Downed Cow

[A6gal]

What is the longest you've had a cow down that has eventually gotten up?

 

[HerefordSire]

One for one day. All other down cows never got up and died.

 

[dun]

The dairy had one down for around a month. They finally decided to go ahead and shoot it as soon as the morning milking was done. When they went out to milk in the morning she was standing at the door waiting for them. That lactation she just barely milked, all of the subsequent lactations were up to her previous standards.

 

[A6gal]

I have one that's been down going on two weeks. The bull apparently injured her while breeding her back. The vet came out and looked her over on day two and felt sure she'd be getting up. Couldn't find any visible problems and thinks it's a pinched nerve or similar problem. He said he'd seen them down as long as three weeks and then get up like nothing happened. He gave her an IV of vitamins for strength and started her on a downed cow cocktail injection 20 cc's and I continued that each day for three more days. She tries to get up, just hasn't done it yet. She is alert and doesn't act sick. I carry feed, hay and water to her twice a day and she eats and drinks well.

I penned her two month old calf and am feeding it calf starter and hay. It is doing well.

 

[regolith]

12 days.

She was heavy in calf - pinched nerve. Calved one night and stood up the next morning - the same day my boss had said he was going to shoot her if she wasn't up Three barrowfuls of grass a day I'd cut for her and she was skinny as could be.

Anything else that survived more than a couple of days would have had milk fever. Are you able to help her stand with sling or hip clamps?

 

[A6gal]

She out in the middle of the pasture. I don't have a way to get her up at this time. I've thought about getting help to roll her over onto a tarp, then pulling her to the barn and wenching her up from the rafters. That might just be a big fiasco though. Any ideas?

 

[bigbull338]

ok you need to find some1 with a front end loader an hipp lifters.an go out an lift that cow.or take a hotshot an heat her up .an see if she trys to get up.either way she needs tobe lifted.so you can see how she holds her legs.we had a holstein cow that had 2 sets of twin bull calves in 2 yrs.an she would go down about a month before she had the calves.an we would feed her an lift her 2x a day till she calved.an then keep her calves.lift her an let them milk her 2x a day.after a month,she was getting up on her own.an going through the milk barn.an she bred back an did the samething again.an again she got up an was going through the barn again.

 

[Caustic Burno]

I wrassled wirh one for a couple of weeks but she didn't have the look.

 

[Beefy]

~3 weeks or so

 

[Redman]

We are having the very same problem with a cow who calved two months ago, she won't get up on her own but when we picked her up with a tractor she could walk on her own. We have put her in a sling we have made br using four fence posts about 30 in. wide and about 4.5 foot long using 100 lb feed sack 3or4 under the cow 1 on each end it keep from falling forwad or back .Dad has good luck at this in the past

 

[A6gal]

After being down 18 days, she's up! I went out to feed and water her on Saturday and she was standing and grazing very slowly, but she was up and about 50 yards from where she had been down. She looks bad, very skinny. If she hadn't been in good condition before she went down I don't know if she would have made it. She had been keeping her distance from the herd but this morning she was at the hayrack eating hay and moving a little easier, but still slow. I am going to get her up close to the house this evening so I can separate her and give her a chance to heal without being pushed around by the other cows. I guess after the withdrawal time from the meds I will go ahead and sell her. I don't think she'd make it if this happened again. Thanks for sharing your experiences. It helped relieve some of the worry over her being down.

 

[braunvieh]

I'm glad to hear she is up. And in my experience once they get up on their own, they will continue to improve. I had a cow that had calving trouble, and while in distress was eaten in rear by coyotes. Found her alive, but down. Got her home and put real wide hobbles on back legs. She tried to get up but back legs kept getting too wide and the hobbles helped with this, per vet recommendation. One morning about 2 weeks later she was up and walking very wobbly. She only got better from there and healed up very nicely, except for the chewed off teats :-( My hubby killed the coyote.