Calf with weak hind end

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OwnedByTheCow

OwnedByTheCow

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Nowhere New Hampshire
I had a heifer calf born exactly last month 9/11 with some issues with her back leg. It took her a while to stand and she seemed to be just a lot less active than the other calves. She always has been. Recently I've been noticing that the leg issue is not just confined to the leg but it looks like it is involving her whole hind end. Hips, back all of it. The thing is, she gets around alright despite the issues but every couple steps she will take an off step and fall or start side stepping. She'll walk like 5 good steps then her legs will go all funny and she'll fall.
My biggest question is, when do I stop thinking of this as a thing she'll grow out of and what could be causing this?

[youtube]https://youtu.be/Zq1icSvKBls[/youtube]
 
She has a neurospinal issue. One can only speculate that it is congenital or suffered trauma at partum.

She is not going to "grow out of it". The video reveals how bad it is more than your description. She is struggling to walk. If I had a calf that bad, I would consider an end game as the plan.
 
That simply is not something she is likely to grow out of to the point that she will be a stout, rugged, productive cow. No one would want to retain such a defective prospect. Even as a feeder, she is going to get hammered on value. Might consider how to play an end game - perhaps butchering at some point.
 
I have a calf with the exact same problem. He has grown, but always eats after the others and gets very little grain. will be really cut on any sale. My plan is to keep him and feed him out for butchering.
 
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Ron is spot on with his diagnosis and prognosis. The high stepping and hind legs not tracking with the front suggests lack of cerebral fine control due to some stenosis of the spinal cord either from trauma or congenital. It would not be wise to continue with her other than to put on some condition to make salvaging some meat from her and even that would be of doubt economically.

Ken
 
It’s no fun but I’d put that one down. Won’t bring a darn thing in the sales barn and I’d worry about putting weight on it. I wouldn’t put anymore money into it as you don’t know what’ll happen as it gains weight
 
I see no reason to put it down. Let her mom raise it, put it in a small pasture with some good feed and harvest it .

I had one that I worried would fall going into the pit at the butcher and they wouldn't harvest her. She weighed about 700 lbs or so. Made good burger.
 
I am going to have the vet out Saturday for a couple other cows, so I'll have him look at her too. I'd like to try keeping her around as long as she is comfortable and until weaning. She cost me too much money to not try a bit. What's the worse that can happen? She doesn't appear to be in pain, was actually quite playful yesterday.
We'll see how it goes.
 
We are taking it day by day. She is comfortable and growing fast. Somedays she improves other days not quite. Just hoping and praying but not getting my hopes too high. She can run and trot around just fine. It's just the walk where she can't quite get it right.
 
What did the vet say that you planned to have look at her when they came out for the other cows? I honestly think that some extra vitamins would help and that she might very well "grow out of it" looking at her being able to jump like she did in the video. I do think there might have been some damage, but if she is up eating, getting around, give it some time. One other thing..... we have a vet that does acupuncture and also does like "chiropractic work" and it did wonders on a cow that one of my farmers had. Does you vet do anything like that? I still think that as long as she doesn't act like she is in pain, eating good, and basically getting around, leave well enough alone. Sometimes I think that we have bred our dairy animals too "close" and that they don't always have the body reserves when they are born, but will get what they need out of their feed and grow into their problems.
I had a beef calf born with her front legs too long and basically crossed in front like a scissor jack. She could not get up for weeks without falling over. The cow faithfully came to that calf and it managed to nurse, and over about 5 months she wound up with only a very slight out of alignment front leg. I would not have given you 5 cents for her and had seriously considered destroying her. But I would find her in different spots in the pasture that she would kinda crawl to, and as time went on she outgrew it. The cow was very faithful to her and she survived.
 
Unfortunately it was a new vet that our office was trying out so she doesn't have the same amount of cow experience as our usual. We ended up giving her a BoSe and I will be sending a couple hair samples into the Holstein Association to look at genetic issues. I was always going to get their genomic testing done now I guess I'll have to do it.
 
I would give her vitamin B complex as well. When goats get goat polio from vitamin B/Thiamine deficiency, they often act like what your calf does....
 
I believe she will grow "into" it and be okay. I would make sure she has plenty of mineral and maybe a Multi-Min shot would benefit her. Vit and minerals are so necessary and sometimes we just don't know what is lacking a little that can throw off the system. I think she is doing better.
 
OwnedByTheCow said:
Unfortunately it was a new vet that our office was trying out so she doesn't have the same amount of cow experience as our usual. We ended up giving her a BoSe and I will be sending a couple hair samples into the Holstein Association to look at genetic issues. I was always going to get their genomic testing done now I guess I'll have to do it.
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Wondering what happened to this calf. I have one with the same issue, and not sure if she will ever be strong enough to have a calf and be in the milking herd.
 
OwnedByTheCow said:
I am going to have the vet out Saturday for a couple other cows, so I'll have him look at her too. I'd like to try keeping her around as long as she is comfortable and until weaning. She cost me too much money to not try a bit. What's the worse that can happen? She doesn't appear to be in pain, was actually quite playful yesterday.
We'll see how it goes.
Click to expand...
When I was rehabbing deer fawns and other mammals, if one was brought in with neurological problems, I gave it a tablet of Hyland's Calc. Phos. 30X in its milk every three hours or in its mouth or other food at least three times a day. Nearly all acted normal within three days. A couple of newborns never got better. I could never tell whether a newborn would get better unless I tried giving the Calc. Phos. 30X. One was a wild deer fawn with contracted front tendons, which was one of twins. The other twin was normal. When it was three weeks old and getting worse every day, the rancher whose land it lived on gave the mother the cell salt tablets in grain. In three days after the mother got the first cell salt tablet, the fawn that had been walking on the top of its front hooves was totally normal and was running and playing with its sibling. I get the Calc. Phos. 30X from Lucky Vitamins. I get nothing for telling people that for some congenital defects, Calc. Phos. 30X works well. It is an electrolyte in pill form that pulls the minerals into the cells that need them. Just trying to help the baby calf.
 
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J Hoy said:
When I was rehabbing deer fawns and other mammals, if one was brought in with neurological problems, I gave it a tablet of Hyland's Calc. Phos. 30X in its milk every three hours or in its mouth or other food at least three times a day. Nearly all acted normal within three days. A couple of newborns never got better. I could never tell whether a newborn would get better unless I tried giving the Calc. Phos. 30X. One was a wild deer fawn with contracted front tendons, which was one of twins. The other twin was normal. When it was three weeks old and getting worse every day, the rancher whose land it lived on gave the mother the cell salt tablets in grain. In three days after the mother got the first cell salt tablet, the fawn that had been walking on the top of its front hooves was totally normal and was running and playing with its sibling. I get the Calc. Phos. 30X from Lucky Vitamins. I get nothing for telling people that for some congenital defects, Calc. Phos. 30X works well. It is an electrolyte in pill form that pulls the minerals into the cells that need them. Just trying to help the baby calf.
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That underbite issue that I have mentioned on Cattle Today is totally mitigated within 2 weeks, so the newborn has a normal bite if the newborn or the mother whose milk the newborn is drinking gets a tablet of Calc. Phos. 30X twice a day, morning and evening. On bottle babies, just put one tablet in the milk after it has been warmed.
 

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