Limping Cow

[donnaIL]

A month or so ago one of our cows started limping, she is approximately 4 yo, heavy bred, due to calf this month. So a few weeks ago we run her through the chute, my husband lifts the foot and see's what he said looks like a boney growth and its hard like plastic--he whittled it away (no bleeding), I gave her 20 cc of penicillin and we added a sulfa additative to the drinking water.

2 weeks past (that was last Wed) and the cow was no better, so we loaded her up and hauled her to the vet. There is a vet about 1 hour away has excellent facilities and the price is reasonable..so away we went.

Vet grinds away at the suspecious foot and finds a small puncture hole (nothing that should make her limp that bad per the vet), bandages her hoof, says the because the cow is large (approx 1500lbs) foot injuries are harder on them or the cow might just be a wimp.

While trying to get her loaded--he thinks he heard a sound coming from her hip, and that probably she has some kind of hip problem, said he has seen that before in dairy cattle. Any of you ever have any experiences with this?? His prognosis was actually pretty bad, he said she should be able to have this calf but probably/may not have another.

I have searched the internet and have found no articles on hyp dysplesia(spelling?) in cattle. We really like the looks of this cow but I would assume that this condition could be passed on, so wonder if she has a heifer what should we do.

Thanks for comments. Donna

 

[Beefy]

you should be able to tell by watching her walk whether its a foot problem or a hip problem. i came into this thread expecting it to be a foot rot case. but again, you should be able to tell by looking. any swelling in the front or back of the foot? walking on her toe? the growth isnt a corn is it? a hip problem wont go away. i have a cow like that, she kind of gives way when she walks sometimes. i also had two footrots pop up this week too, tho.

 

[donnaIL]

First thing. Sounds to me like this cow got foot rot and it abcessed. Secondly, I think you need a new vet. Sounds kinda quacky to me no offense. This sounds like a case of foot rot that wasnt treated properly the first time and got so bad that it abscessed.

We have had this cow for 3 + years (bought her at the sale barn as a 1 yo 3rd stage). The cow had never limped until recently---so this is the first time with the problem.

I would agree with you but the I talked to this vet and another vet before we started treating the cow and even when I made the appointment they thought it was foot rot--so why would he change his story when he saw the animal. I think his specialty is foot care of dairy cattle. I looked at the hoof when he had her on the table, there was no swelling and besides a small whole on the bottom of one of her toes (that did not look infected) her foot and leg looked normal.

When you say treated the "first" time and then so bad abscessed--How long are we talking about? 3-4 weeks?

 

[donnaIL]

you should be able to tell by watching her walk whether its a foot problem or a hip problem. i came into this thread expecting it to be a foot rot case. but again, you should be able to tell by looking. any swelling in the front or back of the foot? walking on her toe? the growth isnt a corn is it? a hip problem wont go away. i have a cow like that, she kind of gives way when she walks sometimes. i also had two footrots pop up this week too, tho.

Now swelling, not walking on her toe. She does put some weight on the foot/leg and does not keep the foot in the air, but it looks like it is very painful for her to walk--reminds me of my bad knee I'm nursing. It does seem like she gets worse everytime we mess with her--yesterday she did not come up for feed.

My husband said the stuff he removed was like hard plastic (It was a tight spot and I didn't look, didn't want to get kicked in the face), he actually thought it was one of those nails that have the plastic rings around them....but it was not plastic and there was no nail, it was on her pad behind her toes.

Vet trimmed up all her feet, put some kinda powder on the puncture and bandaged it, said she didn't need antibiotics..guess I will just watch her and see if anything changes

 

[dun]

Last year around June, Ol Granny got to limping and you could hear her hip pop from 30 feet away when she walked. We put her in a smallish field, about 1/2 acre and put up a creep gate so her calf could still get to her to eat but could spend the rest of the time with the rest of the herd. The vet palpated her and said trhe right hip was really bad and she probably wouldn;t make it to weaning time. He suggested aspirin twice a day to help with the pain. I gave her 10 aspirin in the morning aqnd 10 in the evening for 2 weeks with a handfull of grain. The limp went away but we held her seperate until weaning, early October last year. Didn't expect her to make it through the winter with the ice and the cold. To make a short story not as long, She's rasing a dandy bull calf this year. Cakved with no problems and is back to being the leader of the herd. She doesn;t move as fast as she used to, 17 years old, but she's still the old reliable. She's bred for an early March calf next year.

 

[txfishing]

Had a 3 year cow start limping about 15 days ago. Central Texas had record amounts of rain last month. No apprerant swelling anywhere. When she walks she gets to put weight on the hoof (Rear Right) then releases it. When she stands still, she lifts the back part of the hoof just slightly where her toes touch still the gound. When she does this, I can't see any foreign object under her foot. At the time she seemed to have trouble keeping up with the heard and stayed behind most of the time.

In reading these forums, I treated her with LA-200 6 days ago. Now she seems to limp a little less and is keeping up with the heard. Her appetite and mood is still very good.

My question is how long does fot rot take to heal? Should I think about retreating or buy a different drug? The LA200 bottle suggest Sub Q type injection. I did this, however it left some pretty good size lumps at the injection site. I assume the lumps are normal and will go away after a while (from what I read). Any problems shooting LA200 into the muscle?

Thanks

 

[milkmaid]

You can give LA200 in the muscle.

 

[donnaIL]

txfishing,

hope your cow is treatable. Our cow it is the hip, you can hear it popping when she walks.

donna

 

[milkmaid]

...I gave her 20 cc of penicillin...

FYI, 20cc of penn won't do a thing for a mature animal, esp one of that size. Use the same dosage for penn as what you'd use for LA200; 5mL/100lbs. Now that you're using oxytet I'd stick with it, but the info on penn is just for future reference. Keep us posted on the cow. ;-)

 

[donnaIL]

FYI, 20cc of penn won't do a thing for a mature animal, esp one of that size. Use the same dosage for penn as what you'd use for LA200; 5mL/100lbs. Now that you're using oxytet I'd stick with it, but the info on penn is just for future reference. Keep us posted on the cow

I gave the dosage on the bottle for a 1500lb cow. I assume ml and cc the same (I buy the medicine and needle at the feed store and just load it to the amount it says). It was a long acting penicillin. It really doesn't matter because the problem is in the hip. We are trying the asprin, but expect the cow will go to the sale barn for beef when the calf is weaned. Thanks for the info tho...I think I will look at the bottle again.

Donna

 

[kickinbull]

nt

 

[milkmaid]

FYI, 20cc of penn won't do a thing for a mature animal, esp one of that size. Use the same dosage for penn as what you'd use for LA200; 5mL/100lbs. Now that you're using oxytet I'd stick with it, but the info on penn is just for future reference. Keep us posted on the cow

I gave the dosage on the bottle for a 1500lb cow. I assume ml and cc the same (I buy the medicine and needle at the feed store and just load it to the amount it says). It was a long acting penicillin. It really doesn't matter because the problem is in the hip. We are trying the asprin, but expect the cow will go to the sale barn for beef when the calf is weaned. Thanks for the info tho...I think I will look at the bottle again.

Donna

I know what it says. :P However, any decent vet will tell you it must be given at higher doses to be effective. The only reason the label isn't changed is because it would take millions of dollars to go through testing to get the label changed.

 

[donnaIL]

I know what it says. However, any decent vet will tell you it must be given at higher doses to be effective. The only reason the label isn't changed is because it would take millions of dollars to go through testing to get the label changed.

Thats good info to know. I did not know if you were telling me I was administering it wrong or calling me an idiot (or the vet like TN). I talked to the vet before giving the shot and they did not recommend larger doses, but I will keep that in mind if I use antibiotics again.. Would you just use more for foot problems or any condition? In any case we hauled the cow to the vet and he said the cow did not need any other antibiotics, as the condition was in the hip and not the foot.

Thankfully I have not had to use medicines on a regular basis, and when necessary I consult the vet. Donna

 

[dun]

The higher disage applys primarily to pen. The last time we used it we used almost double the regular dose and every third day of the long acting stuff. It worked, in about a month. That was for joint ill. Heifer went on to be a productive cow.

 

[milkmaid]

I know what it says. However, any decent vet will tell you it must be given at higher doses to be effective. The only reason the label isn't changed is because it would take millions of dollars to go through testing to get the label changed.

Thats good info to know. I did not know if you were telling me I was administering it wrong or calling me an idiot (or the vet like TN). I talked to the vet before giving the shot and they did not recommend larger doses, but I will keep that in mind if I use antibiotics again.. Would you just use more for foot problems or any condition? In any case we hauled the cow to the vet and he said the cow did not need any other antibiotics, as the condition was in the hip and not the foot.

Thankfully I have not had to use medicines on a regular basis, and when necessary I consult the vet. Donna

No, I wasn't calling you an idiot. :P No worries. A lot of folks don't know, and depending on their client/vet relationship, their vet may or may not tell them depending on how well s/he knows them. Vets don't like handing out that kind of information randomly... unfortunately, but I can't completely blame them either. Sometimes clients do stupid things with information they're given; you know the saying, "a little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing."

Oh, and ditto to what dun said. ;-)

 

[GMN]

I know what it says. However, any decent vet will tell you it must be given at higher doses to be effective. The only reason the label isn't changed is because it would take millions of dollars to go through testing to get the label changed.

Thats good info to know. I did not know if you were telling me I was administering it wrong or calling me an idiot (or the vet like TN). I talked to the vet before giving the shot and they did not recommend larger doses, but I will keep that in mind if I use antibiotics again.. Would you just use more for foot problems or any condition? In any case we hauled the cow to the vet and he said the cow did not need any other antibiotics, as the condition was in the hip and not the foot.

Thankfully I have not had to use medicines on a regular basis, and when necessary I consult the vet. Donna

I'm just going to throw this out here, but we have had cows that have had pinched nerves from the position of the calf it is carrying, which causes them to limp. Could it be this? After she calves if she is partially paralyzed it would be my thought that it could be this, even though I know you said it was the foot or hip. We give dexamethazone to cows for limping and inflammation of joints, I am not sure if it can be given to a pregnant animal safely though.

Gail

 

[milkmaid]

We give dexamethazone to cows for limping and inflammation of joints, I am not sure if it can be given to a pregnant animal safely though.

Nope.

Dex is a corticosteriod... basically it'll induce labor if you give it to a pregnant animal.