Any ideas?

[TCRanch]

I have an 18 month old heifer that's just not acting right. Temp 103.6 & droopy ears but she's with the herd (not lagging), no coughing, runny/snotty nose or watery eyes, breathing is normal & she's chewing her cud but wouldn't eat cubes, not limping. She looks a little thin so my first thought was to check for anaplasmosis & her gums/vulva are nice & pink and she's not drooling. Vet said to watch her, check her temp again tomorrow & if it hasn't gone down give her a healthy dose of Resflor Gold. The only other thing I could think of is that she aborted (she's been with the bull since June) but I've never seen such an adverse reaction on previous abortions.

Any ideas?

 

[Jessica06]

Hardware, pneumonia, ear infection, interstitial pneumonia from eating certain plants? We lost a heifer that way a few years ago. One of those bizarre kinda things.

 

[TCRanch]

Ear infection! She's been shaking her head now that I think of it. Never had a case but definitely something to look into. I did neglect to mention that all cows/retained heifers/bulls have magnets because we have had our share of hardware. And we did have an unfortunate oil spill last weekend (long story, criminal vandalism) & some of the raw crude was in the pond/perimeter pasture but we moved the herd to another pasture as soon as we found out & did not move them back until the state said the water quality & subsequent clean up was okay.

Thanks for the suggestion!

 

[TN Cattle Man]

Glad you figured it out... Good luck with her!

 

[TCRanch]

Glad you figured it out... Good luck with her!

Thanks, she's a very special girl - that would be her in my lap in my avatar pic, all 40 lbs of her. Preemie, couldn't even stand on her own for the 1st month but had an awesome (and very patient) momma. Never had a health issue since, passed the pelvic exam with flying colors. Fine yesterday and boom :(

 

[TCRanch]

Well now I'm really confused. Temp this morning was 101.3, ran right up to me, perky & about swallowed my hand when I gave her a couple cubes, which is her normal behavior. Still want to keep an eye on her but for now I'll chalk it up to raging hormones or she ate something that didn't agree with her.

 

[Jessica06]

Good to hear! If it WAS something like an ear infection, she could have kicked it on her own. We found one of our bulls with an ear down the day we were going out of town. We were planning on treating him the day we got back but he was back to normal. Maybe it Was something she ate!

 

[TCRanch]

Good to hear! If it WAS something like an ear infection, she could have kicked it on her own. We found one of our bulls with an ear down the day we were going out of town. We were planning on treating him the day we got back but he was back to normal. Maybe it Was something she ate!

Still can't figure it out, she was all sorts of bunky this afternoon but I had a raging ear infection last Spring that came out of nowhere and as soon as the infection burst . . . . sweet relief. Maybe she popped it open when she was shaking her head? Didn't see any discharge. And I checked her behind, clean as a whistle, so if she ate something that didn't agree with her it wasn't messy (although she could have pinched a giant loaf). I guess we'll never know, just happy she's back to normal although still on my watch list.

Thank you all for the input!