concerned

[dblnnumber1]

Had a bull calf born this morning that has a leg issue. He can't straighten his front legs. He is energetic and mom is tending to him but he can't get up on his front wheels. We had this problem a few years ago and after a few days the tendons loosened up and calves were fine. Why does this seem to keep popping up? This calf was 11 days late if that matters any. Any help is appreciated.

 

[KCF]

Was the calf pretty big? I believe that it has to do with the position they are in the uterus, sometimes when they are big they dont have enough space and it doesnt allow them to straighten their legs and that what cause the problem.

 

[firesweepranch]

We had a set of twins on March 1st, same problem. Bull calf is worse, weighed 80 pounds, and his twin sister weighed 62 pounds. She straightened up in a few days, but he is still buckled, not as bad. Vet said it was from the calves being crammed in that small uterus and not being able to extend the pasterns.
For what it is worth, he gave the calves tetracycline IV; I guess it helps loosen those tendons up. It helped with the heifer, the bigger calf is just taking a little longer to straighen up. Here is a pic of them right after birth, the bull calf is the blazed face calf...

 

[CAB]

dblnnumber1, what is the pedigree of your calf. We may can tell you if it is a pattern for the genetics and we put PVC splints on if we get one like that to help stretch the tendons out. It usually helps some.

 

[hamburgman]

stints work or you can cut garden hose and put that on the leg so the calf can "walk" without rubbing their skin on the ground, usually the come out of it.

 

[firesweepranch]

dblnnumber1, what is the pedigree of your calf. We may can tell you if it is a pattern for the genetics and we put PVC splints on if we get one like that to help stretch the tendons out. It usually helps some.

CAB - we put splints on the calf (bull) when he was born because he was not getting off his knees and we were afraid he could not nurse. Took him to the vet later that day, and vet cut them off, said it was better to let them stretch out naturally. I am not sure I agree, but he has more experience with it that I so we went with that. There is still a small part of me that wishes we would have put them back on when he came home, but he is much better now. So maybe it does not matter? I do not have enough experience in that area... we learn as we go!

The neighbor down the road had a set of bull twins, same condition as ours. We feed totally different feed (we bale our own hay). I am sure it was not related.

 

[BA Maines]

We've had that happen on calves.  I would give them a MuSe injection.  Also, I would do some massage therapy on the joints.  Seems to help.

 

[Jenny]

very common with babies that are crowded in utero.
just keep stretching those legs straight every time you go by that calf; when the calf is laying down, pull the leg forward and stretch those tendons by pushing the leg down to straighten it;
doesn't really seem to hurt much at all and the improvement is quite dramatic, even quicker when you stretch them more often each day.