Joey's crooked legs, pics.

[20kidsonhill]

He is the buckling on the right and you can see how knobby his front legs are.

Here he is laying down, His front legs looked huge, like they were deformed.

 

[20kidsonhill]

and here he is a couple weeks ago, So maybe 6 weeks old, still maybe a little knobby-kneed looking, but this weekend we were looking at them, and my husband didn't recognize him and his legs look pretty much normal.

 

[SDBoerGoats]

Awww, the pics of his back legs make me feel so bad for him. Joey's are just in the front, although one of his back legs looks really straight up and down through the hock area but only once in a while. I think it kind of pops out or something depending on how he stands. Now that I see yours in the last photo, his knees look like Joey's brother, his knees are a little knobby kneed looking. I would have trouble watching him try to move with casts or wraps on his front legs and see no way he could fold his legs to lay down, and he has to lay down.

Joey was still kind of weak last night and when he'd try to stand, his little shoulders would sink down and his shoulder blades would stick out so bad they looked deformed too! Today he is stronger and holding his body up better. When I look at the pic I took of him in the house when he was only a couple of hours old, his eyes looked so tired and there were wrinkles in his facial skin. He really wasn't doing good and needed some fluids. He looks so much better now.

But neither kid will try to nurse. We take them both to mom before we offer them the bottle, Zach walks around her and sometimes ACTS like he is feeling some instinct to bump on mom but he never does. She is a good mom and talks to them all the time, but he just won't nurse. We hold him to her nipple and he won't try but latches right onto the bottle.

Thanks for the pics, they look so much like what Joey is dealing with. So maybe he will straighten up too. I know with young colts we used to have born with crooked legs, my husband always gave them Bo-Se and then trimmed their feet on whatever side it needed it, kept toes low on the ones with contracted tendons and I have pics of knocked knees colts that almost touched when they were born, and as yearlings you never knew they had a crooked leg!

 

[20kidsonhill]

As far as getting them to nurse, you will pretty much need to let them get hungry,and then stick the nipple in their mouth and squirt the milk into their mouth, It is a frustrating job, my husband is better at it than I am. You have to get them down on their front knees, to do this. They often figure it out after a couple different tries, We go out every 2 or 3 hours and keep repeating this until they are nursing. They just have to be convinced that is where the milk is. It is instinct for them to attach to the first thing that is in their mouth. So for them it is now the nipple, but it is very possible to get them to nurse still, but would take some work and patients.

 

[Jenni]

My little guy had the same problem with his front legs. Knees were bent, bowed out, shoulder blades stuck out. As he used them they straightened out, took a few days. Now they look pretty normal. The tendons were tight and needed to stretch out.

 

[SDBoerGoats]

Oh yes, yesterday afternoon when I took him to the barn, poor little guy was excited to see his brother and trying to walk. His shoulder blades stuck up so far I thought there was something wrong there too! And yep, it looks like he's walking on tippy toes. BUT even this afternoon, they are improved from this morning and he was shuffling around on his toes. PLUS and this is a HUGE plus to me, he was really hungry, so we held him to mom and put the nipple in his mouth and he started nursing! Only got it for a few seconds at a time, but at least 4 times we got him to suck. His brother Zach, who has been with mom the whole time, refuses to try still, but grabs right on to the bottle. I might have to make him really want it! He is plenty strong to stand up and nurse, his legs are not crooked at all.