5 week old calf dead - help with the mystery

[DavisBeefmasters]

On Saturday morning I noticed a 5 week old bull calf with some bald spots - got a closer look, not scaly, not red, no scratches, no temperature, bald at the connection of the ears to the head and various patches on the legs and stomach... calf was acting fine, running around with the others, alert, perky ears, etc. So I figured I'd keep an eye on it and call the vet Monday morning.

Sunday morning - no change -- still a perky calf with some bald spots.

Monday morning - calf dead with a white foam over the nose and mouth.

Has us confused -- none of the other calves or this calves dam show any signs like this.

Wondering what happened and if I need to worry about the rest of the calves -- have a call in to the vet as well, but have yet to hear back.

Any and all advice welcomed.

 

[randiliana]

Could be photosynthesis disease, but usually they don't die. Also have seen/heard of the odd calf that seems to be allergic to sunlight. Could be he got into something he shouldn't have as well.

 

[Alice]

From time to time we've had bottle calves that lost hair and came up with bald patches...the bald patches weren't scaly, they just seemed to appear and get larger. These calves were in pens/hutches. As I'm remembering now, they were always in this one area...on a particular piece of ground that I no longer put any calves on because I'm certain the ground is contaminated beyond repair. Have you housed a lot of calves on one piece of ground over a period of time?

Alice

 

[shorty]

I have a holstien bull calf that I'm starting , he's 8 weeks old now , when he was about 3 weeks old he started losing hair on his nose . I asked the where I got him about it a he told me to give a B-12 shot . I did and about 1week later the hair was growing back and now you wouldn't know there was anything wrong. This may not have anything to do with your problem , it's just something that happened here.

 

[DavisBeefmasters]

Thanks Alice - no, right now they're all out on about 30 acres, 20 of which we hand line irrigate and the rest is roughage for them, they've been out there for about 4 weeks.

Shorty - we give TSV-2 intranasal, Bo-SE, and tag within the first day or so of birth so it shouldn't have been that, but thanks.

The vet is baffled as well, doesn't think the bald patches are related to the death and we decided not to pay for a necropsy unless we lose another one.

Strange things we encounter everyday - he was a good growing bull calf too.

 

[Victoria]

I wonder about a zinc deficiency. It can cause hair loss. The coat would have been rough where there was hair left. Any lesions inside the mouth? There may not even be a problem with inadequate zinc in your feed, there may just have been a problem with this particular calf that he couldn't properly absorb zinc.

 

[milkmaid]

I've had 'em lose a lot of hair when they've been running a high fever (such as due to scours). Any spot that tends to be warmer than the rest of the body, ie., base of the ears, belly, flanks, rump, brisket, etc. If the calf was running a temperature but not showing (many?) outward signs that might explain the hair loss.