Cow stepped on a nail?

[RCF Farms]

What course of action should I take. i am calling vet today to see if he needs to come and look at her. Shes limping pretty bad.

 

[xxcc]

personally, i'd load her up on LA-200, penicillin and banamine.  i hope she gets better for you, I ended up culling a bull due to such an injury...or so I thought that's what it was...may have been a chipped bone in his foot.

 

[JWW]

i would have a vet look at it, i saw a bull not too long ago that stepped on a nail or something that punctured his foot and then the whole leg got infected and and the abscess in his stifle was the size of a basketball and had to be lanced and drained, needless to say that bull didn't breed any more cows that summer :-\


JWW

 

[DL]

Vet needs to see cow - might need xray to see if nail or part of nail is still in foot

do not load her up with PNC and tetracycline - using those antibiotics together may make a person feel better but does not make any scientific sense and they could work against each other - PNC is bacteriocidal (kills bacteria) while OTC is bacteriostatic (stops repro doesn't kill bug - killing the bug interfers with stopping it  )

cow needs a tetanus vaccine - puncture wounds are the worst for tetanus - cattle are relatively resistant to tetanus but it is cheap and the wound is a set up

if she is an easy cow to work with you could soak her foot - it needs to heal from the inside out so you wan to keep the outside open

good luck

 

[Heavy Weight]

Put her in a squeeze chute and tie her foot up so you can get that nail out, then put her on some albon and soak, soak, and soak that foot.

 

[OH Breeder]

DL is right on the money. I had a foot injury and we soaked the heifer's foot in epson salts and warm water. We kept the foot dressed and clean. This is kind of hard with a puncture wound. Tetanus for sure as DL said and find out what your vet would recommend for a systemic antibiotic to keep her from getting a generalized infection.

 

[nobody]

This just happened to us this year to a steer that was supposed to go to Houston.  Vet gave tetanus,banamine, and an antibiotic. He came out twice and dug out where the nail was and then squirted some kind of powder and then packed it and put a boot on it. We kepted him inside for a couple of weeks. The boot stayed on for a good month, maybe longer. Steer healed up fine.

 

[MSweeney_199]

Copper sulfate does wonders for foot infections to soak it in. That is what most hoof trimmers use for infections, hoof root and hairy warts. Most vets have some on hand.

 

[LN]

I had a cow step on a nail a few months ago and after treatment you'd never know.

We tied the foot and pulled the nail out. Rinsed the wound with an iodine solution. Gave her a shot of penicillin and tetanus. Gave her another penicillin shot a couple days later and kept her up close for observation. A week later she barely had a limp. This was all with the vet's recommendation.