Help new calf - Rickets??

Kathy Millar · Post by **Kathy Millar** » Fri Jun 23, 2006 3:21 am

I had a calf born this morning and it is really knock-kneed. Viewed from the side, the front legs bend forward from the knee down. It can walk but is pretty tipsy. Is this a form of rickets? The knees do not appear swollen. Is there something that can be done? I feel terrible looking at her!

Kathy

Penny · Post by **Penny** » Fri Jun 23, 2006 9:29 am

Don't worry, this can happen sometime. The legs should soon get their act together and straighten up!

hazel clarke · Post by **hazel clarke** » Fri Jun 23, 2006 10:33 am

Have also had this happen and it does sort itself out in the end! My vet suggested at the time that I put mum and calf into a small area so the baby had not too far to walk for food!
Good luck
Hazel

moomin · Post by **moomin** » Fri Jun 23, 2006 10:17 pm

Hazel and Penny are right. She has just been lying that way in uteri. good idea to keep them restricted for a few days. She will soon straighten up.

Kathy Millar · Post by **Kathy Millar** » Sat Jun 24, 2006 6:49 am

Thank you so much for the reassurance. I am guilty of making her walk a few hundred feet to get her into a nicer paddock but it is quite small and she has already taken advantage of the lovely cool shade. You are right, the legs are straightening up and she had a little gallop tonight, tail in the air. I now have yet another bit of experience under my belt!

Kathy :D

Duncan MacIntyre · Post by **Duncan MacIntyre** » Sat Jun 24, 2006 9:55 am

It sounds as if this calf has a degree of shortening of the flexor tendons in the front legs, not uncommon in dairy calves of conventional breeds. It is usually assumed that if the calf can get the tips of its toes on the ground by itself then in time the leg will straighten. If the shortening is so severe that the toes cannot touch the ground it is sometimes necessary to splint the leg for a time, but the majority do right themselves.
In Scotland we also see a congential but not inherited condition with bending and twisting of front legs in beef suckler calves out of cows fed on silage. It can affect a significant proportion of calves in a herd in the same season and the causal factors are not well understood. Again a large proportion of affected ones do improve and only a small number are ever a really serious problem. I think it unlikely that any Dexter breeders will see this problem.

Duncan