black leg ?

[scf84]

is anybody familiar with black leg? at first i thought it was due to chicken manure being spread on my fields but now i think it is blackleg. i have lost 4 young calves in the last 2 weeks. they looked fine and no more than 2 days later they are dead usually in about a day. the one that died today looked alittle sick yesterday evening when i checked them. this morning kinda had a hard time getting up acted like its back legs where weak and had no appetite and just layed down and was dead this evening.

talked to my neighbor and he has also lost 2 calves in last couple weeks. and the thought thats what cause his to die was blackleg. i went to co-op and bought a bottle of 7 way med for them and gave them a shot hoping to prevent others from getting it.

tried to call vet but he is on vacation or something, would it do anygood for me to get one down here to test it and see if that is what it is. can they test the dead cow and pinpoint the cause of death? and about what would the test cost to have done? im in tennessee if that makes a diffence.

 

[denvermartinfarms]

Sounds kinda like type A blackleg, you should probably try to give the calves a type a shot, and start giving all your cows type A once a year.

 

[greybeard]

talked to my neighbor and he has also lost 2 calves in last couple weeks. and the thought thats what cause his to die was blackleg.

I'm confused.
Is that the same neighbor you got the chicken manure from?

from the other thread:

just lost another, 4 month old bull. just moved them off of the places that has the chicken manure.
not sure that is the problem on not, but got them off of there any way.
the neighbor i bought chinken crap from spreads it on his place and never has any problems
that i know of.

 

[denvermartinfarms]

I may be confused to, but I don't think the chicken manure isn't killing your cattle.

 

[snake67]

is anybody familiar with black leg? at first i thought it was due to chicken manure being spread on my fields but now i think it is blackleg. i have lost 4 young calves in the last 2 weeks. they looked fine and no more than 2 days later they are dead usually in about a day. the one that died today looked alittle sick yesterday evening when i checked them. this morning kinda had a hard time getting up acted like its back legs where weak and had no appetite and just layed down and was dead this evening.

talked to my neighbor and he has also lost 2 calves in last couple weeks. and the thought thats what cause his to die was blackleg. i went to co-op and bought a bottle of 7 way med for them and gave them a shot hoping to prevent others from getting it.

tried to call vet but he is on vacation or something, would it do anygood for me to get one down here to test it and see if that is what it is. can they test the dead cow and pinpoint the cause of death? and about what would the test cost to have done? im in tennessee if that makes a diffence.

Try every vet in the country - if it is BL and you have not vaccinated you could get a heck of a run on those cows.

Go feel the deads - does it feel like potato chips crackling under the skin? - that is a decent backwoods method of telling.

Hate it when someone says vet is on holidays - call the university nearest you if you have to - call every vet within a hundred miles or more if you have to.

Will not take many deads to eat up any profit.

You can get some weird diseases out of chicken manure and that is because it is also contaminated with dead chickens that get buried in the pack. And not just a few either.

Wife used to ship 35,000 birds every 7-10 days - we know chickens - that stuff - in my mind - should never go on pasture - only into ground that it is going to be worked down. And I know that will get a whole bunch of good ole boys stirred up and telling me I am full of schitte because they never had a problem - remember this - there is always a first time.

We never feed it to cows - even on pasture - illegal in Canada - there are reasons for this - you guys do feed it to cows.

Best to all

Bez

 

[wbvs58]

Just vaccinate them for botulism and blackleg, the vaccines are very cheap. These diseases along with tetanus, enterotoxaemia, black disease are caused by various strains of clostridia bacteria which produce very potent toxins in anaerobic conditions and usually sudden death. Vaccination will usually protect.
Ken

 

[bse]

not sure which part of TN you are in but you can take them to Ellington Ag Center in Nashville they will test them for free.

 

[scf84]

yes that is the same neighbor that i got the chicken manure from, but, he did dot spread any on his fields this year. he lost two at the same time as i did.
i have had the cows off of the chicken manure for around 1 1/2 weeks.
will try to get a vet today.

talked to my neighbor and he has also lost 2 calves in last couple weeks. and the thought thats what cause his to die was blackleg.

I'm confused.
Is that the same neighbor you got the chicken manure from?

from the other thread:

just lost another, 4 month old bull. just moved them off of the places that has the chicken manure.
not sure that is the problem on not, but got them off of there any way.
the neighbor i bought chinken crap from spreads it on his place and never has any problems
that i know of.

 

[scf84]

also i waited around 3 weeks before i put the cows in the pastere with the chicken poop, also it had a couple of good rains on them too, but i guess it would stay in the ground for a long time?

 

[scf84]

one more thing, will the chicken poop not hurt the older cows? take longer?
every one we have lost has been under 8 months old.

 

[dun]

one more thing, will the chicken poop not hurt the older cows? take longer?
every one we have lost has been under 8 months old.

Have the older ones been vaccinated and the youngers not?

 

[scf84]

i never vaccinate, just an occasional penicillin shot when needed.

 

[dun]

i never vaccinate, just an occasional penicillin shot when needed.

Just one opinion but I think you might want to rethink the vaccination/herd health deal

 

[denvermartinfarms]

i never vaccinate, just an occasional penicillin shot when needed.

That's probably catching up to you.

 

[scf84]

just talked to the vet over the phone, he kept saying black leg. when i brought up chicken poop,
he said "naw,naw,naw, black leg" he said togive them blackleg shot witch i have and also
give them a dose of penicillin. this this will keep them living and give the blackleg shot time to work.

 

[scf84]

i never vaccinate, just an occasional penicillin shot when needed.

That's probably catching up to you.

yes sir, i will be from now on

 

[Lucky_P]

The most common things happen most frequently.
My money's riding on blackleg.

Vaccine is cheap - but will take 10 days to 2 weeks before the cattle are effectively protected, so you may continue to lose some in the interim.
That shot of penicillin - while it won't hurt anything - will only provide about 12 hours' worth of effective blood levels of the drug, if you gave an appropriate dosage.

 

[Dave]

Remember to give them the booster shot for the blackleg too. That is a real common mistake. People give them one shot and think they are protected. Read the label it will most likely say to give a booster shot in about 4 weeks.

 

[Fire Sweep Ranch]

Remember to give them the booster shot for the blackleg too. That is a real common mistake. People give them one shot and think they are protected. Read the label it will most likely say to give a booster shot in about 4 weeks.

A friend of ours lost a valuable heifer that way. They vaccinated once, and never got around to the second vaccine. Lost the heifer to Blackleg. He said if he vaccinated his entire herd for the rest of his life, the cost of that vaccine would never come up to the value of that heifer he lost.
Not to pick on you, but how people just skip a simple, cheap vaccine that can prevent the death of a calf is beyond me. Blackleg resides in the soil, all the time, and all it takes is a little open wound to get it and your animal is dead pretty darn quick.
Expensive lesson for people to learn. I am sorry for your losses, hopefully you can be an advocate to others (like your neighbor) for promoting the vaccination of all calves.

I looked it up on Merck, and this is what it said if an outbreak occurs "In an outbreak, all susceptible cattle should be vaccinated and treated prophylactically with penicillin (10,000 IU/kg, IM) to prevent new cases for up to 14 days. Cattle should be moved from affected pasture."

 

[greybeard]

Remember to give them the booster shot for the blackleg too. That is a real common mistake. People give them one shot and think they are protected. Read the label it will most likely say to give a booster shot in about 4 weeks.

A friend of ours lost a valuable heifer that way. They vaccinated once, and never got around to the second vaccine. Lost the heifer to Blackleg. He said if he vaccinated his entire herd for the rest of his life, the cost of that vaccine would never come up to the value of that heifer he lost.
Not to pick on you, but how people just skip a simple, cheap vaccine that can prevent the death of a calf is beyond me. Blackleg resides in the soil, all the time, and all it takes is a little open wound to get it and your animal is dead pretty darn quick.
Expensive lesson for people to learn. I am sorry for your losses, hopefully you can be an advocate to others (like your neighbor) for promoting the vaccination of all calves.

I looked it up on Merck, and this is what it said if an outbreak occurs "In an outbreak, all susceptible cattle should be vaccinated and treated prophylactically with penicillin (10,000 IU/kg, IM) to prevent new cases for up to 14 days. Cattle should be moved from affected pasture."

I have always understood it could also be started when "infected" soil containing the bacteria are ingested during grazing. Cattle pull up about as much grass by the roots as they tear off and they eat it all, roots, dirt and whatever is in the dirt. Especially true in wet weather this time of year.

one more thing, will the chicken poop not hurt the older cows? take longer?
every one we have lost has been under 8 months old.

Dunno about the chicken poop, but blackleg is most often seen in younger animals. Older cattle (sometimes even unvaccinated ones) have had more time for at least 'some' natural immunity to build up. Here's a little blurb about it from CT:
http://cattletoday.info/blackleg.htm