This post is the start of documenting the suspected nerve injury in one of our Black Angus cows and the difficulties experienced while grazing, or what we refer to as the hitch in her giddy-up! Anna is a 10 year old Black Angus cow with an excellent history of calving and one of our herd matriarchs. She bred last year and during the third trimester, we noticed that she appeared lame. Anna was brought in off the range and checked over for injuries. None were found at that time. Since she is a large cow, and gets heavy with calf, the assumption was that the calf was pressing on a nerve. After calving (<30 minutes unassisted field birth) we watched to see if her movements freed up and became fluid. It is a little over 3 months post calving and we are seeing a lot more bad days then good and Anna started losing weight. She was hauled to the vet, where she received a through exam. This appears to be a nerve injury of some type. It is suspected that she stretched a nerve so a decision was made to start anti-inflammatory therapy. Confined movement was recommended, but from past experience we know that Anna prefers to mother everything and gets depressed when isolated. We are monitoring her health and movements to determine the next course of action.
