Poor little calf got hurt

Had a cow calve in the dry pen where they often do. It?s a 20x60? straw pack pen and there?s 8 cows in it total. I saw the calf and left them together as she was nursing and needed some time with momma. Either momma or another cow stepped on her and broke the bottom of her back left leg completely broken off where the foot was just hanging. The vet came out and he put a cast on her. Said he?s done them several times before and they will heal. He?ll have to change the cast in 10 days because they grow fast when they?re newborns. It might not have been the smartest economic decision but I didn?t have the heart to euthanize the dear little thing. Hopefully she makes a full recovery.

Best of luck to the lil' guy!

Having to much heart to put down a sick or injured animal is one problem I have never had.
One reason I do not understand how close people get to their dogs and cats where they will spend thousands to save a dog you could replace for fifty dollars.

Doc Pol wraps them with cotton,then tapes those thin slats from fruit baskets over the cotton,followed by wrapping it with gauze. It's soft,yet rigid enough and gives them room to grow inside it.

Somethings are worth more than money! I bottle fed the dog I have now for 5 weeks. She goes everywhere with me. Rides with me on my tractors, lawnmower, golf carts, Harley and in my truck! She hears any of them fire up and wants to ride. Might be hard to understand but we are inseparable!

She will recover. We once had a heifers with its lower jaw broken. Had to assist at birth and on trying to right it's head, the cow pushed just as my dad was pulling the head straight. Vet pinned it and a month later pulled them out. Turned into a darn good cow.
Ben

Chances are she will be just fine. My Wife has set 2 or 3 new born legs over the years which were also broke in two, at least one we kept for a cow and she never had any problem holding up a bull and a couple of more went to the stockyard as yearlings and you couldn?t tell they had ever had a problem.

It happened to us once. Vet use a piece of ABS cut length ways and a roll of duct tape as a cast. The calf was just fine.

Phillip,

You done good to care for that calf. There's nothing wrong with having a heart.

At the risk of sounding like a preacher, I'm reminded of a verse in the Good Book that says, "A righteous man regardeth the life of his beast...". I hope your little gal does well.

Tom in TN

Sounds to me like you're not an animal person. Stan

My heeler is the same way. Always on my heels and ready to go for a r-i-d-e at a moment's notice. Sure can make a hairy mess in certain vehicles but wouldn't trade that for the world.

Our dog gets treated the same.
Sleeps in the bed with my wife.
Gets the care it needs at the vet like monthly flea and heartworm meds.
Goes for rides in the car when we can take him.

I guess our differance comes in the fact I am not afraid to do away with runts of a litter to keep a breed true.
Or put down a sick and suffering animal.

How many spend thousands to extend the life of a dog by a year or two.
How many spend thousands fixing the leg of a horse that can never work or be ridden again.

That statement speaks volumes about you my friend.

So we can assume you do not think along these lines.....

Read the story above.

Because it sounds to me that anyone that would extend the life of a cripple; sick or deformed animal is not a animal person.
While the calf in this post can be saved to produce we often treat animals as if they were human and save animals that should be put down.

We took out an insurance policy through our clinic for our dog. It?s less than $30/mo and it covers 85% of anything that is out of the ordinary either sickness injury or in need of surgery. So when the day comes the vet tells us he would require expensive surgery and long term medication we won?t have to put him down because we can?t afford the treatment. I?ve shot many a cow because they are injuried from slipping ,milk fever or calving and have little hope of recovery. It?s pretty sickening paying $500 or more to have the vet out several times and still have a dead cow. BUT if they have a reasonable chance of recovery then we don?t bat an eye. Had this calf been a bull absolutely not. We probably could have bought a healthy calf for less than the vet bill will be and just done away with the poor calf because it would save money and eliminate the risk but in this case it seemed like the right thing to do.

is doctor pol your vet? I would like to have him we have 2 lady vets at our local clinic and they are ran ragged. it is hard to get a young vet to come to little town and do large animals.

they do at least 3 large dairy smallest is 200 cows one is 750-800 I think the third is about that size too

No,but he's RayP's. Dr Sandra left his clinic and works at the one right here in town though. He comes down to Anderson's Orchard to treat their exotic animals. They're about 8 miles north of me.

There are times when such an injury will cause an animal to suffer, and times when it won't. Same for people.

We have a cat that was born 2003. Was just weeks old when she had a rear leg shattered. Took her to the vet, but simply didn't have that kind of money.

We were in the process of moving here and there was barely time to take a breath for ourselves. So, wife wrapped up the little thing and we kept it in a carrier. Within a week, seemed she was doing much better. The vet had told us the cat would never walk, and showed us an X-ray of the shattered bones, but apparently they did not show the X-ray to the cat!

She's old now and rarely climbs trees, but we've had a long-standing joke (between wife and I) about how sad it is she can't climb trees......while she's looking down on us from the top of one.

Also, I had a total dislocation of my right ankle in high school. Was told I'd never run again, would never again be in fire dept, might not even walk normally again. After high school, I went on to enter USAF, in Fire Protection, and worked my butt off after that. Never slowed down until a neck injury did me in. I'd sure hate to think I coulda missed out on all my travels and adventures because [i:b8d4b3cefb]someone else[/i:b8d4b3cefb] thought my life would turn out not-so-good.

Young bodies are capable of AMAZING things!! I've never been one to let an animal suffer, but simply having a broken bone isn't gonna convince me to take its life, even if the bone is shattered. Gotta admit though, that cat of ours has amazed even me!

(quoted from post at 12:32:10 09/01/18) Having to much heart to put down a sick or injured animal is one problem I have never had.
One reason I do not understand how close people get to their dogs and cats where they will spend thousands to save a dog you could replace for fifty dollars.

Click to expand...

It's not a matter of having the "heart" to put down a suffering animal. It's a matter, as OP stated, of determining the potential for saving the poor thing at a reasonable cost. And reasonable means different things to different people. My sister had one of her horses for 2 weeks in a university vet ICU. I'm sure the cost was in the tens of thousands. But... she's retired from a VP position, has no kids and is well off. And her horses are her love. She even has a trust fund set up for them. Plus, her money is funding a lot of vet salaries.

Our horse had a knee infection. First vet said take him to MSU to drain the knee because she couldn't get it all. Cost: $6-8k, which to me was not reasonable for our financial situation. We opted to not do it and we were prepared to put him down if it got worse. We had a second vet look at it. He said give it a week on some different antibiotics. Horse came out of it ok.

On the flip side, I know a young man whose horse DID go to Michigan State for a serious problem. Vet told him either put him down or send him that day. He had to borrow the money (thousands) to treat it at MSU. It died anyway. So I understand both sides of the decision process. It's never easy and sometimes, in hindsight, you make the wrong decision.

But, If all we thought about was dollars and cents, we'd never own animals. I have 2 dogs and a horse. If I didn't own them I'd have a lot more money in the bank.