Anybody have success with getting a cow back up once it's down?

We have a Charolais cow that has been down since yesterday. As far as we know she is not injured, she was just pushed down by another cow. She will attempt to get up but doesn't seem to have much strength and gives up quickly. Has anyone had a cow that lived once it was down like that? It seems like if they don't get up for more than 24hrs they become so stiff that they are never able to get up again. Any advice for how to stimulate her to get up and to get circulation going in her hind legs?

I don't but I'm sure some of our more experienced members might. I've tagged some of them, maybe they can help?
@greybeard @Baymule @Wehner Homestead

Thank you! @RollingAcres

We always got a couple of people and pulled up on the back end u can get them up. It takes a little not so nice coaxing but they usually get up

She needs forced up or she won’t make it. Your vet or a local farmer may have a hip lift. Those require a tractor or sturdy beam to support their weight as they are lifted.

An alternate would be to run a heavy duty ratchet strap under her and lift her rear with a tractor loader/forks/bucket.

If you can’t get access to a lift, she needs up now! Try flipping her so that she’s on the opposite side. This will allow the blood to flow to the side that was down better. Give her about 15 minutes like that then get several people pushing on her rear. I’d put a halter on her head and have a truck or tractor pull (not pull her across the ground, just apply enough constant pressure to encourage her to get up.) Make sure someone twists her tail HARD (not hard enough to break but make sure they have her attention.)

Cows can’t get up when gravity is against them. Make sure her head is downhill or perpendicular, not up if she’s on a slope.

This is going to sound super harsh and I don’t normally condone it but you are looking at life or death here...use a hotshot on her after she’s had a chance to get feeling in the down legs.

Please keep us updated. If I think of anything else, I’ll add it.

The hip lift sounds like a good idea, there's a chance I could find a farmer around here that has one. I had thought about doing the ratchet straps to get her up but was afraid of hurting her because she is so close to calving. Ratchet straps are so hard to control, and even if you run one under front and back it really digs into the cow when you lift it. You are right though, if she isn't made to get up she will die anyways.

The thing is my pet Brown Swiss steer through all this a couple weeks ago and we did the ratchet strap winch thing on him and were able to get him up, but I think he got internal injuries from it. The next day he wouldn't stand even when lifted all the way to his feet and he died that night. It was all very tramatic and I'm reluctant to go thru it all again especially considering it did no good.

Obviously there's an underlying problem since you shouldn't have two cows go down in a herd that close together. Probably a nutritional deficiency caused by the fact that both were smaller cows and probably have been getting bullied away from the feed. I don't manage the farm here though so I can't really address that problem. :/

Thank you for the advice. I'm rather sleep deprived right now (calving season etc.) so it's easy to be in denial and just hope that it will get better, or to think that it's not worth trying, but if I don't do my best I will look back and regret it. Sometimes you just need someone from outside the situation to tell it like it is.

I think I'll give her asprin to help with any soreness, winch her up, flex her legs to get the circulation going then maybe lower her back down and use the hotshot? We don't have one but could pick one up pro'bly. I had wondered if one would help.

Best of luck!

Greetings and welcome to BYH from NE TX! So glad you joined us, but sorry for the reason. Sorry you lost your steer, and sure hope you can get the cow back on her feet. Would be a real shame and loss to lose her and the unborn calf. Hope you'll stay around and let us know what happens. There's a wealth of info, knowledge and experience shared in the multitude of threads. Browse around and see what interesting stuff you can find. By all means post away when the desire strikes you, especially if you have questions (provide as much detail/info as possible and pictures truly help)... With all the great folks here, generally someone will respond in no time at all. Please make yourself at home! Hope you enjoy the site!

Oldfashionedgirl said:

Has anyone had a cow that lived once it was down like that?

Click to expand...

Yes, a couple. And a couple that didn't.
If it's anywhere close to her due date, you might consider C section for the calf.
Wehner Homestead pretty much covered everything, but I'll re-emphasize those words...time is of the essence especially if the ground is still cold up in your area.

If down for 24+ hrs, it likely is not going to be enough just to get her up. You have to get her up, support her some and get her to walk while under support. We used to call it "puttin her on a rail" and back in the day, they literally put a beam or rail under them the full length of their body, strapped the rail between a pair of mules or horses and walked them .

Last one I had anything to do with was a neighbor's older bull last January, and he was a big one. Not sure how long he had been down when we found him, in a muddy area, but it had been in the teens temperature wise the night before,and was going to be again the next night and it was close to dark by the time we found him & got him pulled out of the mud. Couldn't do much with him that night, so we covered him with shipping blankets, I got a half 55 gal steel drum and built a fire in it out of pine knots we knew would burn for hours to warm the air around him. (put the drum far enough away not to burn his hair but close enough to keep most of the air around him from freezing. Fed him about 7-8 lbs of good grain with molasses to give him a little energy.

Next morning at dawn, we used a thin steel bar & pushed a 4" wide strap under him right behind his front legs, another one in front of his rear legs and straddled him from the rear with the forks on a front end loader. Picked him up so his hooves would drag on the ground and started slowly moving forward with the tractor. We had to pick his hooves @ the fetlocks up and reposition them forward each 'step' but eventually he would pick his hooves up and take a step on his own, with most of the weight still suspended by the straps. We had to do this several times per day for a couple of days. He would walk on his own, for about 30 yards, but then laid down and couldn't get back up. Took about a week, but he finally got fully ambulatory, tho I don't think he'll ever mount another cow...he's over 15 yrs old anyway.

Some, all they need is help getting up..just depends how much/long those leg muscles have been deprived of blood circulation.
This is a rough drawing, but you get the idea.... (the yellow dotted lines indicate the straps are going under the animal.)

I had to laugh at that cow... very cute.