Bloat or Lightning????

[randiliana]

We lost 2 cows on Fri night/Sat. We were thinking bloat, although it was questionable, since the remainder of the herd were all normal looking. The cows are on an Alfalfa/Grass pasture, and we have had problems before, however, the alfalfa is all fairly mature and seems to have a lot of fibre in it. Of course when we found them they were extremely bloated up, but whether that was just from death, or if they bloated first I am not sure. The other thing though is that I can't recall a thunderstorm (they are within 1/4 mile of the house), but of course we could possibly have slept through it. Also, on the bloat score, I was out to check them Fri evening just before dark, and there was no bloated animals then.

One cow was along the fence line (actually she was on the wrong side of the fence) and literally laying on her back with all 4 legs in the air. The only marks on her were some wire cuts presumably from when she went through the fence. Now this cow bloated on us last summer, and we saved her by putting a hole in her to let off the pressure, so she could have been prone to bloat.

The other cow was in a low spot (with lots of alfalfa) and again she had no marks on her BUT, part of her face looked to be eaten away, and part of the lower jaw bone was MISSING! Now, I could see it if something had eaten part of her face, but coyotes usually start at the other end, and they wouldn't have gnawed part of the lower jaw bone away I don't think, at least, not until she was mostly eaten anyway?! This cow was the one I posted about earlier (Air Bubbles) so her lungs were already compromised and it probably wouldn't have taken much of a bloat to kill her if that was the case.

There are a few reasons why we are questioning the cause of death.
1. the fact that cow #1 was right along the fence literally laying on her back.
2. Cow #2 is missing part of her jaw bone, and had no other marks on her.
3. There were NO signs of bloat earlier that evening in ANY animals on the place.
4. No-one else was showing ANY sign of bloat Sat. morning when we discovered the 2 deads.

So anybody have any ideas?

 

[Anonymous]

about the lower jaw...did it look like something gnawed it off or does it look like it just got knocked off?...is the tongue still in there?...my brother had one of his cows die and a coyote came up and ate its tongue...then gnawed the lower jaw off to get some more of the tongue

 

[Texas PaPaw]

Randi

Sorry for your loss. Based on your discription, I'm leaning toward bloat due to the cows histories. If it were lightning there would be burns somewhere, usually on their feet. Usually when there are multiple deaths from lightning they are all in one spot, like under a tree or next to a fence.

Good luck & happy trails.

Brock

 

[Beefy]

some thoughts.
if the cows were not in close proximity to one another, lightning is unlikely to have killed both.
if the cows are 1/4 mile from the house and got struck by lightning you probably would have heard the thunder as it should have been fairly loud.
why was the one cow on the wrong side of the fence, and what is over there? Poisonous plants, neighbors, another pasture?
as for the jaw, that could have been lightning, coyotes, buzzards, or black helicopters.

 

[frenchie]

Is it possible that these cows got into a little bit of Alfalfa regrowth somewhere.

2nd thing I would think is a possible heavy dew overnite.

 

[Beefy]

i wouldnt rule out blackleg! i know your vet told you Bubbles probably didnt have it but it certainly causes air bubbles under the skin and sometimes if you catch it early and treat them heavily with something like LA200 you can keep them from dying. from the blackleg cases ive seen the heavy and fast bloating with legs up in the air is very indicative of that. just a possibility...

 

[pappy1]

The more I read the posts the more Im apt to agree with beefy on the black leg thing. Vets have been wrong in the past.

TTCLM you waffle more that a pancake house

 

[mnmtranching]

Of all the parts for a animal to eat why a very hard toothy jawbone? :shock: I once had a cow all bloated up next to a fence along a township road, vet checked it out, found a small caliber bullet in the neck. :x

mnmt

 

[randiliana]

some thoughts.
if the cows were not in close proximity to one another, lightning is unlikely to have killed both.
if the cows are 1/4 mile from the house and got struck by lightning you probably would have heard the thunder as it should have been fairly loud.
why was the one cow on the wrong side of the fence, and what is over there? Poisonous plants, neighbors, another pasture?
as for the jaw, that could have been lightning, coyotes, buzzards, or black helicopters.

Well, while they weren't terribly close to each other, they weren't on opposite sides of the pasture either. From what I can figure the cow on the wrong side of the fence probably either fell through, or had just crawled there prior to death. Other than the grass in the fenceline she would have had nothing to eat there since it was a newly seeded field. As for the jaw, it could have been lightning OR coyotes since the other 2 are extremely unlikely here ;-)

 

[randiliana]

i wouldnt rule out blackleg! i know your vet told you Bubbles probably didnt have it but it certainly causes air bubbles under the skin and sometimes if you catch it early and treat them heavily with something like LA200 you can keep them from dying. from the blackleg cases ive seen the heavy and fast bloating with legs up in the air is very indicative of that. just a possibility...

I have very high doubts that it was blackleg. First off, it is a VERY uncommon disease in this area, secondly, it would have had to act VERY quickly, since I was out to check on them at around 6 pm and (from what I could tell they were all fine) no-one was acting off at all, and they were both dead by 10 the next morning. Also, we dragged them both away from where they were, and there was nothing to indicate blackleg other than they were bloated up and it was sudden death. Now, I have never seen a death from blackleg, but don't the legs usually get puffy and crackly?

 

[randiliana]

Of all the parts for a animal to eat why a very hard toothy jawbone? :shock:
mnmt

That is what I am wondering!! I have seen a number of animals that coyotes got to and on almost all of them the coyotes started at the backend. Now, that isn't saying that they couldn't have done this either.

 

[randiliana]

As for you guys leaning toward bloat, you are quite probably right. The alfalfa they were on should have been past the bloat stage, but these 2 had histories. The reason I was wondering is because there were no other animals with any symptoms, and the one cow was missing part of her jaw, and she used to have a whole jaw ;-) ;-) :lol: . Anyways, I think this will remain somewhat of a mystery!!

 

[dun]

Anyways, I think this will remain somewhat of a mystery!!

Unless you put a bullet in their head and/or are there when they actually die it's frequently a mystery.

dun

 

[jersey lilly]

We've had two struck by lightenin over the years, and have talked to numerous other folks that have had that happen, nothin will touch the carcass of a struck animal, not coyotes, or buzzards. I'd lean more towards bloat or blackleg. did you not think of having them posted? Get two dead critters at the same time, I'd be for gettin that checked out so it don't happen to your whole herd.

 

[Beefy]

for what its worth i've never had more than one bloat case at a time so the others not being bloated doest really surpise me.