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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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Best way to handle cow with broken leg
