My cow is down (used to be "Red Cell for anemic cow") updated 1/15

[dragonmorgan]

ok good. At least thats one less worry for me. Although it would so be my luck to end up with the only dwarf hereford left in existence .

I tried to pay more attention to her when she tried to get up today and it seems like when she tries to do anything with her back legs it hurts her some. I don't know if it's from laying on them so long and they are sore or what. It was mainly with her first attempt of the day that I noticed when I went out to roll her so she had been layin on that one side all night. I don't know if that would make a difference about it or not though. She just starts mooin and her ears go back and she lays her head down.

 

[Shelly May]

Hate to say it but it still sounds like menigeral worm to me, which is rare in cows. You need to decide what
your going to do, some meds have a withdraw period of up to 28 days, so if you give her meds you won't
be able to eat her if she dies or you have to shoot her. But if it is menigeral worm, then you need to worm
her with safeguard every day for 5 days straight, I would guess she weighs around 200 lbs. But time is running
out, as the menegerial worm goes into the spine and then the brain.

 

[redtailgal]

This is how we used to treat meningeal worms at our vets office, however, safeguard has not worked very well at all recently. We have switched to using the ivermec/safeguard routine that I mentioned before, for several reasons. Ivermec kills the larvae stage much better than ivermec, however it does not cross the blood brain barrier. Safeguard will cross the barrier but not without difficulty, but is not as effective on killing much of anything anymore. I wouldnt rely on just safeguard for anything, esp not brain worms.

I still think that she is down with a blood sucking parasite or had a major complication with coccidia in her back ground.

Either way, this cow needs to be thoroughly wormed right away.

 

[dragonmorgan]

She has already been wormed once (although I know we have talked about the fact that I probably under dosed her) and I we haven't had a chance to worm her yet because the weather has been rainy. The rest of the week/weekend is sposed to be nice and clear so tomorrow I will be going out to give her her haircut and she reworm her with the increased dose yall suggested. Didn't want yall to think I had forgot about you or anything. I just didn't want to try and worm her if there was the possibility that she could get wet.

Anyway I took a video of her today when I went out to roll her and put down more hay for bedding and in the hopes that she will eat some of it. She has been refusing the hay that I have been getting (probably because the quality sucks) but I have a new bale of good quality horse hay coming tomorrow that she should like better. Anyway I also patted her down to see how she reacted and check for any sore spots. As for an update on her she seems to be doing a little better. As we were leaving the house today to run an errand I looked in her pen and saw her tryin to get herself up. It is the first time I have ever seen her tryin when I wasn't out there coaxing her and she was really puttin forth some effort. It did look like it was painful/uncomfortable but she was givin it her best. Then tonight I went out to check on her and put a blanket on her because it is pretty windy and the ground is wet and she was propped up on her front knees. It was probably because the ground is wet where she is layin even though she is on a nice bed of hay it doesn't take long for the mud to seep through. Tomorrow we will move her to a dryer place but where she is now is the only place out of the rain I could put her. Anyway she also has a sore on one of her knees but I am not sure if there is much I can do to help her with that or what to do for it.

Some video explanation. Please excuse my son. He was mad about being left in the stroller and wanted to make sure I knew. I wasn't pressing hard just patting and rubbing and looking for any twitches in her skin. I saw a few when I touched behind her front shoulder and a little down her back. She gave me the stink eye too when I touched her left leg. Some of her neck stretchin was to sniff around in the hay I had just out of her reach. If you notice anything please let me know because I am sure there is plenty I missed.

 

[Shelly May]

X2 As redtailgal said, worm her again for serverl days in a row right away, The weather should not stop you from
taking care of a sick animal asap, she needs the ivormectric or safeguard asap, this can be administerd with a shot or
orally, you don't need to do the skin application if the weather is bad, I don't believe people should post a HELP, problem
if they have so many excuses why they can't do or won't do what advise they are given, If you can't take care of the
livestock, SORRY but you shouldn't have livestock. If someone tries and tries and then loses the animal in the end, then
at least they know they did everything they could to save it. I don't mean to sound harsh but just want to get the point
across, They require alot more then just a front yard of grass, to stay healthy and alive.

 

[SheepGirl]

At least she looks alert and she's ruminating.

BTW, did you ever get a temp on her?

 

[dragonmorgan]

She has def been getting stronger over the last couple days and even managed to raise herself off the ground today when she saw DH coming to give her her shots. It was only for a second or 2 and she was really wobbly but she did do it. Her temp was 102.6

 

[redtailgal]

That's great.

You'll still need to worm her aggressively.

Dont forget........

 

[dragonmorgan]

Don't worry I haven't.

 

[dragonmorgan]

Just thought I'd update this in case anyone was wondering what happened to her and all. For the past 4 days she has been getting up on her own and started walking around. She improves a little bit more every day and today she was up every time I looked out the window and checked on her. You can tell her muscles need stretching out and restrengthening because she still walks a little stiff. Right now our main goal is to get some weight on her and make sure she has the right diet and to worm her on schedule to make sure this doesn't happen again. Thanks for all your help. We are very blessed to be one of the few happy stories out there in reference to a down cow. Just thought yall might like to know how she is.