Floating Cows...

Friday night we had a 4 year old holstein go down with (a vets diagnosis) pinched nerves in the end of her spine.  She was due any day, and she spit out a dead bull calf saturday night.  Besides that, she didn't make any effort to get up on her own but had an appetite of a beast, so we called a vet who specialalises in down cows.  He suggested to float her. So that's just what we did.  On Monday morning tow guys rolled up, one with the cattle float, which looks liks a scale w/ enclosed sides and doors that open on the end, and the other with a tank carrying 700 gallons of water.  We put the cow on a mat, opened the doors, and winched her in there with a winch on the front.  We floated her for 36 hours... Now, what it does is it takes 80% of their weight off there feet but they are forced to stand because they are bouyant in the water.  We slowly drained the water last night and she was itching to get out... We opened the front gate, and BAM!, she was out like a horse out of the starting block.  (I told her she missed the derby this year but she was the favorite for next year already  )  Since she missed 5 milkings, we tried to strip as much out as possible, but her feet were flying.  She is doing unbelievably well now considering she was down just 60 hours ago.

My question is- Has anyone else floated cows before?  i know we've just done it once, but we are EXTREMELY satisfied with the results.  Second, before you call the rendering truck for your down show steer, heifer, etc., try to find one of these. We had a guy that we had never once talked to before this come 35 miles with the tank and hot water for $175.  It's worth a try on your $5,000+ steers, right?

Just giving people options and telling a great story along the way,
RCC

Glad it worked out for you, bet it was pretty cool to see.  I would also think about contacting a certified veterinarian chiropractor in cases like this.

Floating has pretty good success if you get to the problem cow soon enough.  One problem clinics have discovered with it is that it does take an extra person to go around and set up the float tank for a cow.  My understanding is most floats are just 24 hrs because the success after 24 isn't much greater.  Really happy for you though in getting a downer up and moving.

I have had mixed results with the floats I have done... at Iowa State Vet Hospital it is a SOP for any downer cow. Have had some that have been down for 10 minutes and after floating for two days, never would stand again. Then had another one that was down for 6 hours and floated it once, and walked out of the tank like nothing happened, then had a freshening heifer that tripped over a brisket bar coming out of the chute and fell over and didn't get up... after floating for a week, she never stood up....
The challenge with some of these cows is finding out why they went down and treating the primary problem, whether she is hypocalcemic, hypomagnesium, bone/muscle injury, nerve paralysis can decide the outcome of floating downer cows.
The nice thing with a float tank is it gets a downer up and off the muscles they are laying on and gives you a few minutes to figure out a gameplan to procede with treatments..... because after a day of laying on the muscles they get pressure necrosis, and start circulating high amounts of certain compounds that fry their kidneys.
The down side to float tanks are that you basically float the cow in a slurry of feces and urine after awhile and can lead to mastitis or infection of open sores. Plus you should use warm water to prevent a cow from going hypothermic in certain conditions.

So i have had mixed results, my practice doesn't do enough dairy work to have a float tank but it seems like the king dairy vets either like them and use the heck out of them or don't really use them at all from my experience... those tanks are not cheap to buy/make either even though they look pretty primative


JWW