Cows are tough - broken foot/leg

[creekdrive]

Kind of a long story - but thought I'd share. It amazes me how tough cows are....

We have one pasture we rent roughly 40 miles away - it's 4 quarters in an L shape. If you are lucky the cows will be near the gate. If not you have to bounce down the trail over rough terrain, up & down hills. Lots of bush so sometimes you go and you don't even find cows if they are in the bush. They usually come if they hear us but depending on weather etc they might not. It's about 2 miles back to the very far corner of the pasture if you follow the fenceline.

Anyway July 30th we get back towards the far end - about a mile and a half in. Most of the herd comes to see us. After standing around awhile see a cow come hobbling on 3 legs. Back foot swelled up huge. First thought is a bad case of foot rot.... As she gets closer we realise foot rot would've been a much better scenario. She has broke her foot - bone has come through the skin. The wound is deep (can see bone) & infected with puss coming out of it. Getting late that night, but think we will try & come back in the morning. Took the gun thinking we'll probably put her down, but decide we will take the trailer and panels and quad and see if we can load her. She's a real quiet little cow and if the leg doesn't give out as she steps on the trailer it may work. Get there unload the quad in the general area that she was in - can't find her. Spent just about 4 hours looking for her with no sign. Finally gave up and went home. Tried to look at least once a week for her and had no luck.

Figure she went off & died somewhere...and feeling bad that we let an animal suffer like that. I felt sick about it. We try to do as much as we can for these animals.

About a month later we are out there checking again and there she is with her calf, back with the herd! She's in pretty rough shape but the wound has pretty much healed. Still swollen and limping pretty bad but not near like it was. It's amazing to me that any animal can survive that with no treatment. There's water & grass back at the end of the pasture so for the moment we've decided to leave her there. If it dries up we might be able to get a trailer back there and try to load her and bring her home. Or maybe she'll slowly make her way the couple miles up to the road where we could bait her across into some corrals. I hate to push her that far in case she steps in another hole on the way and wrecks that foot again. Rather let her walk at her own pace. Saw her again yesterday and she's actually gaining some weight back and walking good enough we might even be able to sell her if we can get her home.

all that is left of the wound. maybe there is still infection in there, but it looks pretty good to me & she looks good - happy & alert. Not like she's suffering at all.

with her calf. She's never been much to look at, even before this.

I know she's not totally out of the woods yet, but she's defintely a survivor!

 

[TennesseeTuxedo]

Wow! They are tough aren't they?

I know it had to be stressful not knowing what had happened for so long but looks like a happy (except for selling her) ending.

 

[TCRanch]

Amazing, thanks for sharing. Looks like she's raising a great calf.

 

[creekdrive]

Thanks guys. She was on her way to being a good little cow. Poor girl. This is only her 2nd calf, luckily a heifer that we will keep back to replace her. Not a huge calf by any means, but a decent one.

 

[wbvs58]

Sometimes I wonder whether the treatment we give actually helps them or is it just to make us feel warm and fuzzy thinking we did something. How on earth did things survive in the days before antibiotics? Pretty well I reckon.

Ken

 

[milkmaid]

I'm incredibly skeptical on the diagnosis but glad the outcome is good.

...I've seen 100-200 broken legs in the past year in various ages of cattle and degrees of severity and healing...if the bone was sticking out of the skin that also means it was not in alignment. That leg is far too straight at 6 weeks later for that to be the case. 110% certain. Legs that are even slightly deformed are the most frustrating fracture healing complication for me; depending on where on the limb and degree of deformation they still tend to take 6-8 weeks of time after the fracture itself has healed to regain normal structure in situations where it is even possible. Been there done that watched a lot of them to see what would happen. I've shot a couple that became progressively more deformed as the animal began weight bearing.

Occasionally closed breaks will heal on their own if the animal will protect/not use the leg (not an ideal scenario)... I've had the occasional femur or humerus fracture that I've successfully "treated" with time as they aren't in a location to cast... open breaks turn into enough of a nasty septic mess I shoot 99.9% of them up front.

Very skeptical on the diagnosis and would not encourage anyone reading this post to leave a cow with a broken leg alone thinking it will heal up... that's my main concern with posts like this which make it sound as if treatment may not be necessary. I agree that cattle are tough... I see it every day... but not that tough. In the days before antibiotics both people and cattle died of much more benign things than open fractures, and many still do in spite of antibiotics.

It's a welfare issue folks. Take care of your cattle appropriately.

 

[creekdrive]

I probably should've thought twice before I posted this. I definitely didn't mean to come across as though treatment was unnecessary, but I can see how on an internet forum someone could take it that way. I lost quite a few nights of sleep worrying over this situation. I even considered buying a drone to see if I could find this cow. I did NOT want her laying out there somewhere suffering.

Maybe we are wrong about it being broken, but I do know it is far from straight when viewed from the front or back. When it was 'fresh' you could definitely see the bone. It was not sticking out at the time, so I'll admit we could be wrong about the break. She was not bearing any weight on the foot. Either way it is a serious injury. We went back first thing the next day with the intention of putting her down and letting the calf survive on it's own or thought maybe we could get bother her & her calf loaded on the trailer - it's old enough it would manage but obviously would be better off if we could of brought her home and properly weaned her. Otherwise she'd be fending for herself until November when we bring them home. But she disappeared. I assumed the infection would've taken over and she would be dead. After looking for her a couple times I did not think we would see her again, so when I did I was happy & excited which was my reason for making the post. It's amazing to me that she could be alive and she doesn't seem to be suffering either.

You do what you can to prevent stuff like this. We try to check every pasture at least once a week, but sometimes it might stretch to 2 weeks. Which is a lot more than a lot of other people in this area. I'd say a majority of guys in this area, right or wrong, think cows should look after themselves and whatever happens happens... I don't agree with that at all, but I could see how maybe my post made it seem that way.

 

[milkmaid]

I'm not concerned about you creekdrive... I saw in the first post you were worried about the cow and put in more effort than most would have to find her.

Unfortunately there are a group of people who tend to look for every excuse to ignore welfare problems and things that really do need medical attention, as if they'll earn their "man card" if they have the toughest cows around. Those are the ones I worry about reading a post like this... wouldn't want to see someone deliberately keep a suffering cow alive or untreated, thinking "cows are tough, she'll be fine."

 

[Nesikep]

Is there any chance that something was poked IN and not the bone poking out? If she gets over this alright (if it wasn't in fact a break) there may be hope for her yet as a productive cow.

I had a cow fracture a front leg (probably bovine equivalent of the ulna), and she didn't put any weight on it for about 3 weeks, and it was about 6 weeks until she stopped limping. I had her corralled for a month so she didn't need to move much.

It is surprising how tough they can be to some things, and how susceptible they are to other things

 

[afinney76]

We have a week old calf with a broken leg. We talked to our vet and she told us to splint it with a piece of pvc pipe, making sure it was longer than leg so the weight was on it instead of the leg. I took a pool noodle($1.00 at DG) cut it in two so the pipe fit in it and wouldn't cause irritation. We wrapped it all up and he's doing great! We use this method on a baby goat and in 3 weeks she was great with no problems.
Also make sure you wrap entire leg including foot to prevent any swelling! Hope this helps