cow with sore leg - video attached

[Hamons]

I have a cow -- that has been walking stiff legged for a couple weeks -- but now is having trouble even walking on her back legs It almost looks like there might be soemthing in her leg -- although I can't see anything -- would that be your best guess to?

She is a 4 year old Galloway -- should be pregnant -- ready to calve in late Oct/nov, Her Body condition has been lower than all other claves since this summer. We had TERRIBLE drought -- this green grass is a new development this year -- we haveent seen that since May

[youtube]XxoWsBhzBWA[/youtube]

 

[Isomade]

Have you put her in the squeeze and examined the foot? Two weeks is a bit long to let one go like that.

 

[Isomade]

I was only able to see the first 20 seconds of the video due to slow Internet.

 

[chippie]

Have you put her in the squeeze and examined the foot? Two weeks is a bit long to let one go like that.

Ditto. I saw the whole video and she is saying ouch each time she puts her foot down and trying not to put any weight on it. I bet that she has something stuck in it. Imagine walking around with a sharp rock in your shoe for several days.

 

[Black and Good]

It almost looks to me like it might be in her hip the way she keeps kicking?? Just my humble guess. :hide:

 

[Ouachita]

2 years ago I had one walking exactly like her. I couldn't see anything until we got her in an alley. She had a piece of high tensile electric fence wire pushed vertically under the hide alongside and just above hock. Have no idea how she could manage doind that, but she had about 3 inches in her and just about a 1/4 inch protruding. Hard to see even up close. She acted like yours, like she was trying to shake it out.

 

[Black and Good]

I noticed in the video you could hear Turkeys yelping. Are those wild birds or farm birds?

 

[Workinonit Farm]

It seems to to be her foot that's bothering her. When I had the one with the mattress spring coiled in her one claw she walked like that. (of course I could see the spring). I had a different cow cut the soft part of one claw by her heel one time and she walked like that, complete with the 'kick-shake' deal.

So, I'm inclined to suggest getting her up in a chute where you could get a closer look at that foot, perhaps a small puncture that has become infected/abcessed, or perhaps something 'stuck' up between the claws (the 2 main "hooves") or something embedded in the soft part of the foot that is not obvious to see while she walks around the field.

Katherine

 

[Anonymous]

She's trying to kick something out of her hoof

 

[Chris H]

Find someone who trims hooves and get her on a tilt table and examine that foot & leg.

 

[jillaroo]

Although I cannot see her toes in the video, she looks like a "foot lesion" to me.
Cattle walk on the inside toe on the front feet and the outside toe on the hind feet. That is to say they bear most of their weight on one toe rather than the other.
She also has the classic body shape of an animal with a foot lesion.
An animal that has laminitis will walk similar to your cow, but her front feet look fine.
FTL's (foot lesions) are often caused by trauma. If cattle scramble or jump on gravel or rough ground, FTL's can occur. They are super common under feedlot conditions.
A small fissure forms on the sole of the foot by the hoof wall and bacteria can gain access. An infection forms inside the hoof and eventually can cause the p3 joint to become infected. You may also notice that the affected toe is swollen or separated around the coronary band of the hoof.
Take a good picture of her hoof (on clear ground) and either post it or show your vet.
I'm sorry to tell you this, but the prognosis of complete recovery is pretty poor without a lot of nursing. There are treatments tho.

 

[bward]

Looks like some nerve impingement in the hip area to me. She can seem to put weight on the foot okay, its just swinging the leg forward that seems to hurt a lot, and thats when she swings the leg to the side. The big tip off is early in the video when she takes a miss step and almost collapses in pain. Its like she had to catch herself when her weight was bearing in a very painful area of the stride. I had a cow like that last year and it was so painful for her she spent most of the time laying down. She went down 2 weeks after calving and I think she hurt herself by getting bogged down in mud and caused joint 'damage' pulling the hind leg out of deep muck. Although it didn't pull the joint out of the socket there was definate pain. She was down for about a month getting up now and then to flail a few feet and collapse again. During this time I had plenty of time to clean out the foot and determine that it was not foot pain. One day she had flailed herself out to the pasture and a storm was coming and I wanted to get her in the shelter. I smacked her to get up and she started in and after she walked about 20 yards she all of a suddenly strided out in full as the pain was gone and whatever was impinging was now out of the way. I was in total shock and she was delighted. After that I would see if recurr now and then, but during the summer she had complete relief and regained the 3 to 400 pounds she had lost. That fall I would see her holding the leg again having periods of normalcy, and periods where she looked like your cow. She was at a cullible age so I shipped her shortly after that.

 

[Ozhorse]

I have a gut feeling it might be a stifle injury. Possibly hip but I think stifle. She is poor because she is in pain and has muscle wasting. If she has always been poorer than the others it could be that she has had an injury when young that is getting worse as she gets older and heavier.

Not saying its not hoof soreness but with the history of being thinner for a long time, and her swinging her leg like that, it might be something further up the leg causing it. You need to get her in a crush and check her feet and anything else you can sometime.

She seems to me to be in a fair bit of pain to flick her tail around like that. Whatever it is she is going to get worse as she gets heavier in calf and is probably going to have a very painful time and will lose lots more condition. I predict that when she has her calf she will go way downhill.

After you have checked for foreign objects in her feet, and you are not likely to sell her for 90 days you could give her a shot of antibiotic for foot abscess, a tetracycline of a good strong dose, as a vet, but tetracyclines have a long slaughter withhold. If she improves it was infectious. If she does not then it is likely joint injury or something else.

If it is injury I dont think she is going to get better. Cattle are big heavy animals and it can be hard on joints. Most bull failure is from joint injury and injured bulls can look just like that. Angus cows in our cold area get joint injury and arthritis. I usually have to get rid of one or two and a bull for joint injury each year. I think that is what yours has, just in a young animal.

Count yourself lucky if she has a calf and raises it and then get rid of her ASAP.