Angus heifer with cough

[Wren]

Hey all,
I have a 2 yr old bred angus cross heifer that I picked up a month ago at the auction. She had a small cough then. I suspect she has worms so I gave her some Ivomec pour on 2 days ago and her cough has gotten worse. She also has some hair loss around her neck as well. That I am pretty sure is lice.
She is not losing any weight nor is her nose snotty. It's just a cough. Her appitite is fine as well.

Could this be from the worm die off? Or would you suspect something else?
I live in northern oregon.

Also for treatment I cannot get close enough to her to give a shot. I am working on it and she is claming down nicely but we are not at that point yet and won't be anytime soon. So is there anything I can put her on for the cough that is oral? and that is ok for beef steers as well?

Thanks,
Ali

 

[Bama]

By not being able to give her a shot I'm assuming you can't take her temperature either. Normally you need a headgate to give one a shot but you can get her pened behind a gate or something. It helps to have the head tied and another rope pulling the gate close and to keep her from backing up. Others can help you better with the orals, I rarely use them. One that does come to mind is aureomycin. You mix it in with the feed. It ain't gonna have any short term effect but will help over the long run.

 

[Wren]

Unfortunatly no. I do have a squeeze chute but the lane leading up to it needs some desparate repair and the cow is jumper. And it's on older one so I'm not sure she will fit.

Also she's an angus so if I get her in the squeeze chute once I may never get near her again.

 

[Wren]

Update* Yes the cow is still coughing. But I am getting my squeeze chute fixed. Any suggestions? She weighs 1200 lbs.

 

[dun]

I don;t know if Ivomec is a grubicide or what your grub cycle is in that area. Grubs, i.e. warbles, ox warbles are the larvae of heel flys and migrate through the connective tissues of the body. If killed at the wrong time they can cause problems with the animal breathing and or eating. Temp her and listen to her lungs. I've seen apparantly healthy animals that had lung damage from pneumonia as calves that didn't really seriously affect them till they were stressed. If it's a temp, anti-biotics, if it's lung damage, HMMMMMMM

dun

 

[Wren]

Dun,
Would a cow last 2 years if it had pneumonia as a calf? If it is heel flies would a dose of banamine be in order? Ivomec is a grubicide. Now I hope I didn't hit her with the ivomec at the wrong time. What anti-biotic should I use?

 

[dun]

If she had the pneumonia and got over it but had scarring of her lungs she would be alright, until some serious stress. And even then she may be ok for the long run. Depends on how bad the scarring is, if it is scarring at all. If it's dead grubs, you just have to let nature take it's course, antibiotics won;t do anything for them. If it's a temp, my preference is Nuflor, but I'm apparantly in the minority.
This may be just one of those cases that she'll have to live with whatever the problem is. If she isn't sick there's no reason to start willy nilly administering antibiotics. If you're going to use a grubicide, it has to be done either shortly after the heel fly season or after they have migrated to the back.
That's always been one of my problems with people worming at the drop of a hat.
But I'm sure I'm in the minority with that too.

dun

 

[Wren]

The reason I worm is simply because no one else in my county seems to. The again the vet's charging $75 for a 250ml bottle of ivomec may be the reason.

What is your view on LA 200? I am not sure if I can get Nuflor from my vet.

 

[Farmhand]

? for dun. Have heard of that scarring thing. Was wondering if you know how that would affect things if you bred an animal with scarred lungs? Would she have problems carrying the calf? What about delivering the calf? Any effects to the calf? No experience here. Just curious. Thanks.

 

[dun]

The reason I worm is simply because no one else in my county seems to. The again the vet's charging $75 for a 250ml bottle of ivomec may be the reason.

What is your view on LA 200? I am not sure if I can get Nuflor from my vet.

I don;t think much of LA200 for respritory, we only use it for footrot.
If your vet won't give you Nuflor, see what he/she recommends.

dun

 

[dun]

? for dun. Have heard of that scarring thing. Was wondering if you know how that would affect things if you bred an animal with scarred lungs? Would she have problems carrying the calf? What about delivering the calf? Any effects to the calf? No experience here. Just curious. Thanks.

Unless you cut them open theere isn;t anyway to tell the severity. A vet can probably make a pretty educated assumption based on the lung sounds. I've seen some with what we thought was minor stuff have wintering problems while pregnant and others that lived to ripe old age. As I have said, I'm no vet, just basing things on experience. If I suspected a problem I'ld sure be willing to pay someone that knows what they're listening for check them out.

dun

 

[jerry27150]

had a big hereford bull once that got lungworms & had the vet treat him . he said he might cough for a while til the dead worms get disolved away