Something is Making Cow's Hooves Fall Off

Dianec

Bedlam

Dianec
Antibiotics - fungal infections - unbearable itch - chew foot off. Possible but do they test for more clandestine or systematic infections routinely. How sad.

Cows can't chew their feet off.

Advantage above stated the cows started biting their feet off in relation to her cousins farm. I have no idea what cows can do. Was going off of that. Their mouths can't reach their feet?

Not only can't they reach their feet with their mouths, they don't have teeth on the top front. Just molars. Cows won't bite. You can't make them bite. They're not wired to bite or pick up things with their mouths, other than grass, clover and poisonous plants you'd wish they'd leave be. They don't even really bite grass, they wrap their tongues around it and shear it off with their bottom teeth.

Cows can't reach around far enough to bite their tails either. They've got short legs, a thick neck and a long body.

A horse, on the other hand, can manage it but I've never seen one do it. That is, I know they can get their back hooves up by their mouths but I've never seen one gnaw on a foot. I have seen them chew on their own legs if they've got bad habits. Horses are bitey animals that have it down about as well as a dog. While a cow wouldn't know what to do with that mouth other than moo, burp and shove food in, a horse is well armed and uses his mouth to manipulate objects like a dog. They can play ball with you if you have a sturdy one with a handle on they can get in their mouths.

Now, I have seen cows chew on each other's tails. But you see a cow with a loose hoof it's foundered, got laminitis or some sort of infection.

eta: unless, of course, you've got Dracowla...bovine of the undead.

dreamingawake
What I'm reading is that some research concludes that in this case the industry has gone to far and it's a consequence of it all. With that it could be a combination of factors in modern factory farms. The drug in question should still be on trial more, before any action to allow it's use again.

edit on 16-1-2014 by dreamingawake because: (no reason given)

This is true I have worked on farms in my younger years. They give them several drugs. One is a mixture of drugs. Antibiotics, steroids, and I forget what else, hormones? That's to give them more mass. When you add all of these drugs together you are going to have a problem. Keratin shedding is quite the debacle.

reply to post by Bedlam

Bedlam

Not only can't they reach their feet with their mouths, they don't have teeth on the top front. Just molars. Cows won't bite. You can't make them bite. They're not wired to bite or pick up things with their mouths, other than grass, clover and poisonous plants you'd wish they'd leave be. They don't even really bite grass, they wrap their tongues around it and shear it off with their bottom teeth.

Thanks for cow insight The research I had heard to that effect centered on pigs/hogs attacking each other and biting tails off.