I have a cow that is paralyzed in her hips..?

Question

This cow had twins, her heifer calf weighs 50 lbs and the bull calf was born last and he weigh about 100 lbs but he was still born. The cow was fine and she even put my grandpa over the fence after she had the calves. She started laying down and getting up. And all of a sudden she can't get up. I think she did some nerve damage in her pelvic due to he large bull calf. I have been told that sometimes they get over it in about 40 days. What can I do to help her?!

Answer 1

Call a vet.

Answer 2

Most likely she won't 'get over it in 40 days'. Its past time to call the vet. If she don't have a fever you might be able to re-name her 'Hamburger Patty'. The 100# bull calf combined with the heifer was prob too much for her and sad but true, she should most likely be 'put down' .

Answer 3

Your vet will tell you what the matter is -- you owe it to the cow to get a professional opinion.  It's not fair to make her suffer if she's not going to recover.

If she was standing after the birth, perhaps that means she's not done too much damage -- possibly there is swelling pressing on a nerve which will go down with treatment.  

Again, get the vet.

Another possibility is damage to the r****m from straining -- we had a cow like that this year, who very nearly died as her infected gut would not work properly.  Luckily another cow was willing to foster the calf, and once she'd dried up the injured cow did make a good recovery (with treatment from the vet...)

I expect you know that a heifer who's twin to a bull will probably be a freemartin -- a partial intersex which will not be fertile, and will grow much like a steer.  About ten percent of such heifers do come out normal though -- it's possible to tell whether she's a freemartin or not with a blood test, or with the "test-tube test" -- your vet will advise.  Or just wait, and see whether she bulls normally when she's old enough.

I hope you're grandpa's OK after being chucked over the fence.

PS -- get the vet!

Answer 4

Sometimes they can get up after 40 days. Usually, they are made into burger by that time. They can develop sores and you just have more to "doctor"

If you do not plan to butcher her, try giving her 15cc of Dex, this will reduce the swelling that may be putting pressure from the swelling on her nerves.

I do not agree that she may need calcium, this is not the "classic" calcium low shock. If she was nursing both calves, then just went down and seemed distressed.... when she would need calcium!

Good luck!

Answer 5

She won't  recover if there is nerve damage.

She'd recover if what she was experiencing was a lack of K or Cu.

But if there was nerve damage you should be thinking about sending her to the butcher.

Besides, they usually can't even urinate when they have that type of problem, so they mostly die because of that.