Hydrotherapy to get Bunny the calf to lose her hop

With her favourite drink and the attention of student vets Bunny the calf takes to the treadmill

Technically she's calf 6400 according to her ear tag, but everyone here at Harper Adams University calls her Bunny.

That's because she was born with a problem with her back legs, so rather than walk she tends to hop instead.

Right now that's not going to be an issue but as Bunny grows from calf to cow she's going to get to quite a large size, and if she can't bear her weight properly on all four legs she will find dairy life very difficult and almost certainly won't be a productive member of the herd.

Fortunately for Bunny, Harper Adams has its own vet school and they were interested in seeing what could be done for the newest calf on campus.

They elected to try to improve Bunny's walking by using hydrotherapy. This is a fairly common treatment for people, dogs and horses but as far as they can tell Bunny is the first ever cow to have this treatment.

In the past few weeks Bunny has been loaded on to a trailer and transported from the university dairy unit to the hydrotherapy centre that's part of the vet school.

Watertight doors

Here she is carefully manoeuvred on to a treadmill inside a glass box. Bunny will do anything for a bottle of her favourite drink!

Watertight doors at each end are sealed and then the box fills with water. Surrounded by four vet physiotherapy students to look after her, the treadmill slowly starts to work.

The water slows down Bunny's movement and that means she can't actually use her hopping motion, instead she has to walk. She has three short periods on the moving treadmill in a session and then it's back to the diary unit to recover.

Having seen video of Bunny before treatment compared to her today it's clear the hydrotherapy is working. She now has a more normal gait and her rear legs look stronger and less stiff.

But Bunny is both lucky and unusual. She has a short journey from her dairy unit home to the treatment centre as it's all part of the Harper Adams University campus. Most farmers faced with a similar problem are unlikely to have the equipment, time or funds for a similar approach.

That said the data Bunny is providing as the first cow to have this treatment will be really useful. It could well be it provides evidence that for some, likely higher worth, farm animals hydrotherapy is an option.

Bunny's time in the tank is coming to an end however. She's already bigger than many dogs, the tank's usual users, and so will soon outgrow the equipment. However her treatment will continue on land and she should make good progress and become a happy member of the herd. And in the end she may well lead the way for other large farm animals to have similar treatment.

Hopefully by the spring this will be one Bunny who's lost her hop.

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