Down. And out!

[TCRanch]

Not good. Found this girl all splayed out Thursday morning. Looking at my notes, I'm pretty sure it was a breeding injury because last I saw, the bulls were following her, but she wasn't in standing heat. Started with Banamine Transdermal and did eventually give her Dex but my vet said stick with just the Banamine going forward. Discussed lifting her but quite often that can do more harm than good. She is moving around and I'm assuming getting up occasionally because she ended up busting through the fence and into the ditch. Neighbor came over and we put up temporary panels and I rigged up some tarps today. Still has a great appetite, drinks a lot of water and is very alert, but I'm not optimistic.

 

[gcreekrch]

We do what we can and they still find ways to cost us money and time. I hope you see her on her feet soon.

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

That first picture does not look good.
If I was a hurt cow, I think I would want you for a keeper. What a great job you did!

 

[MurraysMutts]

Fantastic caretaking right there!! You should be proud!

Boy she's fat as a tick too. Hopefully she gets up and going for you real soon. Tho I fear she may getting a ride huh?

When I pen Bessie or Dapples, they'll drink 10 to 25 gallon a day real easy. Summertime even more!

 

[bird dog]

She probably fell thru the fence while trying to stand. I would lift her although my success rate when doing so is not very good. Its not that I do damage, its just that they are broke down enough to where they don't have the strength to push them selves back up. As big as she is, that could very well be an issue. The longer they are down the slimmer your odds are that she will get back up.

Lift her and hold her if she will allow it. Some CMPK might help.

 

[Ky hills]

Hope she gets back up and going. Sounds like you're doing everything you can,

 

[wbvs58]

You are giving her every opportunity TC.

Ken

 

[gcreekrch]

Everyone wants to lift them up. We have had far more luck taking them feed and water and letting them tell us when it is time to stand. A couple took 3 weeks and a couple more never did. Lifting the ones we did sure didn't speed up the progress.

 

[Silver]

Everyone wants to lift them up. We have had far more luck taking them feed and water and letting them tell us when it is time to stand. A couple took 3 weeks and a couple more never did. Lifting the ones we did sure didn't speed up the progress.

Same here. I'll roll them over every day or two if they aren't managing to do it themselves. I don't believe the process can be rushed.

 

[Twisted]

I can only wish that someone would take care of me as good.

 

[Louthelivestockguy]

Not good. Found this girl all splayed out Thursday morning. Looking at my notes, I'm pretty sure it was a breeding injury because last I saw, the bulls were following her, but she wasn't in standing heat. Started with Banamine Transdermal and did eventually give her Dex but my vet said stick with just the Banamine going forward. Discussed lifting her but quite often that can do more harm than good. She is moving around and I'm assuming getting up occasionally because she ended up busting through the fence and into the ditch. Neighbor came over and we put up temporary panels and I rigged up some tarps today. Still has a great appetite, drinks a lot of water and is very alert, but I'm not optimistic. View attachment 45580View attachment 45581View attachment 45582View attachment 45583View attachment 45584

These are the kind of situations where I will slaughter them to salvage the beef.
But shooting medicine in her could be a problem with doing that. I've never had any luck with them getting back up!

 

[TCRanch]

You are giving her every opportunity TC.

Ken

Thanks, Ken. Can you tell if she has an underbite? Cuz maybe that's part of the problem.

 

[TCRanch]

These are the kind of situations where I will slaughter them to salvage the beef.
But shooting medicine in her could be a problem with doing that. I've never had any luck with them getting back up!

8 day withdrawal for Banamine Transdermal, 7 days for Dex. We had one slaughtered years ago before the Banamine withdrawal for our own consumption. Big, fat cow, tasted great and dang, that kink in my back went away after every burger.

 

[TCRanch]

Only other down cow I had from a breeding injury was probably 12 years ago and it didn't turn out well. We did lift her, and I regret that. I did have first calf heifer down for about 3 days but all I did was supportive therapy.

Even with shade from the tarps and another dose of Banamine yesterday, she wasn't looking good and had a raging 106.3 temp. I fully expected to find her dead this morning and looked for buzzards on my way out. But I'll be darned, she's looking and acting downright perky and moved around quite a bit last night (based on the piles of poo I cleaned up). I dunno what to expect but I'll continue to check her, bring her water every few hours (during the day - I need my sleep!).

 

[dave_shelby]

I've also got a down cow, with broken rear leg. I haven't turned the bull in yet so likely bulling cow riding her. Unlike you I tried to get her to go through the ring at the sale barn but she layed down despite having walked her in a couple hundred yards. Good cow too, got twins out of her last fall.

 

[TCRanch]

I've also got a down cow, with broken rear leg. I haven't turned the bull in yet so likely bulling cow riding her. Unlike you I tried to get her to go through the ring at the sale barn but she layed down despite having walked her in a couple hundred yards. Good cow too, got twins out of her last fall.

A cow with a broken leg is never good. But, contingent on the placement & severity, calves can heal amazingly well with nothing but a good mama and benign neglect. I have one this year that presumably got stepped on and was broken at/around the knee. She wasn't even a week old, and I wondered why her mama always had her bedded down away from the herd. Checked her over to make sure she didn't have a naval infection or pneumonia but didn't make her get up (mainly because I didn't want her to bolt from where she was parked for the morning). Saw her that night and her leg was almost flopping to the side at the joint. Yikes! But after the first couple weeks of mama keeping her solitary, there was no stopping that calf and she was running (funky) with the rest of the calves. Fast forward 3.5 months and I literally can't tell. Knee area doesn't look larger, doesn't walk funky, doesn't favor it. She's a huge, beautiful heifer and I'm seriously considering keeping her as a replacement.

What is (or was) Plan B for your cow?

 

[dave_shelby]

Plan B is to sell her to some folks who butcher on farm. I'm not as good as you.

 

[TCRanch]

Discovered she's missing a nice chunk of skin this morning. Not sure what happened there but I'm assuming trying to get up & falling. And she had raging diarrhea. Well, I did give her alfalfa yesterday and that was probably too much of a good thing. Switched back over to brome and it wasn't as bad this afternoon. As I was leaving this afternoon, I looked over and she was sitting like a dang dog. Is this good, bad or weird? Oh, and I smacked my head AGAIN on the top strand of barbed wire. It's not like I don't know it's there!!! So, heading back out in another hour, armed with a bunch of pool noodles to wrap around the wire. If I'm totally stupid and blind and STILL forget it's there, at least I'll have protection.

On a positive note, her calf, who is basically an orphan, is doing great. She's figured out I'm the one with the goods and will now seek me out for cubes. And she's been hanging with one particular pair, hopefully robbing.

 

[wbvs58]

TC, that dog sitting position is often what you get in animals with spinal injuries up around the thoraco lumbar area. That word dog sitting is what is used to describe it.
Does she have much tone in her tail?

Ken

 

[TCRanch]

TC, that dog sitting position is often what you get in animals with spinal injuries up around the thoraco lumbar area. That word dog sitting is what is used to describe it.
Does she have much tone in her tail?

Ken

That doesn't sound good. And she's the one that ripped off a good portion of her tail a few years ago when it got wrapped around a tree (four times!), so there's already damage. I haven't noticed whether she's been flicking it around, mainly because I keep her bedded down in a lot of hay and I haven't seen her up.