cow with shoulder problem

[gwithrow]

for a farm with only a small number of cows, we certainly have seen our share of weird cow problems...the cows themselves are Simmental Angus, and while a few of them are larger framed than we are working toward, they are very nice to work with...

the mommas have nice babies and are great mothers...

one of our most promising heifers had a nice bull calf in October...nice calf, standing with his momma when I found them in the morning...no problems that I could see at all...the calf has grown well and is good tempered and is well liked by his friends...ok, so in early January, I saw the mom limping...I put her in the barn with her calf...after a day she seemed much better and was anxious to get back with the herd....when I opened the gate, she ran and rejoined the small group...two weeks ago, I saw that she was limping again...throwing her left front leg out to the side in order to walk..obviously in pain...and now she is much thinner ....pulled down some from having her first calf ( she was two when she had him)....and probably the pain has kept her from eating as she might normally...

I had the vet out for another animal and he looked at her hoof, and could find nothing wrong at all...except that he suspects she may have a tendon or shoulder issue...said to put her up and see what happens...

she has been up, with the calf....I am feeding her a little grain in addition to all the hay she wants....she does not have to jockey around with the other bigger cows to eat...I, of course, am hoping that she will heal can rejoin the herd...she is a slightly smaller framed cow...just what we are aiming for...slick and comes from a super mom...

the bull was in the pasture with all the girls from Dec 10 until Feb 10....finally here are my questions:

could she have been injured when the bull bred her?....remember it is shoulder not hip....and

why did the injury seem to go away and now reappear?

I would like to hear anyone else's experiences with shoulder problems...
is there anything I can do or give her that will help this heal?
what are the chances that she will get better.......get out those crystal balls.....

her calf is still in with her....the herd is all around the barn...so they are not too antsy being separated...I would like for her to raise this calf to at least 6 months or so....I would really like to see if she can carry this next pregnancy to term and calve out next fall....
if she doesn't get better what are my options?...

I guess what I would like to hear are thoughts on how long is reasonable to 'wait and see'.....and criteria that will help me determine if she is still in a lot of pain, say in a couple more weeks...the vet said she could heal, and just walk funny...no problem there...with me...that is...but I do not want her to always be in pain and unable to keep herself in good condition...we do not have nice level pastures...lots of hill and dips....

meanwhile I am going to try to help her regain some weight and stay away from the other cows who can be a little pushy at times...thanks for your thoughts...

[opportunity]

I'm not sure about shoulder probelms but cows will do amazing things. I have one that injured her hoof badly she cut about three inches 2 in the skin one in the hoof. She has a very odd foot now but she gets around fine and was rebreed with the bad foot after I gave her a few months to recover. If you can keep yours away from the group for a few weeks she might recover compleatly, it's hard to tell what happened, I wouldn't be to worried about keeping difernt size animals in the same group I have HUGE angus with a tiny lowline/jersey and every size between

[agmantoo]

Read upon fescue toxicity. Look very closely where the skin joins the hoof and where the hooves divide. Your are attempting to observe a split at the crevice. There could be some swelling and/or a crusted split. If you are feeding fescue hay try to switch off to something else for a couple of weeks. Problems up the leg in the shoulder area are rare at my location. Your other animal got OK?

[gwithrow]

I am all too aware of the problems with fescue...we are trying to minimize the effects, but this year we had problems with feet...I am sure it plays a big part in a lot of issues...

Agman: the lame cow is better...LA300 and she is back to where she was..

the hurt cow is up and will stay up with her calf..her one shoulder is 'lower' than the other, and she is really swinging that leg out to the side when she walks..I know it hurts..but at least now she can eat and not be pushed around til it heals..one way or the other...her calf is beautiful and he likes the special treatment in the barn...

we have recently switched minerals to a formula that was created for this area, based on soil deficiencies...the extension service came up with the formula and a local farmer has it made up...he has been doing this for years, and he says he has no problems with feet at all ...I have just found out about it and will use this mixture and see if it helps...this farmer orders big quantities and sells to whoever wants it...

we also try to keep the fescue cut and dilute it with clover and other grasses...

if anyone has any pain management suggestions for this cow I would love to know what they are

[nosqrls]

one of the other cows may bully her. might have knocked her down or injured that leg or shoulder.It does happen. we had one break a hip and had to put her down. Just could not justify making her suffer.

[gone-a-milkin]

Cattle carry a lot of their weight on their front legs.
If her shoulder is broken it will eventually drag her all the way down.
If it is dislocated, she still will likely not recover.
If it is only strained/sprained then perhaps she will recover.

W/o x-rays, who can know for sure?
You will just need to keep her as safe as you can from reinjuring it
and make the judgement call yourself.
As long as she keeps trying and has this calf to raise she may decide to keep trying.

I have seen many cows get by with bad hips,
but the ones with damaged shoulders either heal up or they go down and stay down.

Who knows if the bull jumped her funny or if she got bounced by a bigger cow.
No way to tell.

As long as she she is up and eating she has a chance.
I would try to keep her 'quiet' and away from the bulk of the herd for awhile.
Baby her some and watch her careful.

Good luck with her.