Post by mollymoo on Oct 30, 2011 13:02:17 GMT -5
Quick background - I have these awesome neighbors who I get hay from - they raise beef cows and are usually great sources of knowledge for me - on things cow and country. They have all that "been there done that" kind of knowledge - while I have a brain full of "things I read in family cow" ;D Anyway, they asked me for help on something, (I feel honored and really want to help!) and I'm hoping you can help me with it. A couple of weeks ago they bought a couple of "unthrifty" calves at the livestock sale - skinny little black angus types. The neighbor told me he figured they had been malnourished, maybe didn't get colostrum but thought he might be able to give them a second chance. One of them has huge swollen knees - and I asked him if he thought it might be joint ill. Not something he had heard of (surprisingly to me!). Anyway I have read the threads in the tree of knowledge - and pretty sure this is the problem with this calf: in addition to the huge knees she had runny eyes and was a bit snotty when he got her home. He already treated with Penicillin and aureomycin crumbles (which I think he does most of his sale barn calves when he first gets them home). She has responded to the antibiotics - gained forty or fifty pounds in the last couple of weeks and moves easier on those swollen knees. However, the knees are still huge. What I couldn't get from the TOK threads was how do you know if the infection is gone (I am not sure whether he gave penicillin for all three weeks he has had her, or just initially) - and will the swelling go down - and if so how long will it take? The neighbor suspects that these two calves may be as old as three months (he judges by the length of their tails on their hocks). They were weaned when he got them - but didn't recognize grain (they are eating it with gusto now). So my second question is, if that is the case and this little calf went a couple of months without treatment, what are the chances of fixing the problem now?