Newborn with Buck Knees

[pweaver]

Any ideas what to give a newborn to help with buck knees?  We always give a shot of Bo-Se when they're born and wondered if there's something else to help.  He's pretty bad.  Gets around fine, just looks pitiful standing with front legs curved like an old hay scythe.

 

[blinggirl]

how big of a calf was it and was the cow a small cow? sometimes if its a big calf in a smaller cow the calf will have bent knees and will take about 3 -4 day for them to stretch out from being cramped

 

[OH Breeder]

I had one a couple years ago and believe it or not he came out of it after a couple months. He would get up and around and had a very patient mother. She stayed near him constantly. By the time he was 6 months old he was normal but it took a month or two for him to stand normal.

 

[korytm]

We had a 120lb Irish Whiskey x sim-angus heifer calf born a few days ago.  Her legs have changed quite a bit since she was born. I also think  they just need time to stretch out a bit and get stronger.

 

[Cowboy]

If he was structured that way when he hit the ground, as mentioned here, they will get going to a point most of the time, it takes a while.

If he was a couple days old and THEN started to buck over bad, and gets worse, I wouldn't be overlooking the chance that he has navel-ill. This is a very subtle illness, and is easily fixed with good old Penniccillin if caught early. There have been literaly hundreds of calves around the country, alot of them I have seen myself and even had a few here, that just want to buck over due to the fact thier knees are sore. Give them a week of Penn, make sure you go long enough, and you won't kow them most of the time!

Bad deal if not treated, for sure. But also, some of these calves just get too cramped up in there -- they will hobble around something fierce for a couple weeks and then seem to grow out of it -- at least to a point! Sever toe out is a terminal problem, and just leads to these other kinds of problems.

Good luck on him, don't give up yet!

Terry

 

[akaacattle]

How can you tell if its an navel ill?