Post by sweetjoy on Jan 29, 2009 0:25:50 GMT -5
Hello friends!
For those who haven't seen me before, I am a new cow owner (since November) of a 4 yo dexter/mini-jersey cross. She's great and we've really been enjoying her.
Her previous owner recommended we have her hooves trimmed. They were long and breaking off. It was really hard to find someone to come out just for one cow, it seems. When we finally got someone, he came and seemed compotent, but in trimming he knicked her, trimmed too far in a spot, and made her bleed. He cautioned us that she might get an absess and it could make her lame. We called the vet and they recommended we put her right on antibiotics to avoid infection.
Not wanting to rush out and put her on wonder drugs, we have been watching her and taking her temperature, and trying to watch for any signs that something is indeed wrong and needs to be treated. I just don't like to rush antibiotics I think they are hard on immune systems, etc. But we'd certainly give them to her if that was best. I am not sure.
My question is, what would you do? And how can we tell if she's doing ok? She was limping almost right away, and still is. This just happened Monday, how long would she limp? We penned her in the best part of the pasture where it is driest and cleanest. But her foot is muddy/mucky from when she got out of the chute, and she won't let us really check it out or clean it. Its on the bottom of her foot so it's impossible to just get a look at it. In all fairness, it was a too deep cut (I heard some guys use grinders but he used snips) vs an actual open wound. So I don't know if we could see anything if we could get to it. He didn't snip it off once he realized he was too deep.
Any thoughts, ideas? Should I be worried?
I wish I knew more about what I was doing. Any help is appreciated.
For those who haven't seen me before, I am a new cow owner (since November) of a 4 yo dexter/mini-jersey cross. She's great and we've really been enjoying her.
Her previous owner recommended we have her hooves trimmed. They were long and breaking off. It was really hard to find someone to come out just for one cow, it seems. When we finally got someone, he came and seemed compotent, but in trimming he knicked her, trimmed too far in a spot, and made her bleed. He cautioned us that she might get an absess and it could make her lame. We called the vet and they recommended we put her right on antibiotics to avoid infection.
Not wanting to rush out and put her on wonder drugs, we have been watching her and taking her temperature, and trying to watch for any signs that something is indeed wrong and needs to be treated. I just don't like to rush antibiotics I think they are hard on immune systems, etc. But we'd certainly give them to her if that was best. I am not sure.
My question is, what would you do? And how can we tell if she's doing ok? She was limping almost right away, and still is. This just happened Monday, how long would she limp? We penned her in the best part of the pasture where it is driest and cleanest. But her foot is muddy/mucky from when she got out of the chute, and she won't let us really check it out or clean it. Its on the bottom of her foot so it's impossible to just get a look at it. In all fairness, it was a too deep cut (I heard some guys use grinders but he used snips) vs an actual open wound. So I don't know if we could see anything if we could get to it. He didn't snip it off once he realized he was too deep.
Any thoughts, ideas? Should I be worried?
I wish I knew more about what I was doing. Any help is appreciated.