Hi all. We have a newborn calf that mama stepped on and broke his leg, high up. We had surgery done on it, with a pin put in, but no one has a clue how to immobilize it! He's an active little devil, about 85 pounds. Right now we have him all bound up with whatever we could find, wood, bandages, socks for padding, rope, and a doggie harness. It's a sight, and heavy. Vet flexed the joints, so he puts no weight on it, but he falls over. He topples when he tries to get up to milk (thru the side of the chute) and of course, lands right on it...Any advice would be helpful. I would like to get him to weaning to butcher him for the freezer. Shame, he was destined to be herdsire when he was born so perfect! :bang:
immobilize calf w/broken leg?
- Thread starter ticomalo
- Start date
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wbvs58
Well-known member
Try Googling Thomas Splint for dogs. Something a little heavier but constructed on similar lines may help. It immobilisers the limb very nicely and if they do put a bit of weight on it, the weight is transferred to the groin. They used to be used a lot on dogs and cats years ago.
Ken
Ken
chippie
Well-known member
what leg was broken? It sounds like you have too much stuff on him.
Can you post a pic?
Can you post a pic?
Thanks, Ken. We are trying to come up with something along those lines. Figuring out how to construct it in a way that will hold the upper part of the leg still, while he throws himself on the ground is the problem. I'm afraid he will break something else! It was 2 vets, and a vet in training, and the heavy wood thing with his three joints flexed was the best they could come up with!?! I had to hold him up while he was milking this evening, and then he tossed himself down, right on top of the bad leg. I got him turned right, but there is no guarantee he will stay that way overnight. Tomorrow, when the pharmacy opens, I plan to get some plaster, and try to cast him in a way that will protect it, but how that is, I still have no clue. :???:wbvs58":a5z526hz said:
Yes, I think it's way too much stuff too. I had him in a smaller, but firmer "3 sticks and duct tape" splint, but it all came loose despite my best efforts, and the bone had to be reset. It is his right rear leg between the hock and stifle. I really hope he lies still until I can get to him tomorrow. I'm going to tackle him with plaster and some sort of metal support, unless I get a better idea. I've got a dog harness on him now to sort of stabilize the whole mess, but he's active even though we have him in a small pen beside the chute. We bring mama into the chute, and he milks thru the bars. For a first-timer, she's being quite cooperative...chippie":2hh233sk said:
I wish I knew how to post a picture.
Ticomalo I replied to your pm and, as I've suggested to you there if you've seen it, confining him very tightly in small haybales will help. Have him so he really can't do anything but go up and down, especially not turn around - the discomfort to him will be worth it in the long run. The caste we used was indeed a version of the Thomas splint. Baby calves' legs knit very fast - if you can keep him in there for two weeks, he might be knitted, especially as the leg is pinned. It's a bit harder when you're feeding him on the cow rather than on the bottle.
vclavin
Well-known member
Theonly one we had was a heifer calf had broke her leg it just dangled. Vet wanted us to load her and bring her in but we were afraid it would cause more damage by stressing her ( taking away from familiar surroundings and her mom) so we put her and her dam in a pen by themselves. Calf had nothing done to the leg and would lay around quite a bit. Mom would get close enough to her for her to suck.
I suppose she was lucky as the leg healed so well, that when the vet grabbed her bad leg at weaning. I yelled it was the broken leg and Doc hollered back it seemed OK to him! Said nothing wrong with that leg.
Hope yours heals properly too .
Blessings
Valerie
I suppose she was lucky as the leg healed so well, that when the vet grabbed her bad leg at weaning. I yelled it was the broken leg and Doc hollered back it seemed OK to him! Said nothing wrong with that leg.
Hope yours heals properly too .
Blessings
Valerie
We ended up doing just this. We made the best version we could, out of a thin kind of rebar, with a piece of garden hose covering the parts that come in contact with his skin, and casted the leg, with this held on by tie straps. At first, we will have to re cast every couple of days to make sure the incision heals properly (I'm hoping to engineer some kind of 'window' that won't affect the strength of the cast, today) but he seems much more comfortable, and it's much easier for him to get up and milk.wbvs58":1jf4s23r said:
Thanks again everyone, I hope he heals!
Thanks so much for your support. Sorry I didn't get back sooner. The other day we took off the first cast, and all was well. We made the new cast with a window, for air to get in, and so we could treat the incision site. We used a piece of styrofoam, taped to his leg, over the stitches, then wound the plaster around over a clean, old sock, and cotton strips where the sock could not go, for padding. Every few turns, we cut alongside the styrofoam, and folded this back for strength (one cut on the left, one cut on the right, and so on). Then we cut the tape holding it, and pulled out the styrofoam. When we finished, it was perfect. He had a strong cast with a window. We added a sock over top, to keep the dirt and germs out of the wound, and the "crutch", which was the Thomas type splint, so all his weight was supported on that.jilleroo":8pr1ssvj said:
Yesterday, he seemed a little slow, and weak, so the vet came out, and checked on him (I was not there to see, but was told what had happened). The plaster we used on the cast must have been old, or defective. When they got up there, it had degraded to the point where the upper part (the most important) had almost fallen away. The way it ended up, the metal from the splint was rubbing the incision, which opened, and got infected.
We made the choice to euthenise him. The only other option was amputate, but it would have involved the whole quarter, months of healing, and probably more infection. He was already getting weak. He'd had enough.
Now we'd go up there, three times a day to bring mama into the chute for his milk. We'd clean up, and check him out, thoroughly. I cannot imagine, how the cast could have degraded so badly, so suddenly. I saw the leftovers this morning. It was bad. I remember, with the first cast, one of the rolls was grainy, and not very sticky, but we topped it with the better stuff. On this cast, they were all nice and gooey, and it dried well. I think, if we'd come up with the cast/window and Thomas splint at the very start, he would have made it, no problem. The first incision healed so well, but the second time around, there was too much cut away, and the muscle had started to atrophy. The shame of it was that he was such a good calf! I hope mama has learned her lesson for the next time around.
I have plenty of pictures, if anyone could lead me to instructions on how to post them, they might just help someone else, down the line.
Again, I want to thank you for your experience and help. If we weren't such bumbling idiots in the beginning, it would have worked!
