Cow down question

[bbf]

We have a first year heifer that we had to pull the calf about a month ago. Calf was lost and she had some issues getting back on her feet. We kept her up to watch her for a month to see if we wanted to keep her or not. Decided to keep her and went to stick a tag in her ear today and she went down in the headgate, now she wont/cant get back up. Of course she slid and flailed her way around into a nice slimy mud hole, its late and dark so I'm not fooling with her tonight. Figured I would try and get the forks under het tomorrow and se if we can hold her up by her tail for a min. Anymore ideas? Dad, in 30+ years of raising cows has never seen one go down in the headgate from an ear tag and not get back up.
Thanks,
Nathan

 

[Anonymous]

Was she squeezed tight and maybe pinched in the hips?

 

[bbf]

No squeze on our chute its old school 6 ft high wood sides with a headgate at the end. We have pannels that go inside when we work smaller cows and calves. Normaly we put a bar under them at the hips but never for just tagging. Guess we will start now.
We drug her out of the mud and are going to try and pick her up with the skid steer to get a better look. How long would you giver her before a bullet? Im thinking if she dosnt stand by Monday shes a gonner.

 

[Chris H]

No squeze on our chute its old school 6 ft high wood sides with a headgate at the end. We have pannels that go inside when we work smaller cows and calves. Normaly we put a bar under them at the hips but never for just tagging. Guess we will start now.
We drug her out of the mud and are going to try and pick her up with the skid steer to get a better look. How long would you giver her before a bullet? Im thinking if she dosnt stand by Monday shes a gonner.

How long you give her is tough to say at this point. But if she does get back up she ought to be shipped. She won't hold up under a bull at this point.

 

[JenLamb35]

We just had a first time heifer go down after a failed birth. We gave her a couple of anti-inflammatory shots and a shot of LA 200. We let her get her strength a little for 2 days feeding her quality hay and grain and then used used a hip lift and hoist to get her to her feet. We did that twice a day for 3 days but it started breaking her skin down around her hips - but definitely did some good on getting circulation into her legs and get her feeling her weight again. My husband build straps out of baler belts and hoisted her up in the evenings for 30-45 minutes. It took two full weeks for her to get to where she could stand on her own (although still very shakey), but she is now turned back out with the cattle. She still is only to about 70% but she's well on her way to being just fine. Vet told us it could take up to three weeks sometimes for cows to get back on their feet.