Post by brigitte on Jul 21, 2014 6:27:49 GMT -5
Ugh, this is hard
My beautiful sweet, smart and productive roan milking shorthorn four year old cow Thyme has a problem.
A year and a half ago she suffered a pinched nerve and couldn't get up just prior to calving. A struggle and dedication and she and the calf survived.
She went down with milk fever this year after calving, then last week couldn't get up. It was her back end again. She is a barrel chested cow, relatively small for her breed, and has had no other issues. Never mastitis and no problems with appetite. Her ears are warm and she is attentive to others, but can't get her back legs to pull her up.
Banamine brought her up, and it did again last night. I thought maybe the cement was slippery in the humidity, and gave it some grit. But she's the one with the problem.
My suspicion is that the pinched nerve has reactivated somehow. perhaps she slipped a bit, just like a person might, and the inflamation is alleviated by the banamine. She does not seem in pain, and I have spent hundreds of dollars on vet calls on her since last yer but I don't want this to get worse without dealing with it. I can't say enough about banamine, and it should be in very cowbarn's medicine cabinet (but I wonder also whether it would be a consideration if she were to go for meat)
I don't want her to suffer. I am simply at this very very very difficult stage of not knowing whether to let her go, even though it is my gut feeling now. I want her to go while she can still walk. I don't know if I might be missing something. Quite simply, she is my friend.
My beautiful sweet, smart and productive roan milking shorthorn four year old cow Thyme has a problem.
A year and a half ago she suffered a pinched nerve and couldn't get up just prior to calving. A struggle and dedication and she and the calf survived.
She went down with milk fever this year after calving, then last week couldn't get up. It was her back end again. She is a barrel chested cow, relatively small for her breed, and has had no other issues. Never mastitis and no problems with appetite. Her ears are warm and she is attentive to others, but can't get her back legs to pull her up.
Banamine brought her up, and it did again last night. I thought maybe the cement was slippery in the humidity, and gave it some grit. But she's the one with the problem.
My suspicion is that the pinched nerve has reactivated somehow. perhaps she slipped a bit, just like a person might, and the inflamation is alleviated by the banamine. She does not seem in pain, and I have spent hundreds of dollars on vet calls on her since last yer but I don't want this to get worse without dealing with it. I can't say enough about banamine, and it should be in very cowbarn's medicine cabinet (but I wonder also whether it would be a consideration if she were to go for meat)
I don't want her to suffer. I am simply at this very very very difficult stage of not knowing whether to let her go, even though it is my gut feeling now. I want her to go while she can still walk. I don't know if I might be missing something. Quite simply, she is my friend.