His 'Dancin Shoe

Dance just before meeting his "girls" this summer

 

 

 Our herd sire, 'Dance, had been a little limpy on and off since the end of summer.  It didn't seem to affect him much, but we worried every time we saw that that he was walking with a hitch in his gitalong.  We'd put him in the chute and pulled up his leg to examine the bottom of his foot for something embedded.  All looked fine on both claws and in between. 

Since it is supposed to be his last year with us, we had him sold as a herd sire to another ranch, but had to cancel his sale because we felt that he wasn't sound enough to guarantee him to someone else.  So what do we do with this big guy?  Our vet suggested an xray to determine the nature of things....

The xrays show a hairline fracture in his coffin bone (oh, how I despise that name!).  In order to heal at all , his weight needed to be off the outside of his leg bone.  He's been such a good boy and a great herd sire, so wedecided he deserved a chance at healing rather than going immediately to freezer camp. 

What follows are pictures of his "walking cast" - bovine style:

 

He got to have a little sleeping medication although he did the whole xray and examination without it and without protest -- like the good boy that he is....

Clean feet are a must so his claws got washed  --

and dried  ---

a piece of wood was cut to the size of his inside claw, then glued on and fiberglassed in place ---

It took a little while for him to fully wake up - and as always, he was just easy going

 

 

It took a little while, but he zips around now with very little limp.  Taking the pressure off of the broken bone seems to have taken the ouch factor away as well.

There aren't any guarantees that this will work, but we figured we owed him this....  Did I mention that he's such a good boy?!