8 month old Holstein heifer, down

[SweetsDollface]

My holstein went down on Sunday. Vet came out about 2 weeks ago, she had bottle jaw and was anemic. We have been doing iron supplements. He told me to buy Cydectin. I put it on her last Thursday. Sunday when I woke up, she was down. Weak. The vet came out again. He told me she was down because of the worming. The parasites drained her. He also said she could stay down for 3 weeks. Advised that we needed to get her up everyday. We got her up on Sunday evening. She was very wobbly. She stayed up for about 15 minutes. Monday she stayed up for about an hour. Yesterday we got her up in the am, for about 2 hours and in the evening she stayed up for almost 4. She is eating her grain and hay. I have been giving her electrolytes. She will drink it out of the old bottle we had when we first got her. I am not a cattle farmer and I am in over my head, I guess you would say. She is my pet and I love her. She is my first cow and I have no experience. At this point, once we get her up, she is fine. The first couple of days she was very unsteady and would fall down. Now, she will lay when she is tired. The thing is, she won't get up after laying down. She tries. Any advice as to how long this might last and if there is anything I should do different? She has also lost some weight. She is getting straight alfalfa and she also has coastal. She gets 12% grain twice a day. Is there anything else I should give her, grain wise to help gain weight? Thank you for your help.

 

[alisonb]

Bottle jaw can be a sign of Johne's disease, did your vet check that out? Don't know Cydectin too well, does it kill liver fluke? You need to find out what the underlying cause is/was, why is the animal anemic and why did it develop edema? Do you have a protein and mineral block out for her? Apart from iron supplement did your vet inject her with a multi vitamin?

 

[Koffi Babone]

cydectin label:

http://www.bi-vetmedica.com/content/dam ... _label.pdf

8 month old is exceptionally young for Johne's. What are the other signs: diarrhea? what colour is the manure? Is it black (digested blood) or presence of blood? how is her gait? arched back?

Was she treated for white muscle disease (ie Vit E and Selenium injection)? It is not a very expensive treatment but make sure you follow the label carefully, overdosing is toxic.

 

[SweetsDollface]

He did not check her for Johne's. That was my concern as well, but all of my reading said the same. Usually they develop symptoms later in life. He told me that she had bottle jaw from parasites. I have wormed her 3 times since January. But apparently I need to do it far more frequently. I wormed her with ivomec, orally and so did he, 5 days apart. He told me to get Cydectin pour on. I as well did that. When he came out this past Sunday, he said she was just weak from the worming. The parasites made her anemic and weak. I think I should have waited a month or so to put the Cydectin on her. Sunday was an awful day. She was so weak.her legs just buckled under her. Today was the first day I went out to run errands. I myself lifted her this morning with tow straps at 6am. I used the fence as leverage. She weighs about 350lbs. I was shocked when I got home around 1pm, she was still up. She is up as we speak. I have been giving her electrolytes 2 quarts at a time. All day. Called the vet this morning, he told me to buy Renew Gold and add it to her feed, a cup, 3 times a day. And ounce of honey 3 times a day. I as well put red cell in her bottle of electrolytes,twice daily. When he came out on Sunday he injected her with vitamins. Um, her poo was solid Sunday, now it is wet, sometimes diarrhea,tu mostly just really wet. Nice brown color. No blood and not dark. I really appreciate all of your help. And advice. Thank you.

 

[Koffi Babone]

What kind of vitamins did the vet give?

White muscle disease, aka as vitamine E- selenium deficiency should be part of the differential in young downer animals.

Good luck.

 

[Lucky_P]

Some folks will think I'm being mean - but you've admitted this is your first 'cow', and that you don't know much about them. I'm too old not to point out the most obvious possibility - though there may be other issues - but, the most common things happen most often.
The most likely problem is that this heifer has not been on an adequate plane of nutrition to meet her needs for maintenance, much less for adequate growth.
You can feed your way through a parasite problem; you cannot deworm your way out of a feed deficiency. Other than severe coccidiosis, it's RARE for intestinal parasites to kill a cow or calf that's getting enough to eat.

For some reason, it seems that my veterinary colleagues are often reluctant to say, "John/Joan, these animals are essentially starving to death.' - and then to use that as a teaching moment to help that producer improve upon what they are doing. Guess they're afraid of ticking off that client - but if that's the case, they're not helping the animal(s) or the client. Vitamin shots, deworming, and foo-foo feed supplements will not take the place of proper nutritive intake.

At 8 months, this heifer ought to weigh closer to twice what you've said she does. She didn't get in this condition overnight, and if you manage to pull her through, it's gonna take quite some time to get her back into any sort of decent body condition - and she's likely going to be 'stunted' from this point forward. The fact that she's still able to stand - even if you have to help her up - is in her favor.
12% feed is probably not sufficient for a growing calf - they need more protein to build bone/muscle and keep their immune system working at peak efficiency. Have seen some wrecks with newbies feeding 10-12% horse/mule feed or 'all-stock' feeds- on the recommendation of well-meaning but misinformed neighbors - calcium levels in those feeds is not sufficient for proper bone formation in a growing calf, and you end up with rickets and pathologic fractures, because their bones are not strong enough to support their weight.

The pour-on dewormers have pretty poor efficacy - they're really poorly absorbed; most of their effect is from cows ingesting it while licking themselves and herdmates. I'd rather see you use the pour-on as an oral drench, or give a formulation intended for oral administration like Panacur/Safeguard, or an injectible anthelminthic, particularly if 'worms' are really (part of) the problem. The pour-on product you used in the past week may or may not have had a significant effect on any parasites this calf may have.

 

[dun]

Lucky_P, thank you. I had thought the same thing but couldn;t think of a way to bring it up without sounding like a s-head.