Keep a one toe heifer?

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MurraysMutts

MurraysMutts

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N. Central boonies, Oklahoma
Anybody have any like that? How long ya had her? Any issues?
This lil heifer owes me nothing. I'm thinking of making a cow out of her. She injured that hoof several months ago and vet took the one claw off. She gets around great!! No issues.
Anyway. I do stupid stuff all the time. Why not add to it....
Shes a year old now. Weighs about 650lbs. She's been on hay for the last few months with a handful of cubes once or twice a week. Don't really know what I'm gonna do with her so I moved her to the pasture to finish up the leftover feed from my butcher animals. May go ahead and buy a ton or two of feed and get her good and fat to breed end of May/ first of June.
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Sort of like a dual tandem axle trailer with one wheel missing on a side. The remaining tire on that side of the axle takes all the load designed for two. Load the trailer to capacity and you overload that tire. Think feeding the heifer, getting her fat, getting bred. When walking, not all the "tires" are on the ground. What if that other claw has a blowout?
 
simme said:
Sort of like a dual tandem axle trailer with one wheel missing on a side. The remaining tire on that side of the axle takes all the load designed for two. Load the trailer to capacity and you overload that tire. Think feeding the heifer, getting her fat, getting bred. When walking, not all the "tires" are on the ground. What if that other claw has a blowout?
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🤣 no more spare tires!
I was thinking there was a couple folks had a cow like this from past conversations. Yeah it's probly a bad idea. The vet looked at me like I lost my marbles. What he didn't know is, I spilled those a long time ago!

I was thinking I read somewhere that the outside claw is strong. If she had lost the outside claw it would've been much worse.

Anyway. I did some searching on the subject before posting and discovered there wasn't much conversion about this. Main reason for the post.
 
I had one, and wouldn't keep another. But she was a grazing dairy cow and therefore required to walk from pasture to the dairy shed twice daily... she was okay on shorter distances but quickly got tired if the herd was walking half a mile or more, and had to be cut out and kept close to the shed on those days or she'd be lame within 2 - 3 days.
A cow feeding a calf and only walking to graze/drink is a whole different scenario though.
 
MurraysMutts said:
Anybody have any like that? How long ya had her? Any issues?
This lil heifer owes me nothing. I'm thinking of making a cow out of her. She injured that hoof several months ago and vet took the one claw off. She gets around great!! No issues.
Anyway. I do stupid stuff all the time. Why not add to it....
Shes a year old now. Weighs about 650lbs. She's been on hay for the last few months with a handful of cubes once or twice a week. Don't really know what I'm gonna do with her so I moved her to the pasture to finish up the leftover feed from my butcher animals. May go ahead and buy a ton or two of feed and get her good and fat to breed end of May/ first of June.
View attachment 65874View attachment 65875
Click to expand...
Sorry, Murray, but there are just too many animals out there with solid feet to take a chance on this one. She probably wouldn't sell well, so freezer beef.
 
I had the vet remove a toe on a first calf heifer 2 years ago. took her a while to heal up (Fly season) but she never had a problem getting around. vet said she would probably not be able to handle bull riding her which was fine for me since I AI. raised a good calf and bred back on first service. unfortunately this spring she started calving a month early and tried pushing out a backward breach calf. by the time I found her, it was too late. I would not have a problem keeping a heifer/cow with one toe again.
 
I've certainly thought about feeding her out. We just about to fill the freezers now tho. I just don't like all the antibiotics we put in her to get her healed up, even tho it was done correctly and vet approved. And Yes it was a couple months before she was walking 100%

It's starting to sound like this NEEDS to be done for research purposes....... 🤣
 
simme said:
Sort of like a dual tandem axle trailer with one wheel missing on a side. The remaining tire on that side of the axle takes all the load designed for two. Load the trailer to capacity and you overload that tire. Think feeding the heifer, getting her fat, getting bred. When walking, not all the "tires" are on the ground. What if that other claw has a blowout?
Click to expand...
Excellent analogy
 
So if a vet removes one claw, it's like an amputation and will never grow back. Is that correct?
... Think it was 2025. I checked cows and there was a newborn missing one claw. Cow stepped on it or whatever, who knows. It eventually grew back and she has all her claws. Believe it may have slowed/stunted her growth, because she has always been small for her age. Guess I am too embarrassed to sell her. Will try breeding her to an easy calving Wagyu. ... I might post a new message. A couple new calves arrived in February. Hello Murray! Looking forward to reading more about your one-toed heifer.
 
moses388 said:
So if a vet removes one claw, it's like an amputation and will never grow back. Is that correct?
... Think it was 2025. I checked cows and there was a newborn missing one claw. Cow stepped on it or whatever, who knows. It eventually grew back and she has all her claws. Believe it may have slowed/stunted her growth, because she has always been small for her age. Guess I am too embarrassed to sell her. Will try breeding her to an easy calving Wagyu. ... I might post a new message. A couple new calves arrived in February. Hello Murray! Looking forward to reading more about your one-toed heifer.
Click to expand...
Yep. He cut the one claw smooth off!
And scolded me for not getting her in sooner by the way. She had a slight slight limp, then there was no limp. A while after I moved her to another place to wean she come up limping again with that foot swollen up something fierce.
 
MurraysMutts said:
Anybody have any like that? How long ya had her? Any issues?
This lil heifer owes me nothing. I'm thinking of making a cow out of her. She injured that hoof several months ago and vet took the one claw off. She gets around great!! No issues.
Anyway. I do stupid stuff all the time. Why not add to it....
Shes a year old now. Weighs about 650lbs. She's been on hay for the last few months with a handful of cubes once or twice a week. Don't really know what I'm gonna do with her so I moved her to the pasture to finish up the leftover feed from my butcher animals. May go ahead and buy a ton or two of feed and get her good and fat to breed end of May/ first of June.
View attachment 65874View attachment 65875
Click to expand...
As high as prices are now just sell her and use the money to buy something better. Some people (me included) have a fixation on a good deal. Just take the money from the bidder at the sale barn and mitigate the headaches in the future from keeping a subpar animal.
 

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