my steer is paralyzed

[showkid1200]

Well i bought a wmw steer around november last year and didn't have any problem until about 3 months ago when we got his hooves trimmed he was almost crippled couldn't hardly walk and almost stopped eating but after a few weeks he was walking better problem solved, that is until last week i went out to feed him around 4 and found him in the back of the pasture and he couldn't get up. Long story short we ending up getting hip slings and picking him up but his legs where dead couldn't feel a darn thing. My question is though could it be from who made who/ i know he has head crippled calves but doing some research of my own normally his calves have front end problems not back. Opinions are appreciated

 

[certherfbeef]

May not have anything to do with the sire of the calf. Might just be an accident. He could have slipped and broke his back. Another animal could have tried to ride him and knocked him down and broke his back.

 

[Grand Chaser]

Certherfbeef could be right but i had a heifer do this too. The vet said that it could have been Johne's Deisease here's some links to it.
http://www.organic-vet.reading.ac.uk/Ca ... johne1.htm

http://www.aphis.usda.gov/vs/nahps/johnes/

not sure if this is what happened to your calf but it could be. I've heard that the calf could look perfectly fine one day and crippled or down the next.
JMO please correct me if i'm wrong.

Tori

 

[d6cattleman]

Well, I dont know what could be wrong. Listen to Tori, she knows alot and has experience.
Good Luck getting him back to normal.
d6cattleman

 

[showkid1200]

well we couldn't get him up so we had to slaughter him. We dtayed and watched because we wanted to check his spinal cord and back and there was nothing wrong so i don't really know what is could have been?

 

[chambero]

It sounds like a condition called spastic paresis to me. You run into it in some of the club calf genetics. It is fairly common. It is a genetic condition, but apparently it is not simple dominant/recessive and is hard to predict when it shows up.

Basically, you have a calf that is going along doing fine and then starts to lose control of his back legs. They go through a stage where they kind of swing the back legs. It also makes them look like their back is hurt.

It can affect very small calves or not show up until they are larger. Do a search on the internet and you can find out more about it. There isn't anything that can be done for an animal that has it.

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

Johnes Disease is a very SLOW killer. Cattle have great appetite, but continue to lose weight & have extremely watery stool. Can't imagine this is the reason.

 

[Frankie]

Johnes Disease is a very SLOW killer. Cattle have great appetite, but continue to lose weight & have extremely watery stool. Can't imagine this is the reason.

I agree. I don't see how it could be Johnes. They continue to eat normally, but don't absorb the nutrients from the feed.

I'm sorry about your steer. It's hard to lose one.

 

[Grand Chaser]

well i didn't know that Johnes was a slow killer. i just knew it broke a calf down so they couldn't stand. Thank you for bringing that to my attention(i learn a new thing every day!! or at least i try)

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

No, Johnes does not "break a calf down". It slowly causes them to starve to death. Actually, they generally get so malnutritioned, they end up dying from Pneumonial or some other illness -

 

[Grand Chaser]

what i meant by break down was that they would lay down and wouldn't get back up.