Cow problem

[chadreed88]

I bought a crossbred cow at the sale Monday and she was fine when she came through the ring and I didn't notice she had a problem until that evening when I went to put out some hay. I'll describe what she's doing and let me know what you think. A little more background on her- she's 2yr old 4 months bred.
When she walks her left hind leg stays straight when she's moving it forward and you hear a pop and it comes on forward like it should. So pretty much its like its something with a joint but don't know if she got kicked or hung it on a gate or maybe just has something else wrong with it. Let me know what you think and what you would do. I only paid like 600 for her so keep that in consideration when decideing about a vet or just carrying her back to the sale and get what I can for her

 

[Bez+]

Possible hip injury?

I am not a proponent of figuring the cost of an animal dictates whether or not I will spend veterinarian dollars.

Suspect this may be something that was "drugged" away at the sale barn - or happened on the way to your place.

You can haul her back, you can take a close look at her leg and hip - in the squeeze, you can check her into the veterinarian - but truthfully - it could be a ton of things.

Or you can take some time and keep her fed and happy and wait and see.

I personally would take the last option - wait and see. Give her a general antibiotic and a vitamin shot just for yucks - will not hurt her and might even help her.

I am curious to hear from others on this one.

Good luck

Bez+

 

[grubbie]

I was going to suggest trying to hang on to her through calving and weaning, then sell her. But,....around here with a cow like that there is a strong possibility she could have been hit by a car. Lots of open range here. Might be worth your while to make sure the calf is okay if you decide to keep her. Car or not, there was some physical trauma that damaged the cow and may have damaged the calf. Kind of a tough call whether to keep or ship, but if you're going to keep her I would have her checked out, cheap cow or not.

 

[1982vett]

Chalk it up to "learning curve". She will either get better or get worse. Might be the reason she was at the sale barn, might have gotten injured before, during, or after the sale. Around here, the buyers don't miss much, if they saw a problem with the cow after bidding started they would let the auctioneer know about it and he would restart at an appropriate price, so I don't think the sale barn was trying to put one over on a buyer, so I wouldn't hold it against the sale barn.

Keep an eye on her, if she gets worse the best thing to do is send her down the road while she can still walk. I doubt any cowman can say they never bought a disaster. Learn from it.

 

[TheBullLady]

We've talked about this before.. but it's been awhile.

I have a Brahman cow that does this... after taking her to A & M, it was determined that the tendon in her knee is "crossing over" in front of her knee cap when she goes to bend her knee to place her foot.. so it holds the leg straight for a second or two, then "pops" back behind the knee cap, enabling the knee to then bend. (I hope I explained that so you could understand.. :? )

I had surgery done on my cow.. she was good for probably three or four years, then it came back. She has good calves, and it doesn't seem to affect her, so I've left her alone. She's getting old now, so she'll go down the road one of these days, but not from that. Her daughters (I've kept two) have never show any signs of it, although I'm guessing it's genetic.

 

[smallrancher]

I personally feel you have been had. Let this cow have her calf and wean her(if you feel this is feasible). Then you need to ship this cow as a cull, DO NOT "have" someone else.She needs to go, it is up to you whether you want a calf out of her or not, but as of now her reproductive days are over. Don't pass your problems onto others!!!

 

[msscamp]

There have a few cows in our herd that 'popped' when they walked over the years. Never knew what exactly was popping, and it never seemed to cause them any pain or discomfort. They walked normally, performed their jobs, were never stoved up or lame, and we never worried about it until there was a reason to worry about it - and that never happened. I suspect the reason you didn't notice it when she was going through the salebarn is because of the distance between the seats and the ring, as well as the noise inherent in an average salebarn. I digress, though. As long as she can walk without discomfort/pain, remains sound, is a good mother who fits into your herd protocols, and she raises a calf that fits within your expectations, I don't believe I would be worried about the popping.

 

[Keren]

Possible hip injury?

I am not a proponent of figuring the cost of an animal dictates whether or not I will spend veterinarian dollars.

Suspect this may be something that was "drugged" away at the sale barn - or happened on the way to your place.

You can haul her back, you can take a close look at her leg and hip - in the squeeze, you can check her into the veterinarian - but truthfully - it could be a ton of things.

Or you can take some time and keep her fed and happy and wait and see.

I personally would take the last option - wait and see. Give her a general antibiotic and a vitamin shot just for yucks - will not hurt her and might even help her.

I am curious to hear from others on this one.

Good luck

Bez+

I would go with the last option as well.

 

[dun]

It's possibly to rectally palpate the hips. If you push to the side and you hear the sound or feel a pop it's a hip problem. 3 years ago Granny at the young and tender age of 15 started having a popping sound from her right hip. You could visually see the hip pop as she walked. Since she was ursing a calf we decided to let her raise the calf then butcher her. To decrease the pain, at the vets recommendation, we put her ina smaller area of about one acre. Twice a day for a couple of weeks she got a dozen aspirin. Set up a creep gate so her calf oculd come and go as he pleased but she was restricted. Vet figured the pain treat6ment would allow her to make it through weaning. She will be 19 in thr spring, hip problem is totally gone, last year she stood for natural service with no problem. She walkes slowly and doesn;t lead the herd anymore. But she knows the drill and if the others get distracted and lose focus on being moved, she will come to the front and get them where they belong.
I razz the vet about his prognosis of how long she would last. He's amazed at how well she has recovered and happy he was worng.