Injuries
Leg Injuries
Leg injuries can happen to anyone’s bucking bulls at anytime. It’s unfortunately a too common occurrence for bucking bull breeders. It can happen at the national finals rodeo, at a PBR bull riding event, or while loading up to go to an event. Regretfully, it can happen just about anywhere and usually when you least expect it. Most cattle breeders, after a while, seem to develop a sixth sense to help them stay clear of such an accident, but it does happen and it’s going to continue to happen if you’re in the pro rodeo business.
I certainly would not wish it on cattle breeder, but from personal experience, the first time it happens, it can be quite traumatic. Like they always say, it always “happens to the good ones too”. It will consume you for at least a week after that. But, a very good friend of mine gave me some good advice. He said, “keep your head up” and I’ll never forget that, because it truly helped me to put it behind me.
Some things I learned about broken legs in bucking bulls is that it is usually easier to repair, less expensive, and the prognosis is better the closer the break is to the hock. And of course, if the break does not tear through the skin, then that allows for fewer complications. Also, if the break occurred lower in the leg towards the hock, where there is less flesh to penetrate, chances are that special x-ray equipment would not be required to show the break.
If the break is suspected to be higher up nearer the stifle, then this is where the cost escalates (could reach $10,000 or more) as the only access to these special x-ray machines would be large animal veterinary teaching universities such as Texas A&M, Oklahoma State, etc. I believe Dr. Warner in Elgin, TX, a well known authority on bucking bull injuries may also have one.
An excellent veterinarian that specializes in bone breaks is Dr. Mark Barker located in Newcastle, OK. He’ll shoot straight with you and understands the economics of this game. In other words, if your animal is worth less than $20,000 at the time, it may not be economically feasible to spend $10,000 or more to put him through extensive surgery, rehab, etc. with the hopes of mending the leg where he can have a successful career as a sire. As in my case, he agreed that our best course of action was to come and pick him up after about a week and put him in a 30’ x 20’ pen by himself, feed him well, not let him get too heavy, and let mother nature heal him. Hopefully, he will be able to walk on it in about 6 months and eventually be sound enough to service 4 or 5 head of cattle a year for you. That’s our hope right now and we’re currently about 4 months into the natural healing process.
I’m no expert on this, however, I think I promised to tell you, based on my personal experiences I had with my bull, 7571 Li’l Red, what I feel were some warning signs that an animal might be in danger of injury to a leg. Yes, it’s true, most of the time a career ending injury can come out of nowhere, with no advanced warning. But often, I feel, if you look back and search deep in your being, there were most likely some warning signs. What are some of those signs?
1. If an animal has previously been one that had a lot of pop and extension to his kick when he weighed 300 lbs. less as a yearling and at his first few futurities as a 2 yr. old, but lately he’s been on hi-protein feed and he’s becoming muscled. That in itself is not a bad thing. But, you are starting to get the feeling he is abnormally dense and heavy. Even though he is not fat, he seems to be lacking his signature “pop”. He doesn’t seem to have the lifting ability he once had. Again, I’m not an expert, but in my opinion this is a sign that he is becoming too heavy for his young imature bone structure to handle. It’s time for your action such as cutting his protein back to 14%, and possibly not buck him until he’s a 3 yr. old when his bone structure has had more time to mature.
2. If your futurity candidate has ever slipped on the same leg two times in a row after throwing his signature huge buck out of the chute, this could be a warning to you. Don’t dismiss it, take action. Try cutting down the amount of flank and perhaps change the delivery the next time. But, by all means, I wouldn’t do the same thing a third time.
3. If your gut is causing you to be more on edge than usual about a leg injury on one of your animals, I’d say to trust your gut and again take action. Put him up for a while. Change his next trip up in some manner, like, loosening up the flank, changing the delivery, giving him a slower or faster gate or all of these.
These are some of the warnings signs, I feel, after experiencing these with my animal, and that, by no means, makes me an expert, but I wanted to share with you. If, by chance, this helps someone out there from experiencing this same thing, then I am glad to have been able to share this. If some of you should disagree with any of this or would like to add more signs, please feel free to do so. That’s what this site is all about. It’s about the sharing of information that might help the rest of not have to experience a “wreck”. Best of luck to all of you with your animals.
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I have a Bull with a Swoolen “Knee”?? Middle area of the leg?? I dont think its broken……Its just swole. He got it from Fighting another Bull. Its going on 1 month now and its still pretty swoll. I seperated him from the others. I really hope it gets better. Where could i see images of similar injuries??? I need some suggestions.