Help Please

[herfchic]

I have a February Yearling Heifer that all of the sudden cannot walk.  She has always been a little straight off of her front end, but since Saturday morning she has been walking terribly on hard surfaces.  She walks fine on grass, but if you put her on gravel or a hard packed surface she starts short stepping off her front end.  When I say short stepping, I mean that she will step maybe twelve inches with one front hoof.  We were at our state breed show when it started.  Banamine did not work, and neither did aspirin boluses.  The University of Illinois vet clinic thinks it is laminitis (I think I spelled that right?), but no one else that I have talked to thinks that this is correct. We have not bumped her feed drastically in the past few weeks, and we have had trouble with the U of I diagnosing cattle before.  They are going to do radial X-rays tomorrow morning to try and get a better look at everything. This is a high dollar heifer from Canada, and we don't want to spare any expense.  I have basically resigned myself to the fact that I will not show her again, but I would like to be able to keep her as a cow. 

So, does anyone have any ideas as to what this could be? Or, does anyone know of any vet we could call to get another opinion in the IL, IN, WI, IA, or MO area?  And finally, if it is laminitis what do I have to look forward to in the next few months?

Thank you in advance for any and all help.

 

[shortyjock89]

Wow Bailey, I'm really sorry about that, that's a really nice heifer to have that happen to!  Are there any physical symptoms like swelling or warmth in her legs?  Did you get her feet trimmed recently?  The Ohio State or Purdue Vet Clinics are really good, maybe call one of them.

 

[herfchic]

No Justin, no swelling and no warmth.  Also, there was nothing in her hooves. Her feet were trimmed in April but not after that.  We are going to call a Vet from Purdue.

 

[farmboy]

DL???

 

[simtal]

Doesn't surprise me U of I vet school couldn't diagnose it.  I heard once that the swine farm took a pig over there to post (pig had been euthanized with a .22 prior to arrival) and vet school tells them that it died of a gunshot wound!

 

[ba]

Is it on one foot or both? Had a heifer two years ago with foot problem
and soak in epsion salts. Vet could not find anything.A week later called him
back and found abscess's on toe at the hair hoof line opened it up to
drain and couple days latter could not tell anything was wrong

 

[afhm]

Maybe she stepped on something like a scotch comb and one of the teeth is stuck in the hoof.  We have had cattle come here for hoof trimming that had that happen at a show. had one with a small nail in the hoof.  I'd suggest rolling her over on the hoof table and take a look.  maybe your lucky and its just a severe case of foot rot.

 

[showstud]

I had a pretty good steer last year that about this time last year started having some familiar sypmtoms but it was on his back legs....he couldn't put weight on his back legs for more than 30 seconds....took him to our vet (who is FAR from a show calf vet) and he said he was post-legged to the point on no return...and you can quess the outcome for the steer...REALLY hope its not the same for the heifer!!Good Luck

 

[herfchic]

It seems that it is in her right front hoof, and that she is really favoring it.  If the U of I doesn't come up with anything today, we will most likely get her on a table and take a look for ourselves.  We couldn't feel anything noticeable in the hooves, but we really didn't get a good look before we took her to the U of I.  She only acts up when she is walking on hard surfaces.  In the stall she is fine, she doesn't shift her weight, and she is usually the last one standing up. 

As for the U of I, we took a calf there who had not gotten enough colostrum and was in very bad shape.  They told us to bring it home and let it die.  That calf had a calf this year that we sold to Texas as a steer.  I do not really trust the U of I. 

 

[yousesteers]

University of MO has or had a really good soundness guy dont know if he is still there and can not recall his name at this time I would get her on a table and clean and examine the hoof real good

 

[Show Heifer]

I am going to get nailed for this, but I will forge ahead... (I'm too much of a realist)

I suspect she is too striaght, and has finally grown past the point of "getting along". You admited she has always been straight, and sometimes they keep getting worse. With her weight of being pushed for show, the constant travelling hasn't helped her condition, but it probably was just a matter of time.

And now for the  bomb shell. You might want to reconsider keeping her as a brood cow. Why do you want to propagate such an unsound animal? Do you want to base your herd on animals that can not walk past their 2 year birthday? Sorry, but I think you might want to rethink that one.

If cost truly is no factor. I would call Iowa State, they do not know crap about sheep, but I have had good luck with cattle. The other you might consider is K.Stirwalt. He has seen enough he could tell ya off a video what the problem is.

I wish you luck, but it isn't looking good.

 

[herfchic]

A vet from Purdue told us to soak her hooves in ice water, and  he did not seem to think that it is laminitis either.  We have also been advised to talk to a Dr. Nord from Bloomington, IL.  Has anyone ever worked with him before? If we are not able to improve her condition, we will not keep her for a cow, but if it does turn out to be an abscess or something "fixable", I would love to keep her as a cow.  Like I said, she only walks bad on hard surfaces, but she strides out fine on grass or anything that will give a little.

 

[shortyjock89]

If it's the Dr. Nord with the Charolais cattle, he's one of the best.  I hope you can fix her, she's awfully good, I know how much time you've put into her.

 

[PLKR]

herfchic--I wouldn't panic quite yet...although it is apparently time for someone different to examine her, as you stated. Laminitis sounds unlikely,since it seems to be only in one hoof/leg, and apparently there have been no circumstances to suspect this as the cause. I would certainly not rule out some type of injury--a puncture to the hoof, or perhaps an earlier unnoticed injury that has led to an abcess, etc. As far as structure issues--hard to imagine there was such a dramatic change that quickly--I know you said she was a bit straight, but that seems to be a pretty quick change in her mobility. I would also think she would have difficulty walking on all surfaces. Being a Hereford breeder, I have seen very few yearling Hereford heifers that have been crippled from being too straight on their front legs...before you say I'm biased or barn blind, I'm a pretty harsh critic when it comes to structural issues...including our own cattle! As far as taking her to Ames, I think your costs would not be that prohibitive, based on our limited experience. Hopefully you can find answers closer to home, but if not, Ames might be a good choice. By the way, just putting 2 and 2 together, but is this the Harvie heifer?  Whatever you decide to do, good luck!

 

[BudE]

Hi, I'm Herfchics dad and feel like I need to clear a couple of things up.

First, show heifer, your concerns about structure are very valid and reflect my concerns.  If it was a structure problem we would take the hit and move on.  We raise cattle not pasture pictures.  The heifer has been referred to as "being straight up front" by more than one judge.  But, it is truly a show ring condition.  She strides out and covers her tracks outside of the show ring.  She's just a bone head in the ring.  I paid extra money for the radial xray's and the equine experts on fitness to look at her just to confirm it's not a structural issue.

The U of I Vet clinic is getting slammed on here unfairly.  I worked with a 4th year student Sarah who was very good and if anyone in Ohio is looking for a December Vet grad she would be a good one.  We also worked with a new vet at the clinic who was very attentive and helpful after I talked to him about the gravity of the situation.  I consider the main vet at the clinic Dr. Shipley a personal friend and he listened to my concerns and as always was on top of things.  The biggest problem is convincing them that this is a valuable heifer and not a feed lot calf.  They work with so many people on the cattle side that won't spend $50 to fix something they don't understand someone who will open their check book up like a horse person to diagnose a problem.  There is a long story related to my daughter getting this heifer but basically it's a once in a lifetime deal for her and to see that suffering is very difficult.

The work the U of I did to examine this heifer basically eliminated all diagnosis but laminitis.  I do not believe it is related to feed intake.  She has been on a maintenance program since January and was only getting 12 pounds total of grain feed per day.  She is not over conditioned.  Without a physical inspection another well known vet did agree with the diagnosis of Laminitis.  The only thing he mentioned was the possibility of Road Laminitis which is related to hauling, not feed.  We do have thick rubber mats in the trailer with ground cobs on top so plenty of bedding but laminitis related to hauling makes a lot more since.  She has been trailered a lot but with the heat etc. this last weekend maybe that was the cause.  I also fed her prior to getting on the trailer which I rarely do but possibly that added to the situation.

We did pick the heifer up late last night and she is walking better.  She walks more like she expects to hurt than that she is actually in pain.  We continue some treatments at home and wait.  The biggest problem is do we haul her 9 hours to Tulsa to spend a week on concrete at our Jr Nat. in 10 days?

Thanks everyone for your helpful comments and concern. 

 

[chambero]

The first Hereford that is "crippled" straight like we get with the crossbred show steers will be the first one I've ever heard of.  I bet its something else.

Soft tissue injuries aren't going to show up in hardly any kind of test a vet does.  We had a steer do something last year (we never figured out what - maybe fighting with another one) that had a similar symptom.  He never got over it completely, but we were able to get him relief to heal up enough he could be showed.

Our vet examined him and and had us dose him pretty hard with dex, banamine, and injectable glucosamine they make for horses.  The dex is what worked.  When we had him on it, it was amazing how much it helped.  It helped him enough to do quite a bit of healing. 

I'm betting she did something and caused a soft tissue injury.  If you really wanted someone to possibly figure it out, I'd talk to a real good horse vet that deals with performance animals.  Don't know if you have any of those in your part of the world.  Just in case there's some kind of infecton somewhere, I'd give her a good dose of Micotil.  Nothing works on foot rot for us like it does.  Some show heifers in particular are kind of spoiled and wimpy and it doesn't take much discomfort to get them to favor it.  It might be minor enough that it's not real visible.

I think you have to leave her home to give her a chance to heal.  I'd give her the treatments with antiinflammatories to make her feel better to give her time to heal up.

 

[Show Heifer]

Thanks for the update BudE. I know how disappointing it would be if it was structural, so glad to hear it probably isn't that.  Keep us updated, as I am interested to see what it turns out to be!
Best of luck!

 

[Jill]

Have to agree with Chambero on this one, I highly doubt it is structure related or she would have problems walking everywhere not just on hard surfaces.  We had something like this occure only 2 times I can remember and it was caused by 1. We were at a show where the ground was asphalt with rock chuncks in it and the soft tissue had bruising that caused the heifer to step gingerly for a week or so and 2. We had hoof rot way up in the hoof between her toes where it couldn't be easily seen, Howard had us shoot LA200 directly onto the hoof and up it between the split.
As far as Jr. Nationals, if this is a once in a lifetime deal, I guess if she were mine I would plan on taking her, you have 2 weeks to allow her to rest in a small pen and hopefully get over it, see how she does on the dex and banamine.  Good luck  

 

[DL]

DL???

I am a little late on this one, sorry

here are my thoughts, remembering of course that I have not examined the heifer and can only guess the breed

For any unilateral injury the primary thing to rule out is injury or local problem (ie abscess), not structure, not systemic issues (laminitis, sepsis etc)

Laminitis is really a systemic disease that manifests in the hoof, so I would not suspect it is laminitis based on the fact that only one foot is affected

Abscesses and other local things can result in more apparent lameness on hard surfaces than soft - because as anyone with an abscess in a confined space knows squishing it causes more pain

Abscesses can pop on their own resulting in relief - as I understand it she was not on the table recently....

I would be very cautious using both dexamethasone and flunixin (Banamine) in this heifer at the same time for any length of time - both are anti inflammatory drugs - but both can increase the chance of developing stomach ulcers --- the beneficial effect of dex in injuries is pretty well limited to the first couple of days; you want to also be careful using flunixin long term (which in some cases is more than 3 or 4 days) because of the potential for kidney problems...talk t your vet, but if she is improving I would back off the drugs. I would also likely give her a dose of an anti inflammatory prior to the trailer ride - also talk to your vet about aspirin - it is a great antiinflammatory, can be given orally, and is cheap ((don't mix, aspirin, banamine and dex)

my personal favorite treatment for any potential injury is hydrotherapy 2 to 4 times per day - in this heat she might love it

I think you should treat her as if you would any injury - the fact that she appears better is an excellent sign....I think you should plan on taking her to Jr Nat'l ......

 

[PLKR]

Wow, my 10 year old daughter is amazed that 3 people in a row agreed with my observations...now if only I could convince her and her little sister that I am occasionally correct...about anything, for that matter..    Anyway, glad to hear the heifer seems to be getting a bit better...good luck in Tulsa!