My cow is down (used to be "Red Cell for anemic cow") updated 1/15

Godsgrl

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dragonmorgan said:
Just thought I'd update this in case anyone was wondering what happened to her and all. For the past 4 days she has been getting up on her own and started walking around. She improves a little bit more every day and today she was up every time I looked out the window and checked on her. You can tell her muscles need stretching out and restrengthening because she still walks a little stiff. Right now our main goal is to get some weight on her and make sure she has the right diet and to worm her on schedule to make sure this doesn't happen again. Thanks for all your help. We are very blessed to be one of the few happy stories out there in reference to a down cow. Just thought yall might like to know how she is.
Thank you for your reply. I have been thinking about your cow, and wondering how she was doing. So happy to hear a positive update.
 

dragonmorgan

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Thanks everyone. We still have a long road ahead but hopefully we are on the right track now.

IMG_0222_zpsb066dfb2.jpg
 

WildRoseBeef

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Yup, she looks like crap but the biggest hurdle you've gotten over is getting her up and about.

Let's hope you don't get some sort of relapse and she goes down again but never gets back up. Keep up with the good work, you're doing great!! :thumbsup :thumbsup :thumbsup
 

dragonmorgan

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I'm prayin we don't run into anything like that. :fl I think we tackled the main reasons she went down and she's gettin some good groceries in her so she should start puttin weight on. I'm goin to start measuring her to make sure that she's gaining. She's been up and down no problem for the past 2 days though (mostly up) so hopefully that is a good sign that she will stay up.
 

redtailgal

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Will you tell us what you used to worm her, how much you used, and when you intend to repeat?

(that information would be VERY beneficial to someone searching for help that comes across this thread) :)
 

dragonmorgan

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I tried to find the bottle of wormer we used but DH must have thrown it out. The bottle was broke and was leaking everywhere. We only ended up worming her the one time and we gave her the recommended dose for a 400lb cow (I believe). After she went down it stayed really cold and I was afraid to reworm her because if it was cattle grub, or whatever the kind is the burrows toward the spine, I didn't want to kill them off if they had chosen to migrate to her spine with the cold weather. I had heard different things about them releasing toxins when they die that paralyses or leaving open wounds that could get infected. Since she was improving some already I was really afraid of a setback from something like that so we decided not to chance it and just reworm her when it was safer.

What we ended up doing was getting her on some better feed and better hay. She is now eating 1 cup beet pulp (soaked in 2 cups water) 1/2 cup calf manna, 1 cup alfalfa pellets, 4-5 cups sweet feed, and 1/2 tsp minerals (all comes out to about 4.5 lbs). She gets that twice a day along with free choice hay. When she was down she got a shot of B-complex and a shot of iron every other day until her gums pinked back up and then she got the iron as directed on the bottle.

Since she has been up and eating better she has really started to improve. I measured her last week and then measured her again last weekend and she has gained 1/2 inch. I also tried to do a little amateur teeth aging on her and it looks like she still has all her milk teeth so I am thinking she is actually only about 1.5 yrs old.

Here she is right now.
IMG_0227_zpsdfb83e47.jpg


I am going to retitle this post so it can be found easier by people searching for down cow advice.
 

Godsgrl

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dragonmorgan said:
I tried to find the bottle of wormer we used but DH must have thrown it out. The bottle was broke and was leaking everywhere. We only ended up worming her the one time and we gave her the recommended dose for a 400lb cow (I believe). After she went down it stayed really cold and I was afraid to reworm her because if it was cattle grub, or whatever the kind is the burrows toward the spine, I didn't want to kill them off if they had chosen to migrate to her spine with the cold weather. I had heard different things about them releasing toxins when they die that paralyses or leaving open wounds that could get infected. Since she was improving some already I was really afraid of a setback from something like that so we decided not to chance it and just reworm her when it was safer.

What we ended up doing was getting her on some better feed and better hay. She is now eating 1 cup beet pulp (soaked in 2 cups water) 1/2 cup calf manna, 1 cup alfalfa pellets, 4-5 cups sweet feed, and 1/2 tsp minerals (all comes out to about 4.5 lbs). She gets that twice a day along with free choice hay. When she was down she got a shot of B-complex and a shot of iron every other day until her gums pinked back up and then she got the iron as directed on the bottle.

Since she has been up and eating better she has really started to improve. I measured her last week and then measured her again last weekend and she has gained 1/2 inch. I also tried to do a little amateur teeth aging on her and it looks like she still has all her milk teeth so I am thinking she is actually only about 1.5 yrs old.

Here she is right now.
http://i1095.photobucket.com/albums/i475/dragonmorgan/IMG_0227_zpsdfb83e47.jpg

I am going to retitle this post so it can be found easier by people searching for down cow advice.
She looks a lot better to me, thank you for the update!!
 
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