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| Found a 2 year old cow with leg broke about 4 inches above hoof. Have had a few broken legs like this before and they eventually heal but limp. Last one was a young bull and sold him without a limp but spent more time taking care of him than I liked. Vet happened to be preg checking my cows today and he recommended putting in pen and doing nothing else even though leg is not perfectly straight. When would you sell? |
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East-Central Ontario | You'd be in big trouble for transporting her here, let alone trying to sell her. Make her into hamburger |
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Zabcikville, TX | .
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north central iowa | I assume you are talking a back leg? If the fracture isn't a compound one ( broken thru skin) you could try a splint. Truss the cow down with a lariat and apply a splint by immobilizing joint above and below the break. |
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| Even after it has healed? |
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north west arkansas | Never done it on a cow but have splinted several with pvc pipe and they healed up fine. |
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Central Saskatchewan Canada | Shoot it now. Don't wait till it heals. Butcher it and eat it. |
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sc ia | I had a steer break a hind leg at about 700lbs and I did absolutely nothing for treatment. I didn't even take him out of the pen even though a lot of the time it was muddy. It took a long time to heal but he eventually recovered without even a limp. Sold him at 1500lbs. |
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south west iowa | We had a cow do that and we had her in the barn in the dry and she healed up good and you could not tell it was broke if you didn't know it when we sold her. Then this spring we had a yearling bull we had just got brake his front leg we took him to the iowa isu vet and they put a cast on him and he is doing grate now. As long as she is not in pain and eating good and in a dry place she should heal up good. |
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Texas | We had a 550# steer decide to cross a cattle guard less than 2 months ago. He broke 1 of his front legs about 2 inches below the knee.
Dad called the vet and was told that the steer was about to the weight where he was too heavy to try putting a cast on; but if we wanted to try to save the steer, he would put a cast on him. We decided to try.
The vet did a great job putting a cast on the steer and for the first few weeks things appeared to be going well. We put him in a small pen that had plenty of grass growing, filled up a bucket of water, and took cubes to him every day. While he was a little bit lazy, he would get up when someone approached the pen. After about 3 weeks he decided to quit trying, he would only eat cubes when they were hand fed, he started refusing to get up on his own (Dad had to put a rope around his neck and then try to pull him up; Dad even put a belt around the steers middle and used the crane on his service truck to get the steer up.), and then the steer would only eat grass when it was put into his mouth. He also started playing possum. He would go limp and refuse to put any effort into standing up, but when the steer thought no one was around he would raise his head and look around or move his legs; however, when people got close to him, he would frequently go back to playing possum - sooo frustrating!
By the time we got to 5 weeks of having the cast on him, he had laid on one side so much that he had developed a sore on his shoulder that had gotten infected. We hauled him back to the vet hoping that it had been enough time that the cast could come off; and that without the cast, the steer would develop a desire to stand, and that with treatment the infected sore would heal.
The next day the vet let my dad know that it was time to euthanize the steer.
I wish you well with your cow. I certainly do not have enough knowledge to have an opinion on your cow's situation; that said, the next time one of our bovines breaks its leg, I think I know what we will do.
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north central iowa | Repairing fractures general comments. Higher success rate when the fracture is further from the body. Its easier to immobilize the joint above and below the fracture. Higher success rate on a back leg than front leg. More weight bearing on front legs than back legs. The younger animal will heal better than a old animal.
Edited by jncia 11/22/2016 06:05
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SW “Ohia” | tj33,
I have never done this but seen other people do it. Only on non-compound fractures too.
Clean the area very well. Wrap the leg with a couple old heavy shirts. Then slice a piece of black corrugated pipe longwise. Make the entire piece long enough to extend on either side of the fracture a fair distance. Diameter needs to be big enough to fit tightly all the way around the leg. Then wrap with tape, tape, and more tape.
Keep her in a flat dry pen with good bedding.
My thoughts; if you had a broken leg, wouldn't you want a cast on it? It will probably heal eventually with no help, but it would more comfortable and faster with some support.
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Best way to handle cow with broken leg
