Has this happened to anyone's cattle?

[Farminlund]

My bull had a severe limp in his rear leg/foot. He would through it out to the side to put weight on it. It was not swollen, but the only thing I am familiar with is footrot - treated him for that (LA 200) & within a couple of days he was putting more weight on it & I thought on the road to recovery. A couple of days later & it was as bad as the first day. I had an extension agent (livestock specialist) over for unrelated reasons & asked him what he thought - his answer was that he was stifled & would likely not improve. I was not a happy camper & called the vet the following day - he came & observed him & told me to put him in the chute & he subsequently started to work on his outer claw (not an easy process). He kept shaving the claw away until there was nearly anything left - & then suddenly it erupted (puss & liquid came out); he said that would fix him. He said he should be ok within a week. I was amazed & most appreciative. He knew by the way he was throwing his leg out to apply pressure that the outer claw was the issue & he then went after it until he found the absecess. Thank goodness for vets!

Is this something others have had happen? Just sharing the experience as well as trying to determine how frequently this problem is encountered.

 

[milkmaid]

Seen it in dairy cows; seen lots of hoof abcesses, footrot, ulcers, warts, corns, etc in dairy cows. lol. If the cow's lame without any outward, obvious reason for lameness (swelling, wart, etc) then the first thing I suspect is an abcess.

I'd keep him on antibiotics for a few days (say 2-3 treatments of LA200) just help clean it out. They don't always drain completely on their own. My hoof trimmer likes to pack abcesses with an oxytet mixture and wrap to prevent anything else (dirt etc) from getting up in there as well as to help fight the infection directly.

And if the hoof was taken down to almost nothing... he may be lame for awhile even if the abcess itself is cleaned up.

You probably would have been able to clear it up without the vet's help if you'd kept him on antibiotics for a few more days - I note that you said he was getting better, and then went back downhill. One more treatment might have prevented that.

 

[Farminlund]

That was my original plan (another round of antibodics) until I was told by someone (who I thought knew more than me) that he was stifled (no chance for recovery). He did said he'd go on with more antibodics anyhow, but I felt like if he was right with his diagonsis then it was much work & risk (he over 1 tn) for nothing. If that had worked, I guess I would then have concluded it was footrot & not have known what the real cause was.

I rarely have the vet pay a call, so I learned much (also solved the gingerly walking heifer - see other post) & although I have not seen the bill yet, think it was an all around good experience. Not to mention that paying the vet is a good thing for the future emergencies.

 

[milkmaid]

I rarely have the vet pay a call, so I learned much (also solved the gingerly walking heifer - see other post) & although I have not seen the bill yet, think it was an all around good experience. Not to mention that paying the vet is a good thing for the future emergencies.

That it is. :nod:

 

[holly heifer]

I too had a vet that said the bull was stifled. I took the bull to a vet clinic with a table. We put him on the table and
lo and behold- he had a nasty abscess. They cut away the bad part, put a block under the claw, antibiotics, and sent him home. he recovered 1oo % and let a successful breeding career.

 

[got_cows?]

Had a cow a few years back who could barely walk on her front left hoof. Called the vet and he did the same thing. Kept cutting and cutting until the abcess shot right out of there. I believe he put Koppertox on it and then wrapped it. She was walking on it within a few days.

 

[mtnman]

I don't know how anyone with any commons sense can mistake a stifle injury for a bad foot. They are only about 24 inches apart. I do understand that if you are new to the industry you could, so I'm not picking on you. I'm talking about your supposed "specialist".

Glad you kept trying to work it out Farminlund, your perseverance paid you dividends.

mtnman

 

[Farminlund]

Not defending my expert, as he did seem pretty convinced; but if you can not see anything swollen in the hoof area & he does not want to put weight on that leg - how is it that one can figure out where in the support chain (ie foot, lower leg, upper leg/thigh) the problem is located?

I suppose like the vet it comes from seeing it repeatedly & knowing that swinging the leg out to put weight on it is not a symptom of stifle joint damage. I have seen many of my cows & calves limp in the past, many showed the classic swelling while others did not; all but a few responded to LA200 & thus I believed those that responded with a single treatment had footrot.

I have had 3 that I believed had fescue foot & all three went in the freezer as they did not get better when treated with LA200 - all in the fall while grazing stockpile fescue.

So this experience might mean that continual treatment with LA200 might fix those that do not respond with a single treatment or that the fix is cutting the claw away. If the vet had not seen him swing the leg/foot out, but just limp would he have cut the inside claw away? Would it then look like stifle joint problem - or is there something other than a limp that characterizes that issue? I would like to get better at figuring these things out – better yet, wish I didn't have so many learning opportunities.

 

[Farminlund]

BTW - let the bull back with the girls over the weekend, he walks on it gingerly but was putting all his weight on it, so I trust this problem is behind him. Thanks for all the inputs & insights.

 

[milkmaid]

Not quite sure how to explain how you can tell whether the problem is in the hoof, hock, or higher up. It's easier to show than to tell.

I will note that while most cows I've seen with footrot not only have swelling, but it's the entire hoof they refuse to put weight on -- a cow with an abcess will usually only refuse to put weight on the affected claw. Seems they're more likely to get an abcess in the outside claw in a hind leg. Depending on how long it's gone on and how severe it is the cow can only slightly turn out the one hoof or be completely cowhocked. Sometimes it's only a slight lameness, sometimes not. Saw one cow awhile back with an abcess in the R/F that hobbled around on 3 legs and moaned while doing so. Few days on Excenel and she was as good as new.

I actually prefer the antibiotic therapy over cutting the hoof down - seems like cutting it down that much can cause more problems than it solves by allowing other bacteria to get inside. As well the problems from cutting away the hard outer sole; trimming down too much can predispose them to a stone bruise, which can lead to another abcess.

If the abcess is already open then that's another matter. My hoof trimmer worked on one of my nurse cows last fall who had a really bad abcess that was open, draining, and been that way for a long time. (No, they don't always heal on their own even if there's a way for them to drain.) There was a vertical crack running from halfway down the hoof to the bottom of the sole. He trimmed the hoof so it was balanced, didn't pare down the abcess site, but injected oxytet200 into the abcess via the crack in the hoof wall, packed with terramycin and wrapped the whole thing up. I had him back out this spring and that nurse cow was completely healed. No sign of an abcess any more and the crack is growing out, hoof is good again.