Cattle people opinions

[monsterspike]

it sounds like what the old timers (me too) call string halter. she is fine, will breed,will calve, just lock up temporarily at times. some cases are worse than others, just dont crowd her. stress makes it worse. in a year or two after selling her calf, send her on as well. no rush imo.

[tkusak]

Cows are tough animals. I'd let her live and see if she will gradually get better and breeds back. Sounds to me that she got in a fight and might have dislocated a hip or two but I am not a vet, just a weekend cowboy. If she doesn't breed back then you haul her off. I'm not a fan of pumping a lot of money into a cow that might not work out in the end, when there are good cows that are sold everyday. Good luck and hope it works out.

[Chunky]

Great responses thanks to each of you.

[Stolle]

Sounds like a locking patellar tendon. Unlike us humans that have a single patellar tendon associated with our knee cap cattle and horses have 3 (a median, a middle, and a lateral). The medial tendon can "lock" on a bony protuberance on the inside of the femur. When this happens they lose the ability to bend their knee joint so they drag a stiff hind leg. Sometimes it unlocks and it's usually audible and visible as it clicks lose and they bend their knee like normal. You can do surgery to correct it by cutting the median patellar ligament which works the majority of the time. I have had some success with steroid therapy and not surgery. Hope that helps. May be able to find some videos on YouTube to compare to.

I always trust Matt's advice when it comes to my cows. Luckily I have not had to call him in a while. Knock on wood.

[Rustled Again]

She might have cycled and your bull rode her to the ground. I've seen this happen.

[JeffK]

I would just let her finish raising her calf and if she still having issues, off to the sale barn.

[Dusty Britches]

I'm sorry she's not doing any better, Mark. I think the Aggie15DVM guy is right - this is sounding more like a tendon / ligament tear. I would try the steroid route and keep her penned for 2-4 weeks to let everything settle down. If that doesn't work, it may be time to sell her. I hate that for you.

[denimdeerslayer]

I had one like that. When she first showed up with problems she could barely walk. I figured a big tree limb fell on her. She had a dip in her back right before the pelvis. She got better and got around pretty good but never fully recovered and had a odd step to her walk. She calved fine and had several before I hauled her to auction barn. Unless yours is some high dollar stock I wouldnt spend a lot on vet to end up getting sold into meat market at auction barn.