leg cut, bone exposed

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jilleroo

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The three year old charolais heifer was trying to get back to her weaned calf - she is away from home on agistment and we had carted the calves home. The owner of the property checked the 100 plus heifers twice, he said, but missed seeing this one caught up in the fence as she was flat on her side. Been there a day and a half.
We went and lifted her up with a tractor and brought her the 50 miles home in the trayback on dirt road.....She has a lot of hide off and is massively bruised and swollen,(from being in the fence, not the ride home where she was packed with hay) but the main injury of worry is that she has worn a hunk of hide and flesh out of the inside of her backleg, above the hock, trying to get off a steel stay pipe. The hole is about three inches square and the bone is totally exposed, but not broken. I scrubbed it all out best I could and now have it packed with a pad soaked in iodine. She's had anti-inflammatories and oxy-tetracycline. The heifer can't sit up unaided, is fairly unresponsive, but is drinking well - not eating. I think she should be shot but hubby wants to give her a chance. I know there's no good news but I feel better for sharing anyway!!
 
Make sure you keep her hydrated. You have treated her the way the vet would have treated the wound. The only thing to do now is make sure she gets plenty of fluids down her as she is probably dehydrated.
 
Make sure you keep her hydrated. You have treated her the way the vet would have treated the wound. The only thing to do now is make sure she gets plenty of fluids down her as she is probably dehydrated. Also, Id be getting me a new neighbor what a dumbass.
 
You may need to force feed her, perhaps a rumen transplant (rumen juice from another animal pumped into her rumen) as antibiotics can change the gut flora. Also, just a thought, I would replace the iodine with perhaps chlorhexadine on the gauze by the bone, as iodine kills the periosteum--if she makes it, you don't need a sequestrum happening. Another trick now being used is honey or sterile sugar in wounds, not sure about touching bone with it though. And if she's down for a couple of days with this, and still not responsive, likely not going to make it no matter.

How is she doing now anyway?
 
raw honey is a natural antibiotic. I have seen it personally work on cuts left unstitched. Both humans and animals. The cuts should have been stictched, but werent. I wouldnt have believed it if I hadnt seen it myself. My buddy is a commercial beekeeper, so I got to see it all firsthand.
 
Many thanks for the interesting replies which will be useful for the future. We put the heifer down as we felt she was suffering too much. A beautiful big quiet white heifer, she had just bruised herself too much thrashing around trying to get out and that cut leg would greatly reduce her chances of getting to her feet any time soon. A shame. Haven't lost many cattle to speak of all year and just going through a bad patch at the moment.
 
No, we never make hasty decisions - we've had some wonderful "saves", even a cow with a completely broken front leg.
Had the heifer been more "with it", we would have persisted with her as long as it took.
 
Get you some Underwoods Horse Medicine, It'll be the best $20 you've ever spent. And yes it can be used on cows....pigs.....dogs, cats.....etc not just for horse injuries.

Google it, and look at the before and after pictures. The stuff is amazing.
 
There are several things that I would suggest.

1. Find someone who has some FRESH comfrey growing, if you can. If you CAN find it, you will want to rubs the large leaves between your hands to "bruise" the leaves. You will then use these as a compress against the wound. It will help pull out any toxins within the wound, and help speed up the healing process.

2. Purchase some "Schriener's" (100% natural, no chemicals) spray from your local feed store. Spray this on the wound liberally, then you will place the "bruise" comfrey leaves on top of this, and wrap with "vet wrap" or something similar.

3. I would also recommend warm compresses. You can use old CLEAN rags and place these (after soaking them, put them in the microwave for a couple of minutes to warm them up sufficiently) and place over the comfrey leaves.

4. Purchase some electrolites from your local feed store, such as "Bounce Back" and add to the drinking water.

5. Purchase some water soluable antibiotics, such as oxy-tetracycline, or regular tetracycline and also add to the drinking water.

6. You can also spray the Schriener's spray on the areas where she has lost fur. This will help speed up hair regrowth, and if any fungus, bacteria or whatever is also present this will kill it.

7. If she quits eatting or drinking, you can buy a force-feed tube that is a large bottle with a long plastic tube attached. You fill it with the antibiotics and eletrolites to this, place the tube down the left side of the throat (so it will end up on the right side of the stomach where it will do the most good), and you don't have to worry about it accidentally ending up in the lungs.

Hope this helps.
 
Also forgot to mention in the previous post:

Make sure if she can't get up on her own that she doesn't lay completely on her side. If you have to, use cement/concrete blocks or heavy wooden blocks or partial logs to keep her propped up. This will prevent bloat and fluid from getting into her lungs, both of which can be deadly.
 

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