Learned something new this week

[Colin]

I noticed my herd matriarch (who is now 14 years old) looked lop sided in her pelvis. The ilium bone was quite pronouned on one side and very small on the other. There were no other symptoms of a problem, the cow was behaving and moving normally.

Being quite worried about this I got the vet out. His diagnosis was that she'd broken the ilium on one side, which, apparently, is not that uncommon. The treatment is to do nothing, given she's in no pain and is not impaired in any way. It did make me wince.

Vet says she must have banged it. She was running with the bull until a few weeks ago but I didn't notice anything until a few days ago.

Anybody else experienced this ?

Colin

[Duncan MacIntyre]

I do not recall seeing it in a Dexter but it is far from unknown in cows of the general sort.

Duncan

[Louisa Gidney]

I came across this in the literature several years ago. Thought it was interesting and have been keeping a look out for an archaeological example ever since, without success. Suggesting it may normally be linked to modern breeds and husbandry. If you ever beef the cow, I'd be really interested in acquiring the pelvis as a reference specimen.