Acute vitamin B Deficiency

[Runaway Deere]

Just thought I would pass this on. So here goes the story, bought steer Monday, steer in good shape till Thursday nite. Well the problems are just about to get started, he was down and had severe convulsions and extremely knuckled over. We have never seen this before so the internet searches and call to the vet come in. Vet comes out and thinks its severe magnesium defieciency, so we treat it as that and give banamine, get steer into mare motel. Friday no better, throw in some draxin for good measure, treat with magnesium(epsom salts). Saturday no better infact we have been thinkin where to bury, we have kept him hydrated and grain, lost weight by the day. Sunday treat with magnesium, steer bad. Monday we are at wits end, go for the hail mary pass, go visit retired vet down the street 80 years old don't like to bug him much, after long visit I get the answer "I don't know, let me think about it". So Monday night steer has been down 4 whole days and light convulsions and knuckled over like crazy. Monday nite we are hopeless, then the call comes from retired vet, "You got any vitamin B?" I answer nope. Solution number two, he advises get 10 one a day vitamins and wrap them in toilet paper and use the bolus tool. He wanted us to do that monday nite and tuesday am. Ok we did it, Tuesday at noon we get some appetite and this guy isn't knuckled over anymore, wow retired vet nailed it. Tuesday afternoon we got steer up he stood up, mind you this steer has been down 4 whole days. Tuesday nite we get some vitamin B injectable and hit him Tue nite, Wed am. We are on top now, Thursday nite we decide lets put him out to pasture, he is healed. Just for grins we brought him up today and gave him a dose of Drax and some extra vit B. Steer is now doing great, we figured out he had Polioencephalomalacia.
here is the link to the Merck manual
http://www.merckvetmanual.com/mvm/index ... 102000.htm
this information on this page was helpful after the fact

I wanted to pass this on to anyone that needed a good search for some information on this as we were nearly all baffled. Hope no one else has to go through a week of a sick steer like this again, he was surely brought back from the front loader grave

 

[CKC1586]

Wow, great job and congratulations! Buy that Ol Vet a steak dinner. :nod: :clap: :tiphat:

 

[Nesikep]

Wow, can't beat good old experience

I was just reading about deficiencies, and the animal should be able to synthesize all the necessary B vitamins... so be warned that this may not be a real cure, but a patch up.. Cobalt (if I recall correctly) is one critical element for the B vitamins, so he could be really low on cobalt.. maybe they gave plain loose salt where he came from? Also, there is a very wide range of acceptable cobalt levels (max is 100 times the minumum), so maybe a cobalt boost could help him make his own Vit B again?

 

[Runaway Deere]

well I am really stumped now because vet one said, duh I gave him tons of vit B. So I am very confused now, But I can saw that it was either vit B or magnesium defieciency, ugggggh it doesnt really matter now cuz steer is doing really well its been 10 days since he had problem, the reason I put this up was because all the searches I did, did not turn up any real world experience that any one had had with vitamin mineral defficiencies. I can tell you that we have never had anything like this before, it was really freaky not having any ideas. HOW DID WE DO IT BEFORE THE SEARCH FUNCTION ON THE INTERNET.

cheers

 

[Nesikep]

yep, without the intarnet I'd be dumber than I am... I think

 

[regolith]

Well, there's b1 and b12 and probably half a dozen others in between.
It's standard practise here to give b12 to any animal looking off-colour (not my practise, but lots of people do it). Vit B1 is thiamine, if I recall correctly. Could that be where the confusion arises?

Congrats on saving the steer.

 

[TexasBred]

Well, there's b1 and b12 and probably half a dozen others in between.
It's standard practise here to give b12 to any animal looking off-colour (not my practise, but lots of people do it). Vit B1 is thiamine, if I recall correctly. Could that be where the confusion arises?

Congrats on saving the steer.

Once the rumen becomes functional, bacterial synthesis is considered to supply the normal requirement of cattle for B-vitamins. Milk is a source of B-vitamins for the calf.

The lack of a trace mineral, cobalt, can result in a vitamin B12 deficiency in cattle. This is because cobalt is a part of the vitamin B12 compound and is essential for rumen bacteria to manufacture this vitamin.

 

[mlazyj]

Most ranches in our area use cobalt salt , first I'd seen used . Most claim that it's gotten rid of most of their foot rot problems . I went to a nutrition class this spring put on by Montana State . The doctor said they were looking at the cobalt requirements , that they hadn't been updated in years . The same as copper , the newer data is showing that is more important in higher doses than was thought in the past .

 

[Nesikep]

well, the maximum dose of cobalt is about 100 times the minimum, so an overdose is very unlikely, thus, it makes sense to always have cobalt in the salt

 

[angelitaN]

Nutrition is very important so a person with Vitamin B Deficiency must take foods and vitamins rich in Vitamin B.

 

[seobts]

Nutrition is very important so a person with Vitamin B Deficiency must take foods and vitamins rich in Vitamin B.

Yeap. It's very important to get enough vitaminn C.

 

[ga.prime]

Yeap. It's very important to get enough vitaminn C.

That's right or you'll get scurvy.