Fire Sweep Ranch
Well-known member
About 30 days ago, I noticed one of my better cows was limping on her back left foot. I watched her for a week, and she had no change in her severity. I brought her up last week, and looked closer, again, not finding anything specific. I treated her with LA300 on the chance it was a slight case of foot rot. I called my hoof trimmer and asked him next time he was in the area if he could come look at her. He called this morning, said because of the rain, he had an opening and would be over.
We put her on the table, and with a little digging he found her injury spot. He dug at it a little bit, and thought there was a small rock in the pocket. Nope, he then said it looked like a thorn (from Honey Locust). We have no Honey Locust trees. He put some pressure on the ridge of the pocket, and this slowly slid out of the hole:
For reference, that is a pair of tweezers typically used to remove semen straws from the tank. What is it? A small metal barb, likely from a barb wire fence! He was as shocked as we were, since the cow had no swelling in her leg and her limp was not severe! He said typically, with metal, there is a big infection in the foot. Here is a picture of the foot after the wire was removed:
He glued a shoe on her off toe, so she would not bear weight on the sore toe and give it time to heal. Amazing what can go in the foot and the animal still function normally!
We put her on the table, and with a little digging he found her injury spot. He dug at it a little bit, and thought there was a small rock in the pocket. Nope, he then said it looked like a thorn (from Honey Locust). We have no Honey Locust trees. He put some pressure on the ridge of the pocket, and this slowly slid out of the hole:
For reference, that is a pair of tweezers typically used to remove semen straws from the tank. What is it? A small metal barb, likely from a barb wire fence! He was as shocked as we were, since the cow had no swelling in her leg and her limp was not severe! He said typically, with metal, there is a big infection in the foot. Here is a picture of the foot after the wire was removed:
He glued a shoe on her off toe, so she would not bear weight on the sore toe and give it time to heal. Amazing what can go in the foot and the animal still function normally!
