Contracted front tendons

[swiftdood]

Two weeks ago one of our cows calved a beautiful heifer calf. At birth we noticed it had contracted tendons in its front legs and could stand but was pretty 'knuckled over'. I've seen this in dairy calves....we used to call this 'club footed' and the problem righted itself after a few days. Because the calf had trouble standing to feed off her mother at the start we started it on colostrum from a local dairy for 2 days and are now supplementing her diet with a little milk replacer as well as feeding off momma. The calf is STILL knuckled over. My question is.....is it too late to start splinting the calf's front legs? It's been 2 weeks. I see you can buy calf splints for this problem and have issue with buying them.

Many thanks in advance for any advice you can give.

 

[branguscowgirl]

They will usually improve well without the splints. I have done it both ways, (splinting made with halved PVC pipe.) If you splint, I think that it causes more pain and you run the risk of them developing sores.
If it is so bad that they are making sores or walking on the joint itself, I may consider a soft splint. But if they can get around some and nurse ok, I personally wouldn't do it. Just keep them in a small area to make it easier for her to get to mom. Be patient, some just take more time than others to straighten out.

A picture of the severity would help.

 

[dun]

Conventional wisdom is that if you splint them it will only take 6 weeks, if you leave them alone it will take a month and a half

 

[cowgirl8]

2 weeks is a long time. But if they can nurse i wouldnt worry about it. We use to get it a lot when we had more sim in our herds years ago. I get one every once in a while. Never ever have i needed to splint. Seems i did have one who had trouble nursing, but i still didnt splint.

 

[swiftdood]

Thanks branguscowgirl. Yes.....I must admit I was not wanting to splint this calf. We used to get the occasional knuckled over dairy cow that had a pinched nerve from calving and tried splints on those but with very mild success. If we found her straight after calving I'd vein her with dexamethazone, put her in a pen by herself and, if she could stand, she'd raise 2 bull calves before going back in the herd. Usually they would be fully mobile by then! I get a pic of this calf and post it on the forum for you.

 

[Fire Sweep Ranch]

Here is a very good thread on the subject, with actual photos and advice from a vet,

viewtopic.php?f=19&t=79687&hilit=contracted+tendons

 

[Nesikep]

This year I had one steer that had it pretty bad, a great big guy (130 lb), and a few of his brothers have had it too... I never needed to splint (yet) as they were all able to nurse. It took him a long time to get over it.. his main problem was he'd get tired quickly.. he *really* wanted to run and play, and stay standing, and he's shift his weight from one leg to the other until he collapsed where he stood.. he'd rest a while, and do it all over again. He's 8 months old now, and you can still tell he had it, but he has no trouble walking at all.

 

[Rniemann]

Each night get her down and stretch them out just like therapy for people. We did this on a steer for two weeks and progressively got better and eventually normal. Better w two guys! Don't give up. Splints at that age won't last long anyway. She'll bust out of those.