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Cow that can't get up

If she's heavy bred, it could be putting pressure on the nerves for her.

Don't over react here. You can always shoot her another day.

If she is up,give her the benefit of the doubt for awhile
 
I try to drown them in a bucket of water and sometimes they try to get up. My rule of thumb is 3 days before I shoot them, I have 0 patience with down cows.
 
WyomingRancher said:
hillsdown said:
WyomingRancher said:
The cow must have logged on to Ranchers and read what the consensus was. When I went to check heifers tonight, she was up, eating hay. She's definitely not out of the woods yet, we'll see what tomorrow brings.
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Is she heavy bred WR ?

Glad she is up, hopefully she takes it easy and keeps her feet under her .
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She's fairly close, that's why she is near the corral. If she stays on her hay island tonight, she has a chance :-) .
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I am thinking it might be the calf putting pressure on a nerve as well. A 11 year old cow had trouble getting up last Jan and spent more time down than up but when she finally calved it all became clear. She had 170 lbs of calves in her. I gave her banamine a few times before she calved and it seemed to help a little with the pressure and pain. After she calved her one leg was a little stiff but after a few days she was fine again.

Good luck, hopefully she can at least stay healthy long enough to raise that calf(calves) for you WR .
 
4Diamond said:
I try to drown them in a bucket of water and sometimes they try to get up. My rule of thumb is 3 days before I shoot them, I have 0 patience with down cows.
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Ya, and sometimes you can kinda roll their ear and do a banchee scream into it-----and there's a shot that kinda takes the pain away and perks them up for awhile---seems like if they try and you got a stout guy or two to kinda tail 'em up and help them keep their balance for a bit---the longer they're up, the stronger they get----one of the meanest cows i've ever owned got into a bin of wheat when it was really cold and overloaded---she was down for about a week (strange deal) i'd packed panels out there, fenced her in, babysat her---she finally got up and the third step she took, she was chasin' me! One of them 'one more year' deals, she always brought in a dandy calf---as Cap'n Call said "I hate rude behaviour, won't abide it......." that fall, if you got a really, really tuff big mac, you can thank me
 
"Ya, and sometimes you can kinda roll their ear and do a banchee scream into it"

LIttle Joe - that has got me rolling on the floor!!! I've tried that little trick on several animals and I have never been able to get them to figure out what I want!!!
 
sic 'em reds said:
"Ya, and sometimes you can kinda roll their ear and do a banchee scream into it"

LIttle Joe - that has got me rolling on the floor!!! I've tried that little trick on several animals and I have never been able to get them to figure out what I want!!!
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:lol: Well then you just ain't no "banchee"! :lol:

I tried that one time and when I quit the cow just kinda rolled her eyes at me as if to say "man, and you think you've got problems . . ."
 
On a really hot day I was hauling hogs to slaughter and got stopped for 45 minutes by a train.

Got to the slaughter house and when I opened the door had a "dead hog" fall out, 75 more ran over her as they got out and I told the scale man I had a dead one - - - he said wait just a minute, got 2 hot shots had me place a prong in each nostril as he took the other and placed one prong in each private part. We both hit the trigger at the same time - - - that gilt beat us to the scale and went thru with the rest.

At the local salebarn I have seen them use their hands to try to suffocate cows that were down and about 1/2 the time they get up.
 
Think of it financially. If you put too much money in her and she dies you will have to take away from the profits of the other cows to make up that difference. I have done the math several times in the past and I wont spend over $100 on a cow in that situation. Its hard to get someone to buy a dead cow. I did sell one once though. Some guy was trying to catch coyotes and he bought a cow that had died to make bait out of. It was in July and he paid $50 for the cow. I was pleased.
 
bgc said:
Think of it financially. If you put too much money in her and she dies you will have to take away from the profits of the other cows to make up that difference. I have done the math several times in the past and I wont spend over $100 on a cow in that situation. Its hard to get someone to buy a dead cow. I did sell one once though. Some guy was trying to catch coyotes and he bought a cow that had died to make bait out of. It was in July and he paid $50 for the cow. I was pleased.
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A cull cow is worth a lot more than $100 in my neck of the woods. What was a cow worth when you decided that $100 was the magic number?
 
I have always been able to save them if they split themselves on ice. Take her feed and water and roll her over every day. One day you will go out and she will be standing. It takes work, but $1000.00 + cows are worth it imo.
 
Remember a old timer telling about drilling
4 holes with the post hole auger.deep enuff so she
could still put wt.on er legs. Put in holes dump bit of sand on both
sides to keep em comfortably up right.She.ll keep trying
to stand.the more they move around.the more sand gets into
holes.kinda rehab them selves.just feed and water.no rolling around.
When and if they get to walk out of holes.they should be good
 
Justin said:
how'd things work out, WR?
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So far she seems completely fine... I don't want to brag on my downer cow just yet :lol:. I did give her Banamine for the three days she was down, and I don't think that hurt her any. I'm wondering about the nerve deal since she doesn't seem injured at all. I still think she got onto Ranchers and read what was coming :shock: :lol: .
 
First of all WMJ it comes down to how much over normal costs you are willing to spend to save her. If you took a healthy cow to the sale barn she would bring much more than $100. A cow only makes money when you sell her or her calf. The money she makes goes back into the operation to help pay for keeping her alive for a year. You have to take that into account when talking about saving her. You are already spending most of the money you get from her or her calf to keep her alive, and if you spend much more than that you are losing money. You have to take part of the profit from other cows to pay for saving that cow. I set my limit at $100 to keep myself from spending too much of my profit from other cows. Some people with registered cows worth a lot more money can afford to spend more to save one. Just normal grade cows like most people have will not pay for themselves if you spend a bunch of money to save her life.
 

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