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Stifled cow

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efb

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I've got a stifled cow, due to calve March 1. Vet says they are not likely to recover, just pamper her until I can get the calf. Seems like I've had 3 or 4 of them in the past and one healed up. Anyone have any home remedies or experience that might help get her back on 4 wheels ? :???:
 
Just keep her where she doesn't have to walk far for water or over rough ground. Rest and ease of travel is about all you can do.
 
kolanuraven said:
Just keep her where she doesn't have to walk far for water or over rough ground. Rest and ease of travel is about all you can do.
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What is the world coming to? I find myself once again agreeing with Kola. :wink:

Put a bale of hay in a bale ring right close to water. The cow will either get better or she won't.
 
I've got one in the barn with a bale of hay water and 10#s of screenings per day she's 14 and will be nice and fat when she calves then most likely donate that calf to another and become burger.
 
Soapweed said:
kolanuraven said:
Just keep her where she doesn't have to walk far for water or over rough ground. Rest and ease of travel is about all you can do.
Click to expand...

What is the world coming to? I find myself once again agreeing with Kola. :wink:

Put a bale of hay in a bale ring right close to water. The cow will either get better or she won't.
Click to expand...


Glad to see you're finally coming around to my side.




But the cow may recover with time and care. If she's a keeper and one you really like....just don't push her, be patient and keep her life easy.

I've had them to recover, everything from old cows to huge bulls, they just need time off and rest. You can get some aspirin from the vet to give her.

If you go this route, the easier way to dose her is to pound the pill up into a fine powder and mix it with some sweet feed and cheap pancake syrup. She'll love you forever and never taste the bitter pill. This is WAY WAY easier on you and her instead of ramming a balling gun down her throat every day....that soon gets old.
 
It's also easier than a needle full of Banamine. We did that to a bull some years ago, thinking the anti-inflammatory would help in his recovery. It helped him move better, but all he wanted to do was move away from you as fast as he could.

Kola and Soap have told you the basics. It won't do her any good to walk any distance. I would also give some thought to physiotherapy. Nothing like a good rubdown or massage to help in healing. Of course, it helps if she's quiet enough to accept the 'treatment'.

Okay, someone go ahead and blast me for being an alternative healing nut. :lol:
 
March 1st is still a long way off. In that time she is going to lose a lot of weight and be skin and bone by the time she pops a guaranteed orphan out. If you like messing around with it go ahead. We have had cows that have popped their hips and kept them around to calve out and raise the calf.....that tests the limit of my patience.
 
Thanks for all the advise. I have her in a small pen with hay, feed and water. She is very gentle. I have started rubbing aspercreme on her stifle while I feed her. I've done this to one or two cows before. One recovered ( but you are right it took her four or five months ) the other one raised her calf before she went to town. I'll probably give her 2 or 3 weeks to see if she responds any.
 
If you are seeing several cows that are having stifle problems in your herd, I would like to point out that a good mineral program will eliminate or almost eliminate that problem. I speak from experience as we used to have way too many stifled cows until we got on a good year-round mineral program. The extra calcium that is supplemented in the mineral really helps problems with bones and joints.

Of course, this is not going to happen overnight, but you will see a difference over the course of time.

FWIW and good luck with this cow!
 
efb said:
Thanks for all the advise. I have her in a small pen with hay, feed and water. She is very gentle. I have started rubbing aspercreme on her stifle while I feed her. I've done this to one or two cows before. One recovered ( but you are right it took her four or five months ) the other one raised her calf before she went to town. I'll probably give her 2 or 3 weeks to see if she responds any.
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If she's that tame....try a sweat wrap if you can gt it to stay in place, Saran wrap with some vet wrap or an ace works well.

Don't leave it on forever....but a few hours at a time and never overnight.
 
We've got 2 cows here that are lame on the hind. Not sure if they are stifled or not (thinking that is the problem though). They were both so bad that they could hardly move. The one was bad in Oct and now you can hardly tell. The other hurt herself in Dec and while you can still tell, she moves around without too many problems now. They are due to calve about Mar 1 and both are really good cows. The one is only a 4 year old, and was lame last spring too so we will probably let her raise her calf and then cull her in the fall. The other is 8, and I think got hurt fighting with other cows. We will see how she comes around and then decide what to do with her. If they go downhill again, we do have a nurse cow that could step in when she calves.

They haven't been getting any special feed, just hay, and neither is in poor condition. They would be though if they were out with the main herd since they would always be shoved out of the way at the feed bunk.
 
Just what is a stifled cow? From what I am reading it is some sort of lameness but could some one please explane this to me?
 
The stifle joint is the equivalent of a knee in a human. It's about where the hind leg meets the body, and bends back. A stifled cow has injured it.

We've had this happen with hiplocked calves before, once or twice. They generally got over it if I recall correctly, but we've never had a cow do it.

Let us know how it turns out, but I would think it's going to take some time.
 
Is this what y'all talk about when you mention a stifled cow?

7-11-08002.jpg
 

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