Calf's back legs

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harrisonshowgurl

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Nov 7, 2007
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130
I have a bull calf that was a c-section baby. He was also backwards and his back feet were out her vag. at least an hour before he got her open to get the calf out. The back legs are messed up and I was wondering if there is anything I can do to help them. One is almost like it's double jointed and will come out underneath him. It's at the knee area and will go all the way forwards and backwards. The other leg is stiff and he can't walk on either leg. We have splinted one leg and it's not working that well. If we stand him up he will walk with his front legs and drag his back legs. Any suggestions?

Thanks
 

DTW

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Mar 9, 2009
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172
Did you try to pull the calf backwards?

I have seen alot of backwards calfs and they are always a little funny on the back legs the first couple of days from the pressure of pulling on the back legs. 
But i have never seen one buck all the way forwards.  Did he get hurt some how? 
 

harrisonshowgurl

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Nov 7, 2007
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The vet tried to pull him backwards but he was too big. 90lb calf on first time heifer. Its been a week and he still is like that, The knee area can go all the way forwards. It looks like it just buckles and can go all the way to the ground when it does it. He cannot even stand up on his back legs without help.
 

kanshow

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May 24, 2007
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Kansas
Could he have broke a bone or something when he tried to pull him?    It's not unheard of to have the calf's legs injured when pulling.
 

CAB

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Mar 5, 2007
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Corning,Iowa
The way you describe the leg & the situation, I would say that the leg has been hurt fairly bad.
 

DakotaCow

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Nov 25, 2008
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407
We had this last year. Pulled our fair share of calves backwards 8 in the first 82 calves.  One had a difficult time at first and couldnt move very well but as he stumbled around he got better in two weeks you shouldnt even be able to tell that he was goofy.
 

David

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Dec 29, 2008
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Kings Mountain, NC
had a shorthorn plus hiefer born three years ago and was doing this same thing. About 10 days later she had almost no signs that anything was wrong. Still in my herd and doing fine.
 

harrisonshowgurl

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Nov 7, 2007
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I took him to the vet again and his hip is dislocated and one back leg is formed wrong. His stifle and hock is formed almost backwards. The vet said as he gets older it will get harder for him to even try to get up. He said that we could try to make a walker type thing for his back-end to allow him to get up by himself.
 

mandl

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Nov 17, 2009
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fostoria, ohio
we had a hannibal cow try to have her third calf ai-d to monopoly she was backwards.  when we noticed that there was a back foot sticking out we were able to push her back in and grab both legs and she was able to push her out.  the back leg was dry the bag had broke not sure for how long before we found her like that.  the heifer calf was alive and breathing.  her ears were drooping and kept shaking her head.  she tried to get up a few times so we thought she was ok, she was born at 5:30 pm and when  i went out to check on her the next morning she was dead, and didnt appear to have been dead for very long, what should we have done for her or is there anytihing we could have done for her?  she was in a barn with fresh dry bedding.
 
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