One of the most difficult decisions a livestock handler can face is knowing what to do with downer cattle.
Producers have to choose to treat or euthanize the animal.
Dr. John Ayres, a veterinarian with the Norsask Veterinary Group, regularly works with downer cattle.
“Cows laying on the ground look great from the road, but if they can’t get up you’ve got a big problem,” he said.
Downers have been in the spotlight recently after Hallmark/Westland Meat Packing Co. of California initiated the largest beef recall in U.S. history.
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The U.S. Department of Agriculture found evidence that the company may have been slaughtering downer cows without proper inspection.
Approximately 143 million pounds of beef have been recalled, although it is assumed that most of the meat has already been eaten.
Although being recalled, U.S. inspectors say that there is only a remote possibility that there was anything wrong with it.
Packers have been allowed to slaughter downers in the United States since October 2007, provided a veterinarian has found them to be free of disease.
In Canada, downers arriving at slaughterhouses used to be seen as an unavoidable aspect of transporting beef.
“Think of it,” said Mark Clark, communications officer for the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.
“They go on the truck, (they) get pushed around, (they) happen to be a weaker animal, and somebody hits the brakes (they) fall down, split (their) pelvis. I mean, that happens, right? That’s just normal.”
The situation changed with the discovery of BSE.
Downers that arrive at slaughterhouses are now sampled for BSE but cannot be processed even if they are found disease free.
“What are you going to do with the meat in the meantime? Who’s going to hold the carcass and wait the three or four days for the test result to come back?” Clark said.
“To be honest with you, those animals have been down, they get stepped on, they get knocked around a bit, they get bruised, the meat’s not that appealing.”
A variety of equipment is available for treating downers. Hip lifters are common and cheap, but not as safe or humane as other methods.
“If you’ve got a mild paralysis on a cow that you think is going to get better, some people will lift them a few times to give them a bit of a chance, but if you’ve got to use them three times a day for four weeks, that really tears a cow up.”
Slings are more humane than hip lifters, but require extensive labour to use and are sometimes not as accessible. While hip lifters should only be used sparingly, slings can be used for up to two hours.
“The slings are nicer because it spreads that pressure out over the entire body and it really becomes a nonissue then.”
In cases where the downer is just a little weak, it may be possible to throw old-fashioned manpower into the equation with a technique known as tail-lifting.
“Basically you try and encourage the cow to try and get up and as she’s trying to get up you grab her tail and pull hard,” Ayres said.
“You’re up close and personal there.”
A flotation tank is humane and involves building the tank around the animal and buoying it up inside. They keep the animal up indefinitely and can be used to treat animals for long periods of time.
However, they are not readily available and involve a lot more work.
“For an individual producer to have one of these things, I suppose it could happen, but it’s not very practical.”
Although all methods can be effective, sometimes getting a cow into a standing position isn’t an option, and the most practical solution is to euthanize the animal. However, that presents its own problems.
“Farmers are people, and they do this because they like animals, for the most part, and some of them like some animals more than they like others. I’ve had farmers in tears with a down cow that has a very poor prognosis.”
