We took a steer to the vet yesterday with a broken ankle. He said he couldn't really do anything so we took him home and wrapped a poultice of comfrey root around it. Has anyone had experience with this??? Marilyn, the farmer's wife....
Sorry Marilyn, can't find my herbal horse book, thought it would probably work on cattle too, but someone has it. As for the comfrey....it is a stimulant...so it will increase the blood circulation, which in my 2cents...thats good. You might try some Omega3 fatty acids...they are quickly absorbed by the skin and they offset the production of chemicals that cause inflammation and restrict circulation. Sorry to hear about your problem....but nothing may do the job, but at least you tried. My kinda people, some people are so quick to just give up. Good luck.
Horsetail and nettle are both high in silica (the metabolic counterpart for calcium absorption), which will help the animal to rebuild the bone (assuming these are not bad for cattle - I am speaking from a human standpoint). Yarrow is both anti-inflammatory and fairly easy to get ahold of - good in a poultice. Arnica is also good for bruisning and other traumatic injury side-effects and promotes healing.
Marilyn, I had a bull calf with a broken ankle last year. He was getting around ok, despite the swollen foot. It took months, but eventually you could not tell anything had ever been wrong with it. At first I thought he might have foot rot, but once I got him in and looked, I just left it alone. He recovered without any treatment. Jena
