front legs very well. We splinted his ankles to help him & have tried to stretch his tendons to help straighten them. Does anyone have any other suggestions ? Thank-you.

 

[ffamom]

Have you talked to a vet. Ours says that splinting only prolongs the problem. They don't gain the strength or natural stretch to fix the problem. Just a thought.

 

[mjnetex]

Leave him alone, so long as he is able to stand to nurse all right, he just needs a little more time. We never splint them and they always straighten out on their own, could take a couple of weeks, possibly--I think our longest was 10 days.

 

[ohiobeef]

just an update, It took about 6 weeks, but he looks normal .

 

[herefordhandler16]

You can get a vitamin that helps to give them energy when they are born, a lot of people do that because it speeds up the calves activity which helps their muscle development. Call your vet and explain to him your calves milking habits, keep an eye on weather or not the calf is getting any milk when shes sucking, if shes not she'll start to loose weight. Most likely your calf didn't get enough colostrum after she hit the ground so shes not strong enough. You can get a shot from a local vet that should fix her right up.

 

[Lucky_P]

Doesn't look like this, does it?

http://www.angus.org/pub/CA/CAFactSheet.pdf