Lame Bullock

kingstown

Have a bullock who seems to have gone lame since yesterday morning.
I feed them nuts in the morning about 7ish before I go to work and noticed one bullock was slow to come to the trough. Had a look last night and it was hard to see in the dark with a lamp.
One thing I can say is a ''hour of daylight is worth anything'' because feeding in the before/after work is fine but when something needs doing it's not always as easy..
Only dosed them on Saturday and he was fine, what ever happened him i cant say but it doesn't look like shoulder injury. Its just that he seems to be holding the hoof of the ground.
Hard to know but I'll have him in the crush first thing Saturday morning and have a better idea then..

MfMan

Cattle can get lame through dirt around feeding troughs entering cuts or abrasions in the hoof. A shot of alamycin usually gets them right; if you have the means, lift the hoof, scrape out and wash out with scalding water.

kingstown

Thanks Mfman. will do.
It on the agenda first thing tomorrow morning. But as i was saying messing around with cattle in the dark wet evenings is all very well, but when you need to do a job like that getting a bullock into a crush and trying to see what the problem is, isn't easy

I have these lads comming into a yard for silage and nuts but they also have a pick of grass during the day. So they can move around a little as they arent confined to the yard all day.

I will give him 20cc of Pen/Strip tomorrow anyway, and depending on how he is I might continue to give him 20cc for another day or so.

Farmer Pudsey

Try to lift the leg if you can. Clean well check for anything between the claws. If you have access to a hoof knife you can check the hoof to see if any sopft sore area's due to a small stone chip. Allymycin purple spray is very good if any cut or abrasion spray and leave dry and repeat for 2-3 days alonf with injection.

kingstown

Thanks Lads

Had him in the crush first thing Saturday morning and when I had the leg up i could see a ''nice long blackthorn splinter'' stuck up between the claws
Removed it easily enough but it did look tender. Cleaned it and gave him 20cc of pen/strip and again yesterday.
He looked fine afterwords and went off grazing.
Must have walked on some of the trimmings after the headgcutter and picked it up then.
Anyway all is well again....