Last night I took my heifer to the vet. She was running and kicking and straining like she had to pooh. Vet checked her out said she had a 105 fever and a touch of pnuemonia. Gave her some albon, and banamine and some electrolytes. Kept her over night. I got a call this morning and he said her fever was down and she could go home. When I picked her up she was her normal self until I got her home. Then she kinda acted not so good. She didn't run a fever but she just laid around. I don't know if maybe it's the heat or not. I called my vet and asked if she remembered about this time last year when I had the problem of her spikin fevers during the day. She suggested that we do a blood test on her to see if maybe it's brucellosis or something else contagious. I've been doin some research on brucellosis and part of me is hopin she's just recovering from the pnuemonia and that everything will be ok...and the other part is worried sick and almost to tears that I'll have to slaughter her and the rest of my herd.
Am I too worried or should I be worried?
- Thread starter TripleB
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I luv herfrds
Well-known member
First off take a deep breath and try to relax a little.
Brucellosis causes cows to abort. Is this heifer bred? Are you having any aborting in your herd? If this is not happening calm down.
Do a blood test on her and see what comes back.
Brucellosis causes cows to abort. Is this heifer bred? Are you having any aborting in your herd? If this is not happening calm down.
Do a blood test on her and see what comes back.
Sometimes vets, like physicians, don't like to be second guessed, especially by their patients. So, they spew out scary stuff to try to put the patient in his/her place. Don't ask me how I know...it still brings me to a boiling point. 
Calm down...and consult another vet. Second opinions are a good thing. If, for some reason, it is a worst case scenario, you'll at least know you explored all options. And, chances are good it's not gonna be anywhere near a worst case scenario.
Good luck...and report back, will ya'?
Alice
Calm down...and consult another vet. Second opinions are a good thing. If, for some reason, it is a worst case scenario, you'll at least know you explored all options. And, chances are good it's not gonna be anywhere near a worst case scenario.
Good luck...and report back, will ya'?
Alice
brucelloses will start to show as abortions at 5-7 months with retained placentas. Affected cows will most likely have swollen knees.
If you or the vet suspects this the only way to be sure is to have all female bovines on the farm tested with a simple bloodtest. Usually only takes a few days to get the results back. All positives are culled, they get branded with a C on the left side of their neck (over here you must get a special permit from the REd Cross to transport them to the abbatoir)
All clean female animals younger than 8 months gets vaccinated with CA strain 19 vaccine and all females older than 8 months with RB51. About 2-4% of bred cows that are vaccinated for the first time, might abort after being vaccinated so this is only done if there is already a problem. If you want to vaccinate anyway, do it about 3 weeks before the start of the breeding season.
After that the herd must be retested every two months untill it has been clean for 6 months, then tested every 6 months untill its clean for two years. Then you'll get your brucella free status back.
I sincerely hope for your part that brucella isn't the problem.
If you or the vet suspects this the only way to be sure is to have all female bovines on the farm tested with a simple bloodtest. Usually only takes a few days to get the results back. All positives are culled, they get branded with a C on the left side of their neck (over here you must get a special permit from the REd Cross to transport them to the abbatoir)
All clean female animals younger than 8 months gets vaccinated with CA strain 19 vaccine and all females older than 8 months with RB51. About 2-4% of bred cows that are vaccinated for the first time, might abort after being vaccinated so this is only done if there is already a problem. If you want to vaccinate anyway, do it about 3 weeks before the start of the breeding season.
After that the herd must be retested every two months untill it has been clean for 6 months, then tested every 6 months untill its clean for two years. Then you'll get your brucella free status back.
I sincerely hope for your part that brucella isn't the problem.
cattleluvr18
Well-known member
i agree with alice, get a second opion. i had a vet that gave a heifer like a zillion shots with no help and then i went to another vet and one shot cleared her all up. never went back to that vet again.your vets really gettin ya worked up.
I luv herfrds
Well-known member
Knersie when our State was getting rid of brucellosis the whole herd was sent to slaughter to prevent any spreading. Took over 20 years.
Triple B has there been herd in your area positive for brucellosis? Do you run an open or a closed herd?
(The difference is you are buying mutiple animals from different places or you only bring in clean bulls and keep your own calves for replacements.)
Triple B has there been herd in your area positive for brucellosis? Do you run an open or a closed herd?
(The difference is you are buying mutiple animals from different places or you only bring in clean bulls and keep your own calves for replacements.)
I luv herfrds":viksl1g7 said:
I worked in the UK at the time of the foot and mouth outbreak, the ministry of agriculture also took the same approach in culling every animal and those of neighbouring farms (often clean). To see how herds often older than a century being gunned down is sickening when a more sensible approach could have saved lifes of thousands of animals, the livelihoods of thousands of farmers and billions of Pounds of the tax payers money. At the height of it all they couldn't dispose of the carcasses quickly enough and it ended up rotting in open ditches causing many more health risks.
At the same time the Netherlands also had an outbreak, they culled positive animals and vaccinated all the others, retesting and culling as neccesary. They have long forgotten about F&M when the UK was still struggling to clean up.
From what I am aware of there has not been a positive herd in my area. I am running a closed herd. I only bought 4 outside animals to start with, one heifer and a weanling bull last year and two bull calves this year. No, she's not bred and I had her vacc. when she was 6 months of age. Will she have to be re- vaccinated? I have two vets on the case, the one I took her to this weekend and diognosed her with pnuemonia and then the one I work for who no longer does large animals. She was the one who suggested the blood test. I want to give her some time to get rid of the pnuemonia before I do the test though. Funny thing was this morning at church our pastor was telling us how his grandson had broncitis and was spiking fevers and I thought..."that sounds like my heifer" so maybe it's just the pnuemonia. :?
it sound unlikely that it is brucellosis if you are in a clean area and have vaccinated and run a closed herd. Brucellosis can be spread over a fenceline as well, if you have a neighbour that speculates with cattle.
I think the pneumonia is the likely culprit, make sure to give an anti-inflammatory and vit B12 complex to boost her a bit and prevent further complications.
I think the pneumonia is the likely culprit, make sure to give an anti-inflammatory and vit B12 complex to boost her a bit and prevent further complications.
TheBullLady
Well-known member
I doubt brucellosis as well. And actually, the original symptoms you mentioned don't sound much like pneumonia to me either!
If she's quiet now, and just seems lazy, it's probably the heat. If she's been sick, or is getting over something, it's like when you're sick. You don't feel like doing much. I don't know that I would put her through the stress of another haul to the vets unless you think her symptoms are coming back. I would give her a few days to see what her recovery looks like.
If she's quiet now, and just seems lazy, it's probably the heat. If she's been sick, or is getting over something, it's like when you're sick. You don't feel like doing much. I don't know that I would put her through the stress of another haul to the vets unless you think her symptoms are coming back. I would give her a few days to see what her recovery looks like.
highvoltagecattleco
Well-known member
I second or third "get a second opinion" Last year I had a young cow die who had a month old calf on her. I was gone and my wife called a vet who is too smart for me. He thinks highly of himself. He came on my place and checked the dead cow and said he couldn't determine cause unless he did an autopsy. Then he proceeded to check what kind of feed, mineral, and grain I was using and freely gave his opinion about my feed. He looked at my other cows and declared they were fine. I got home that evening. I had three cows who would not eat and a fourth who could crap through a screen door. I called an old vet who has forgot more things than most have known. He looked at that dead cow and said BVD. He gave Nuflor to the cows showing affects and to all the young calves. I had vaccinated, but I was between the initial and booster shots. This is a long winded story about how one vet can almost decimate your herd if you take crappy advice. Another lesson learned was: Get a BVD test done on new cows.
I agree and will take it further, have all your calves tested every year, that way as soon as the problem arises it can be dealt with and the guesswork taken out of it.
In SA the BVD tests are relatively cheap.
TripleB":1izl1c7y said:
Try getting some 15-50% hydrogen peroxide and put in her water (70 parts per million)or give her an infusion of it.Just find some pharmaceutical grade H2O2 and a bottle of sterile, isotonic intravenous fluid. Infusion solutions are prepared using sterile 5% dextrose in water. The addition of 1/4 ml sterile of the 15% H2O2 stock solution to each 100 ml of carrier solution produces a 0.0375% concentration that is finally used for the intravenous infusions This has been known to kill pnuemonia no problem and any other viruses, bacteria, and fungus.
