regolith
Well-known member
More of a rant than anything - I'm just sick of sore feet, drugs that don't work, shoes that can't possibly stay on because of the mud and a vet who examines a foot and says she's going to be fine now, but she never is.
I've got an older cow, has had white line issues with her feet since March, one got particularly bad and I was concerned was going to get a deep infection so I gave her a five day course of penicillin and put a shoe on her sound claw... shoe fell off after about three weeks so I milked her till she started struggling again, then dried her off so she wouldn't have to walk much until she calved again. Didn't even consider asking the vet to look at her because last cow that was going that way he said there was no infection and didn't give me the stronger drugs I'd wanted and I had to cull her - one of my top producers - five weeks later.
She hasn't been good since she went in with the dry herd. Had a good look at her foot when she was lying down about ten days ago, no separation but there was a hole where the white line injury had been. Then she got so bad she was dragging the foot, I put her in a paddock on her own and lifted the foot again and found the mud packed between the claws had caused footrot. That was three days ago, she's had 60 ml penicillin and I'm not sure that she's better at all. Going to leave her in that paddock till she calves so that she doesn't have to walk or compete for food, then she might be able to rear a calf or two, or I might have to shoot her.
Yes, she'll be twelve next spring. But she's a good milker and always has a good calf and at this stage I don't know if she's ever going to be fit to go back into the milking herd. I don't even know how many cows I've had to cull for foot problems this year, far too many.
I've got an older cow, has had white line issues with her feet since March, one got particularly bad and I was concerned was going to get a deep infection so I gave her a five day course of penicillin and put a shoe on her sound claw... shoe fell off after about three weeks so I milked her till she started struggling again, then dried her off so she wouldn't have to walk much until she calved again. Didn't even consider asking the vet to look at her because last cow that was going that way he said there was no infection and didn't give me the stronger drugs I'd wanted and I had to cull her - one of my top producers - five weeks later.
She hasn't been good since she went in with the dry herd. Had a good look at her foot when she was lying down about ten days ago, no separation but there was a hole where the white line injury had been. Then she got so bad she was dragging the foot, I put her in a paddock on her own and lifted the foot again and found the mud packed between the claws had caused footrot. That was three days ago, she's had 60 ml penicillin and I'm not sure that she's better at all. Going to leave her in that paddock till she calves so that she doesn't have to walk or compete for food, then she might be able to rear a calf or two, or I might have to shoot her.
Yes, she'll be twelve next spring. But she's a good milker and always has a good calf and at this stage I don't know if she's ever going to be fit to go back into the milking herd. I don't even know how many cows I've had to cull for foot problems this year, far too many.
