I don't think I've posted about Lazarus yet. He's a Jersey steer, probably 10 months old. When we got our steer, we called them all "Norman" after the movie City Slickers - but then we had to change his name.
A few weeks ago, we noticed he hadn't moved from one spot in the barn. We were horrified to discover he couldn't get up. At first, a number of people said that if he didn't get up within 48 hours, we'd have to put him down. Then I heard a week. Then someone said, "Don't put him down, he may yet get up and if not, let him die on his own."
The vet prescribed four shots - dewormer, antibiotics, cortisone and something else, I don't remember. They didn't seem to help at all. I had never administered a shot in my life, and since Jerseys are so boney, I was hard pressed to find a good muscle and was terrified I'd hit bone. But I managed.
And so, for about three weeks, we went out three to four times a day, lifted him, moved him, cleaned out from under where he was. Refilled the hay bed and moved him back. We worked daily to get him to stand, and nothing seemed to work. We started feeding him all natural sweet feed and we bottle fed him water and the cow equivalent of Pedialite. We bought alfalfa and brought him greens. I sponge bathed him to get the urine and feces off his body and he lost all of the fur and the first layer of skin on his belly. His knees were getting sores. We massaged and worked his legs daily.
One day he looked particularly bad and the next day at work, I received a message that he'd died. I was heartbroken. My mother-in-law had found him and had called the county to come pick him up and dispose of the body. I got home and my husband was outside the barn, shaking his head and grinning. Apparently, little Norman had not died, had just been lying in a weird position, and my MIL was too squeamish to actually go near him to see if he was breathing. So that was the LAST time I'll ever take my MIL's veterinary assessments at face value! So, from that day forward, we have called him "Lazarus", the steer that "rose from the dead". :)
We didn't have, nor could we afford one of those nifty slings they make for injured livestock. Then, one of our neighbors came over and made one. It was a simple thing, a board with eye hooks attached to a chain from the barn rafter and two thick canvas straps to go around his "armpits". And so we started using it. He wasn't too pleased, but eventually, he started putting a bit of weight on his hind legs. We rubbed DMSO on his joints and legs to ease the pain. By the end of a session, his legs would be trembling.
Then, one day, he pushed up on his back legs and "stood" with his "forearms" on the ground. He couldn't get up on his front hooves. From that point though, we were able to only sling his front half, as he could stand quite well on his hind legs. My aunt-in-law came over and used a bunch of natural remedies on him. Arnica Gel, epsom salt towels, and leather wraps to hold the arnica to his "ankles". After about two days, he was walking in short stints with his hooves bent under - on his ankles essentially.
Then, yesterday, when I went out to feed him, he was standing. Totally standing. His left ankle is still a little weak and it buckles a bit, but I think that'll work itself out as he walks on it more. I cannot believe that, having no experience whatsoever, that we rehabilitated this steer.
He is the sweetest, cuddliest steer ever and I'm so proud and amazed at his perseverance. We only have four of these steer, and I recognize that on a larger cattle farm, this kind of care wouldn't be possible, so I'm grateful we were able to give it to him. Now...I'm not sure how we're going to have him slaughtered when he's big enough - I almost think he's earned a life at pasture.
Anyway, just wanted to share - with all that's going on in the world, it's nice to have something so uplifting and fulfilling happen. My miracle steer, Lazarus.
Lazarus the Miracle Steer
Amazing story! I think you have a pet steer there.
Mevnmart, so happy to hear Lazarus is up! Sounds like he's giving it a good fight. I have Jerseys and love them dearly. It's really hard to find good vet advice for them since they not as common as the beef breeds around here. And large animal vets are becoming scarcer by the year.
I hate to give any advice I haven't dealt with first hand, and thankfully haven't had to deal with a downer steer. I have dealt with a few things that I thought might be the death of my cows and the death of me from stress.lol
Without knowing exactly why he went down, it's hard to say he's 100 percent out of the woods, yet. But, standing on his own is a very good sign! I would strongly recommend posting your story to the 911 section of http://familycow.proboards.com/
There is nothing wrong with DG and don't want to see another cow lover leaving :0) But collectively the members of Family Cow Board have dealt with just about everything under the sun that could happen to a dairy breed. I'm sure they can help keep Lazarus on the mend and perhaps suggestions as to what happen, and keep it from happening again.
cocoa_lulu, thank you so much for that link! I have three pet steers, and I constantly wonder where I'll go if there's a problem, for good info.
Oddly, my small animal Vet actually deals with cows, which I discovered when a new Tech brought in a tube for blood from my cat that seemed way too big. I asked, and the Vet laughed and said, yeah, those are for the cows....
mevnmart, I surely do wish Lazarus all the best. My HAT boys (Hershey, Angus and T) are very much part of the landscape, AND the family :)
Wow.. that is awesome! I'm so glad he is up! Cocoa_lulu that was so nice of you to give her that link... THAT is what DG is all about is helping others. You didn't take her away from DG.. we all give advice we've seen elsewhere... just brings us together even stronger here. It is exactly what she needed, and I for one, thank you for it!!
This is a great story.. I have a lump in my throat and a tear in my eye... I'm so happy for you Mevnmart.. it's a great day.
What a story. As soon as I saw the name Lazarus I knew I had to read this thread. I'm so glad I did...What an amazing story, not only your baby hanging in there, but Mevnmart, You hanging in there. I'm with ZZ's on this. HAPPY DANCE. Also Coco Lulu, ZZ's is right, you haven't taken her from DG. You directed her and all of us for that matter to a site that has great info that we may not have here. We are all thankful for this great outcome...Haystack
Oh, what a great story! Thank you so much for posting!
I have a friend who has a pet steer of some sort of dairy variety. She rescued it from the slaughter/processing house. He's very sweet, wears a hat sometimes in the summer, and her kids ride it. He loves all of the attention. They are a farm family, and her DH takes a bit of ribbing for some of the guys down at the diner. But he says the steer is part of the family, so he gets a home for life. He says every farm should have one.
I hope you get to keep Lazarus as a pet and find as much pleasure in doing so as my friend has found in her pet steer.
Thanks for posting the link, cocoa. I've saved it as DH wants a few cows at some point in the future.
What an amazing story! Lazarus is very fortunate to have you & your family watching over him. I'd love to see pics of him when you have time. I think steers make good lawn ornaments, you'll never have to mow the yard again LOL
Thanks Guys, that's exactly how I intended the suggestion.
Mevnmart, How is Laz doing today?
Catmad, I would love to see your boys :0) I told Porkpal, we need a "show me your bovine" thread? LOL Someone may have to alert it to me, tho. Been busy planting and trouble keeping up with the threads :0)
Terri, can I convince you into becoming a milkmaid? lol
Thanks for posting this. It says, "Never give up hope".
Lazarus is doing even better now, hardly a limp. He's back in with his "brothers" and is walking and laying down in normal intervals. Our main concern now is that he doesn't want to drink out of the trough. DH has tried, I have tried, but all he wants in the bottle. We even submerged the bottle in the trough to try and trick him, but it was a no-go. Some neighbors say he'll drink when he's thirsty, but I went out there the other day and he was breathing really hard and ended up drinking 2 gallons out of the bottle. I love him, but I really can't manage another year of bottle feeding him his water. I'm going to try that other board too and see if they have any advice. Thanks for the link! It definitely won't get rid of me though because I need my chicken fix, my market garden board, organic gardening and the plant files, of course!!! :)
Will he eat oats out of a bucket?If he will start adding water to it and gradually add more water and less oats and finally he will drinking his oats
or some molasses water maybe?
Out of curiosity, and of course Laz's health. I'm really interest in what the other board has to say. My first thought is that he picked up some metal, but he doesn't really sound like he's shown classic symptoms of it. I thought I've read in the past that hardware disease is possibly for it to present itself differently in different cases tho. You might want to give him a magnet anyways if he going to be the new family mascot :0)
I applaud you, you've done whatever necessary for him! That's what a real livestock owner does :0)
That is an excellent idea Green. I would never have though about that, I have never had livestock so this is all new to me. What Green said really made sense to me...
Yes oats will work to get him to drink, but not knowing if it metabolic or if something is wrong with his rumen function, oats may only entice. Molassas has essential minerals and sugars for gut flora production. Cows like it as much as they like oats, well maybe not as much.lol But, he'll enjoy it and won't be junk food.
We got our calves drinking out of buckets by letting them suck our fingers and then submerging our hands in the bucket as they sucked. Will he still suck your fingers? (At his age, I guess it might be sort of injurious!)
porkpal I had forgotten about that method!We used that to get ours started to.The things you forget over the years.
I've seen buckets with nipple attachments on them (http://www.enasco.com/product/C19305N), could you use that for him if he simply won't drink otherwise? I'd probably try hanging one of those over a "real" water trough and hope he gets the idea:)
At least easier than holding a bottle while he drinks....
LOL! I can't be a milkmaid unless you brought the cows in to my office and I could milk while doing my thing here at work. Since I already bring my Corgis (or is that Corgii) to work maybe no one would notice!?! =D
I really don't know much about cows. The Laz were a horse I'd think founder. Cow don't founder though, do they? That's why I don't want to muddy the waters with a guess. In the interest of science, I'd love to hear what the other cow forum diagnoses, though.
I did once get a half starved and off-her-feed-and-fading-fast rescue-sort-of horse to start eating and drinking again by slathering Grandma's Molasses all over the feed and into the water. I would think that would work with a cow. That horse lived on to love Nehi Orange Soda. She lived well into her twenties so I guess it didn't hurt her any....so you may end up with a steer with a sugar tooth. That wouldn't be so bad, though, would it?