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Post by willowgirl on Apr 19, 2019 14:24:21 GMT
... that can go wrong with a cow, a new problem pops up!
Our dear Lizzie is suffering from 'hardship cracks' in her feet, no doubt stemming back from the time she was very sick last summer. From what I've read online, these cracks become a problem as the hoof grows out. (I suspect the fact she likes to gallop around like a fool may be a factor as well.)
Only her front feet seem to be affected (knock wood) and she's not really lame, just moving a bit gingerly at present. It seems the cure is to trim aggressively to cut away the weak spots as quickly as possible. Luckily, Lizzie will let Numb work on her feet. He's also keeping them flushed and medicated to prevent hoof rot from settling in. We think she'll be right as rain in a few months after the bad spots have grown out!
It seemed strange that I'd never encountered this problem on the dairy, but then cows who are as sick as Lizzie was are generally culled ... they don't live to have problems months down the road.
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Post by dustawaits on Apr 19, 2019 14:39:28 GMT
New one to me!
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Post by midtnmama on Apr 19, 2019 14:45:52 GMT
... that can go wrong with a cow, a new problem pops up!
Our dear Lizzie is suffering from 'hardship cracks' in her feet, no doubt stemming back from the time she was very sick last summer. From what I've read online, these cracks become a problem as the hoof grows out. (I suspect the fact she likes to gallop around like a fool may be a factor as well.)
Only her front feet seem to be affected (knock wood) and she's not really lame, just moving a bit gingerly at present. It seems the cure is to trim aggressively to cut away the weak spots as quickly as possible. Luckily, Lizzie will let Numb work on her feet. He's also keeping them flushed and medicated to prevent hoof rot from settling in. We think she'll be right as rain in a few months after the bad spots have grown out!
It seemed strange that I'd never encountered this problem on the dairy, but then cows who are as sick as Lizzie was are generally culled ... they don't live to have problems months down the road.
We see limping when there is a lot of rain. I suppose that's all the time where you live and may explain why these cows are culled. And, I know a lot of folks around here would do that too. But we separate the limping cow/bull in a drier pasture or the barn if need be for a week or so and often it gets better. Good luck!
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Post by Melissa on Apr 20, 2019 0:12:27 GMT
Hope she gets better soon willowgirl,. Numb is a great help!!!
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Post by Deleted on Apr 20, 2019 0:40:00 GMT
Bondo???
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Post by Mari-in-IN on Apr 20, 2019 3:01:40 GMT
Well willowgirl , My thoughts definitely go out to your dear Lizzie... and you guys as well... It sounds like - hopefully - that Numb is "nipping it in the bud!?" Oh my word... now I can hear Don Knotts saying - "Nip it!" "Nip it in the bud!" Sorry... Ah gee... I just had to do it... It's not the best clip but here goes... It sound like your Numb is indeed a "cow whisperer"... I will say a little cow prayer for your dear Lizzie... Take care! ~Mari
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Post by willowgirl on Apr 20, 2019 4:48:49 GMT
Aww, thanks for the good thoughts! And yes, Numb can do almost anything with our cows or practically any animal. He has a gift ... he wanted to be a horse trainer and would have been a very good one I think! The girls and I are lucky to have him. Meanwhile, in other news ... Marianne was in heat yesterday and expressed her frustration over the lack of male companionship by knocking down one of the walls of her shed. Sigh.
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Post by Mari-in-IN on Apr 20, 2019 4:51:12 GMT
Aww, thanks for the good thoughts! And yes, Numb can do almost anything with our cows or practically any animal. He has a gift ... he wanted to be a horse trainer and would have been a very good one I think! The girls and I are lucky to have him. Meanwhile, in other news ... Marianne was in heat yesterday and expressed her frustration over the lack of male companionship by knocking down one of the walls of her shed. Sigh. I'm sorry but I can't remember - is she at your new place?
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Post by Mari-in-IN on Apr 20, 2019 5:00:59 GMT
Aww, thanks for the good thoughts! And yes, Numb can do almost anything with our cows or practically any animal. He has a gift ... he wanted to be a horse trainer and would have been a very good one I think! The girls and I are lucky to have him. Meanwhile, in other news ... Marianne was in heat yesterday and expressed her frustration over the lack of male companionship by knocking down one of the walls of her shed. Sigh. Sounds like we are in the same boat Girl - sort of... Even though the chickens on this place are "mine" - he is definitely the "chicken whisperer". The same goes for the cats and him... Sounds like we are both blessed by having some good guys - ehhh?? ~Mari
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Post by willowgirl on Apr 20, 2019 12:48:37 GMT
Yes indeed! And Marianne has been with us for awhile ... she's our backyard cow. She was culled from the herd I milk because she's extremely aggressive when she's in heat. The funny thing is, she's the sweetest girl in the world when she isn't cycling. But, good grief, when she is ... ! Luckily we recognize the signs of incipient madness and are really careful around her for that one day. She pretty much respects Numb's authority and he isn't afraid of her ... I would just toss her hay over the fence!
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Post by comfortablynumb on Apr 21, 2019 0:52:04 GMT
When you hear noises outside at night.... thump.. thud.. bang... bump... its her head butting the post in her shed. She dances around them like they are another cow, butting heads.
I have a video of that somewhere... I'll have to dig it up.
Today she was her calm normal self again.
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Post by comfortablynumb on Apr 21, 2019 0:53:41 GMT
'Actually... if I could clean the cracks out well enough, and I had some horse hoof epoxy, I imagine one could glue the cracks up and let them grow out.
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Post by countrymom22 on Apr 21, 2019 23:48:30 GMT
Sounds like you guys have your hands full! I know there is an epoxy type material that farriers use on horses with cracks. That might not work on a cow though because the farrier uses a shoe to help control the hoof spread. It might be worth a try though.
Good luck!
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Post by comfortablynumb on Apr 23, 2019 5:43:02 GMT
I'm going to bob her toes off as short as possible then thin the toe way down while its still relatively well connected. Then as it grows out remove more and more of it. From corrective trimming my old horse, who had more than his share of hoof problems in hos old age, I know if that shell breaks off she'll be dead lame. If the wall is very thin, the innner hoof wall will harden up better as it goes along.
This is gonna take some daily work for about 4 weeks.... maybe more.
At least shes skinny so weight is no problem. He back hoofs have a ring but they should grow out intact since I got them short early.... and there is not a lot of weight on a skinny cows back feet.
She likes to stand in the creek, so that'll help also.
I'd be willing to epoxy them but, if they arent kept clean and she gets an infection in those fissures.... that'll be a much worse problem.
She's gonna be fine, even if I have to get out and push.
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Post by willowgirl on May 18, 2019 13:31:53 GMT
Lizzie is holding her own! I talked to the hoof trimmer at work about her condition; he agreed that it is probably the result of her being so sick. He said, "Everything that happens to a cow comes out in its feet." Also that it takes a year for a hoof to grow out from top to bottom, so we can gauge how much longer she'll be lame by where the cracks are. He thinks she'll be sound again once her feet grow out. She's still not limping, just moving very carefully, and certainly not running around like a couple of months ago! But she seems bright and in good spirits. We're still feeding hay, so she doesn't have to spend much time on her feet grazing, and often she'll camp out beside the hay wagon and eat lying down. At night when we put out their TMR, she sometimes gets up and comes to the feeder, but if she doesn't want to move, we take her some in a tub. She wanders around quite a bit and even goes up the hill sometimes so she can definitely move around if she wants to. Numb bought a product online calls "Keratex" which is supposed to harden and strengthen the hoof. We just started using it, so we're not sure it will make a difference but figured it was worth a shot. Despite her issues, she remains bright and happy, and eats with her nose in the air, lol. She adores Numb and often licks his head while he's working on her feet. Quite a bond those two have ... Shady was so chronically lame on the dairy that I hesitated to bring her home, but since she got off that concrete floor, she's been right as rain. To look at her now, you'd never know there had been anything wrong with her! So I think Lizzie will be OK too over the long haul.
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Post by countrymom22 on May 18, 2019 19:14:18 GMT
Glad to hear that the outlook for Lizzie is positive! Yeah, concrete is not the friend of man or cow. A nice soft pasture will work wonders for her.
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Post by willowgirl on May 28, 2019 13:01:16 GMT
we think the Keratex definitely helped Lizzie's feet! She seems much les "ouchy" now.
One of her back hooves seems to be cracking, too, but Numb is treating it and we hope to "head it off at the pass."
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Post by Mari-in-IN on May 29, 2019 13:00:01 GMT
we think the Keratex definitely helped Lizzie's feet! She seems much les "ouchy" now. One of her back hooves seems to be cracking, too, but Numb is treating it and we hope to "head it off at the pass." That's great to hear that it is helping! Sounds like Numb is staying busy helping dear Lizzie. That was so precious what you previously said about her licking his head while he is working on her feet... Ya'll take care now, ~Mari
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Post by willowgirl on Aug 5, 2019 2:30:42 GMT
Lizzie is doing good! The cracks in her feet have almost grown out ... they're at the very tips now and don't seem to bother her much. Here she's posing like a show cow, lol. She's always such a happy little girl.
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Post by Melissa on Aug 5, 2019 15:25:59 GMT
That is great! Maybe your method can help others.
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Post by Mari-in-IN on Aug 5, 2019 19:28:55 GMT
That really is awesome news willowgirl, She is indeed a pretty girl - to me she looks like a cow "angel" with all of that white. ~Mari
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Post by comfortablynumb on Aug 6, 2019 19:49:00 GMT
Her hind feet ended up cracking and shedding off the same way but they did it much faster. The last time we trimmed her we took a lot of that dead hoof wall, some was loose off the white line so... we cut probably 60% of the loose hoof off her back feet. I removed more of her toes down to the quick almost, and thinned out the rest of the shedding hoof wall. I just retrimmed her a couple days ago while she was out lying under a tree snoozing, and all 4 of her feet are now 99% free of loose horn. the edges of her toes are a little rough but thats the last of the malformed quick growing off. Now, she can almost run again she was doing a slow cow gallop with the others later that day.
I think the key to the whole treatment was keeping the cracks flushed clean with warm soapy water and a bath on betadine now and then to prevent thrush, continually trimming those toes as short as possible, and using the Keratex to thicken the hoof wall.
I probably shoulda took pictures...oh well.
It looks like it took about 5 or 6 months to do....but they grew out pretty well.
I noticed Georgie has the same cracks but only on the inside of her claws on a couple feet. Her outer walls are smooth so far... I'll keep painting that keratex on hers as well.
Thats a daily job I'm not gonna miss. Whew.
You can see by the pic, she isnt hunched over anymore trying to take the weight off her feet. Thats good.
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Post by comfortablynumb on Aug 6, 2019 20:13:11 GMT
Here are some random pics I found online... They start as a groove on the hoof then crack open like this As they progress they look like a thimble, thus the term thimble toe. That toe thimble is loose, and attached at the base of the crack by the laminae...when it moves it hurts. They develop a new hoof inside the hoof behind that shell, so they literally have a new hoof in an old hoof... its pretty weird. Parts of it chip off as time goes on, but we actually were cutting it off a little at a time every other day so she wouldn't catch it on anything and rip them off. You can see in that pic, there is an intact hoof under that thimble. The crack gets full of mud and gravel so daily flushing was needed to keep her comfortable. Imagine having a stone jambed under a torn fingernail... When it was cleaned out, I put the Keratex down in the deep part of the crack with a needle, so the thin base of the fissure would thicken up. It worked, some of the toes got to be tightened up really well. This pic I found shows how we trimmed it off, a bit at a time. As it came loose I pruned it off and the hoofs ended up looking like this with the thimble getting smaller and smaller and the toes getting shorter and shorter....but they didnt do the toes in these pics. Nipping the toes back kept the thimble from flexing so much.
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Post by Mari-in-IN on Aug 6, 2019 20:19:21 GMT
Really interesting comfortablynumb,. It was very difficult for me to visualize what the original problem was and what you have been doing to correct it. Thanks for posting the pics - even though they are kind of painful to look at! You and willowgirl really are an awesome pair! I always look forward to ya'll's posts/pics of your precious girls... Ya'll take care, ~Mari
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Post by comfortablynumb on Aug 6, 2019 20:38:43 GMT
Lizzy is like my old horse was... she'll stand still for just about anything even if it hurts.
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Post by willowgirl on Aug 11, 2019 12:32:57 GMT
While those pics were from another site, they're pretty much *exactly* how Lizie's feet looked, and yeah it was an awful thing to see! I could hardly stand to look at them. But through the whole ordeal, she maintained her cheerful, upbeat nature (she really is a super sweet cow) and Numb doctored her so thoroughly that she couldn't help but get well!
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Post by willowgirl on Sept 18, 2019 15:32:02 GMT
Here's another, less happy, story for the "What the heck?" file ...
Monday was shaping up to be a busy evening at the dairy; I had a fresh cow to bring in and a dry one that needed to be sorted and transferred to the dry cow barn. By the time I was done, I was behind on getting stalls cleaned prior to milking, so when I saw my favorite cow Ivy in the alley I didn't stop to pet her and let her lick me like I usually do; I just said hello and kept moving.
I regret that now, because when I got in to the parlor, I found Ivy in the first group ... lying flat on her side with her head thrown back, legs out and rigid, eyes bulging, grinding her teeth, obviously in a great deal of distress. She was having either a stroke or a seizure of some kind; I don't know. Have never seen anything like it before.
I called my boss and together we managed to get her hauled around so she wasn't lying on a downgrade slope anymore, which is dangerous to a cow as their lungs will fill up. Eventually the episode passed and she was responsive again, but still couldn't move or get up other than flopping a bit like a fish. My boss noticed that she did not seem to have any reflexes or sensation in her hind legs. Later she had another seizure/stroke and passed that night.
Ivy was a mature cow, third lactation, and had never had any health issues before. She hadn't shown any signs of being down on her milk or off her feed prior, and none of the other cows in the herd are sick either. She was a beautiful little cow, sweet and gracious, would about lick you half to death. I had hoped to be able to take her home someday. I'm just stunned.
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Post by Mari-in-IN on Sept 18, 2019 16:05:09 GMT
Yeah - what the heck?! I'm so very sorry willowgirl . I know what you mean as far as the regret you felt. It totally bites when an animal passes away totally unexpected and you felt that you should have spent more time with them, etc. Been there/done that. I'm sorry that precious little Ivy didn't get to live out the rest of her life at your lovely place for "Wayward Holsteins". I hope you have a good day... for what that is worth... Take care, ~Mari ETA - And yeah, obviously I "liked" your post to let you know I read it and do care... Not much in it to "like" - huh girl... Kinda makes you wonder what caused that to happen to her...
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Post by Woodpecker on Sept 18, 2019 18:32:44 GMT
Sorry willowgirl, ❌⭕️ She would have been in your heavenly cow haven😚
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Post by willowgirl on Sept 18, 2019 19:22:55 GMT
Thanks you guys. It's been tough; I just lost one of my cats a couple of weeks ago and now this. I'm pretty gobsmacked.
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