recovery from hardware?

[angus9259]

Had a cow I think got hardware disease - roach back, lagging behind herd, hard time / uncomfortable walking in her front legs. Dropped a magnet down her, treated the fever and hoped for the best as she was soon to calve. Since calving she's gradually improved. Still walks funny and somewhat roach backed but doesn't seem to be nearly as uncomfortable and is raising a great calf and came back in heat in 30 days.

Can they recover from hardware or is it a ticking timebomb? Will it always get aggravated with every pregnancy? Obviously, as with hardware I have no actual proof that she really has hardware (no xray) - just symptoms.

 

[Lucky_P]

I see plenty of them, at necropsy, that have evidence of prior bouts of hardware - usually some adhesions between the reticulum, liver, and diaphragm - and it's usually unrelated to the eventual cause of death. Wire or nail is long gone.
So long as the hardware doesn't migrate through the diaphragm, allowing rumen bacteria access to the pericardial sac, I'd hazard a guess that most of those recover pretty uneventfully.

But, I do see some that develop 'vagus indigestion' - when there's enough localized peritonitis from the wire/nail allowing leakage of contents into the peritoneal cavity, that in the process of 'healing', you get enough scar tissue constricting/impinging on the branches of the vagus nerve that controls function of the rumen. Those cows have decreased or absent ruminal contractions and get a big, fluid-filled rumen - and eventually die; nothing much moving through.

Have a first calf heifer in the herd right now that I'm afraid may have hardware - dropped a magnet in her last Saturday, gave her a big slug of Baytril and Cydectin, weaned her calf and put her up in the corral so she can eat and recuperate unhindered. Looking somewhat better, but still moving slow and walking funny in the front end - slow, deliberate steps, with her elbows out and crossing her front feet in front of one another.
Hoping I didn't fool around and wait too late - she's been 'off' for close to a month now - started out with what I initially thought was a shoulder injury, but she kept getting slower, and started that cross-over front leg pattern with both fore legs. Time will tell.

 

[angus9259]

Have a first calf heifer in the herd right now that I'm afraid may have hardware - dropped a magnet in her last Saturday, gave her a big slug of Baytril and Cydectin, weaned her calf and put her up in the corral so she can eat and recuperate unhindered. Looking somewhat better, but still moving slow and walking funny in the front end - slow, deliberate steps, with her elbows out and crossing her front feet in front of one another.
Hoping I didn't fool around and wait too late - she's been 'off' for close to a month now - started out with what I initially thought was a shoulder injury, but she kept getting slower, and started that cross-over front leg pattern with both fore legs. Time will tell.

Questions -

When you say the "cross over pattern" do you mean the front feet move in the motion of reverse parentheses as they move forward )( such that they cross under the brisket or do you mean the move as such () so that they cross more in front of the cow?

What will you do with yours if she "appears" to recover? With cow prices sometimes as high as $0.65 I hate the idea of burying one.

 

[Lucky_P]

Crossing over like this: () - slowly, deliberately, placing right front foot to the left of the left front, then left front foot to the right of right front. Sort of a real slow 'daisy-clipping' gait
She was moving pretty good the past two days. but still stands with front legs crossed over; I'm hopeful that that's a good sign.

If she 'recovers', we'll breed her and roll on. If there's been no migration through the diaphragm to the pericardium, I anticipate full recovery to be likely.
If not, and she recovers body condition - she's already looking better since I pulled the calf - we'll take her to slaughter and donate her to the local Salvation Army soup kitchen - as long as she's past the slaughter withdrawal on the Baytril/Cydectin. Ground beef should be fine, but even as a coming 3-yr old, she might make decent steaks with a little time on feed - she's got the genetic background for high marbling and tenderness.

 

[Lucky_P]

Turned my 'hardware' heifer back out with the rest of the fall-breeding group yesterday; 2 weeks after magnet administration, she's moving well, standing without legs crossed, actually ran & kicked up her heels a little bit on Saturday. I'm counting her as a 'success', and we'll go ahead and breed her next time she cycles into heat.

 

[angus9259]

Turned my 'hardware' heifer back out with the rest of the fall-breeding group yesterday; 2 weeks after magnet administration, she's moving well, standing without legs crossed, actually ran & kicked up her heels a little bit on Saturday. I'm counting her as a 'success', and we'll go ahead and breed her next time she cycles into heat.

Congrats. Still not sure what I'm going to do with mine. She never had that crossed legged thing. She's chased me off her calf a couple times and has no problem keeping up with the herd, but she sure has a mean roach back. I think I'm going to cull mine after I wean her calf this spring. She just looks like a time bomb to me. Then again . . . she sure has a beautiful heifer at her side . . . :roll: