Mcauley- cow question

So you know about molly, that froze on me.. and lost her back claws on one foot.. SHe is doing great.. Thinks she is a goat... Vet said she is doing good.. Just to watch for her claws coming back.. If they don't come back straight we may have to amputate them cause of balance issues.

But here is my question. If you look at our other calve we got.. same age. Molly is like maybe 1/3 of sunshine. To put this in perspective. Molly is now over a year old.. and she would be about the size of your " regular cows calves" maybe 200 pounds.. where sunshine is probaly 600 to 700 hundred pounds.


My one cattle friend.. says it could take her a few years to catch up... We don't know if she is the runt. But pretty sure she was forced weaned too early ( way too early) when he sold her mom and didn't sell her.

But my question is... due to her going down and freezing.. could this stunted her growth? She is always going to be a yard cow.. and I am working on right now.. getting her to pick her feet up like a horse.. since she had her first claw trim. As she can't go with the herd and wear her toes out..


Right now.. I have her on calve feed.. and hay.. She is doing great.. getting tiny horns.. LMAO..

ANy thoughts?

In my opinion she will catch catch up - only had a similar experience once. Had a cow drop a set of twins - one was normal size the other was a little runt 1/4 the size of its mate. The calf didn't grow much over the summer and come fall its mate weighed 600 pounds while she barely tipped the scale over the 200 pound mark. I kept her back as she would bring very little at Auction. She put on a little weight over the winter, and when srping came she got turned out to pasture with the heifers. When she was brought in off off the pasture in the fall she was bred and weighed over 900 pounds. She had a growth sprit over the summer and the following spring delivered a healthy calf by "C" section. Needless to say she was such a baby and spoiled rotten that she became the family milk cow and provided milk for the house for the next 12 years - having a calf each spring thereafter with no problem. The only foreseeable problem you will have with Molley - and I's sure your Vet has discussed this with you - since her feet got frozen one - they will freeze so much easier and quicker the second time and recovery won't be as positive the second time as it was the first. You will have to take a lot of extra precautions to ensure that her hind legs and feet (claws) don't freeze again.

That is why she is with the goats.. duck and 2 pigs.. in my small goat barn.. I load it up with straw.. and the goats.. at night litterally... sleep around her.. We have heat lamps in there in case we need to.. Worse case.. hubby is almost finished with our sick pen in the barn. He is insulating one stall.. where we can pump heat into one area.. if need be..

But anything else we can do.. to prevent her feet from freezing again. I do have breeding boots that pooper gave us

Thats about all you can do is put down lots of bedding - the nights will be the worst - as the animals tend to lay down - which means their is less circulation - which results in frost bite occuring faster. If Molly will wear the boots then yes I would use them. In regards to your sick pen - tell hubby to put in a sub-floor (I used railway ties) - just layed them over the cement floor then nail a sheet of 1 inch plywood over top or 2x10 to keep everything in place and make it easier to clean. Having a sub floor keeps the sick animal off the originl floor which can be extremely cold.

Well it is a good thing then my goat barn is raised.. it doesn't sit on the ground then. There is straw underneath the goat barn.. as the cats like to curl up there. Hubby put wood around 3 sides of it. It is on rail road ties.. it is a small goat barn.. so the amount of animals it is really warm in there.. and small door opening.. I was going to replace it this year.. but it will have to wait till next year... they get lots of bedding.. LMAO.. lots.. So I can only hope that she does okay....When she went out in march.. we had a cold march and she did okay... but who knows.. she hates the boots.. hates them...so we will have to play it by ear...