BRSV (BOVINE RESPIRATORY SYNCYTIAL VIRUS )

[Fire Sweep Ranch]

We just got hit, and it really stinks! We lost one of our top embryo heifers yesterday, vet said BRSV

History: Recip dam was vaccinated with Cattlemaster Gold FP5L5 90 days prior to calving. Calf was vaccinated with Inforce 3 at 90 days of age. Both cover BRSV.

Friday, 9/22/2017, heifer was vaccinated with Brucellosis and Covexin 8.
Saturday, 9/23/2017, we went to a small show, in the sun, hot. Heifer won her class and was in the champion simmental class. Ate fine, no illness noticed.
Sunday evening, her eyes were extremely red, she was lethargic, and not eating. We temp her, 106.9! Put her on the wash rack, shear off all her hair and run cold water over her (it was super hot Sunday). Got her temp down to 105.1. Call vet. Vet arrives a few hours later, she is still high fever (105.6), he does a complete look over. Gives her banamine for the fever. Lung sounds clear, so he thinks heat stress (high temp from vaccinations, then hot show, and no cool down at night).
Monday AM: temp 103.1. Still lethargic.
Tuesday PM: temp 102.1. Still lethargic. I have not seen her eat or drink.
Wednesday: New symptom, water diarrhea. Still lethargic, she does not leave the barn but is always laying in the cool corner. Vet comes back out, listens to her lungs, gut, everything. He is stumped. He takes stool samples, blood work, and gives her Exceed, banamine, and vitamin B. We are instructed to repeat the banamine and vit B the next day. Temp 101.4
Thursday: temp normal, still lethargic and not getting out of the barn unless forced. Gave her the banamine and vit B. She has a heavy worm load (which we were surprised, since she received Long Range in late April). Worm her with Dectomax and Valbazen (vet's orders).
Friday:New symptom, labored breathing and audible. Called the vet, he wants a temp. If high, give Draxxin, if not, call him back. We head to the barn to get her in the chute, find her dead behind the chute. I saw her just 30 minutes before! Alive and laying in the corner.
We called the vet back, and he comes out to do a necropsy. Her lungs are completely involved, pneumonia. All symptoms and the way her lungs are involved, he said he is positive it is BRSV. Since it is viral, NOTHING we could have done would have treated. She was likely challenged from the worm overload, along with the vaccinating and hot days. We are devastated... she was my daughter's favorite show heifer.
All of the heifers in that pasture have now been wormed, and will be done again in two weeks (we used Long Range, and will follow up with Safe Guard). I will take a few stool samples in to the clinic in two weeks to check on oocytes and see how the worm load is BEFORE we give the Safe Guard.
This is her as a calf

At the show on Saturday, in the champion drive. She was not walking for my daughter...

Her eye Sunday evening. Her nostril was very red also...

How I found her when I went down to temp her, still warm and supple.

Vet showing her lungs. They should be pink and light, instead they look like a liver! Very congested. He has a portion in his hands, showing us the congestion. To the right is one of the lobes.

So what is the lesson learned? I am not sure. It was the perfect storm, according to the vet. She was adequately covered through vaccination. We have had a tough couple of months, with the loss of my MIL, one of our good cows (7 year old, no real cause unless it was prussic poisoning), a preemie calf that died 36 hours old, a DOA, and now this. It can end at any time now.

 

[Workinonit Farm]

Dang!! That's bad.

I'm sorry to hear & see that. She was a nice looking heifer. That lung looks bad.

My take-away from this very unfortunate incident is that it just goes to show, that sometimes vaccines aren't always 100%, and that de-worming efficacy may sometimes depend on the timing of the cycle of the parasite.

I sure hope your luck turns soon. Been a rough go for you guys.

 

[Nesikep]

The format of the title made me think this one one of Flounder's posts.

This really sucks, I haven't had a great year either.. Good to know you did everything right and the best you could, certainly wasn't for lack of trying. For me, I still haven't quite recovered from losing Mega.

 

[TCRanch]

Wow, I am so sorry! Lost a steer earlier this year to pneumonia, despite vaccinations and treating him sooooo many times. Clearly not a show heifer but I still feel your pain, that totally helpless feeling of "what else could I have possibly done?!". And the answer is probably nothing. Stuff happens. Thank you for sharing, especially the pics and detailed information.

 

[True Grit Farms]

That stinks, and sorry for your loss. I have a question if you don't mind, how long have you been using the long range wormer for? And did she have any signs of a worm overload? I'd imagine not since she was being shown, but if you can think of anything it would be nice to know. Thanks, Vince

 

[Fire Sweep Ranch]

This was our first year using Long Range (we treated everyone in April). I saw awesome results with hair shedding and less flies.
She had no signs of being wormy, as you can tell by her picture at the show on Saturday. She was our best eater, first to the bunk every night. Our vet was looking for Coccidiosis, not worms. He was shocked to see her overload of worms since he knows our program here. Our show heifers are treated with Valbazen once a month. Since she was younger, she was not in the show barn until August, when she was weaned. We did not treat her at weaning. She went to state fair, and they were kicked out to pasture (our last big show is state fair). So no one was treated in September. She slipped through a crack in my system that way. We pulled them from pasture on Friday, for the vet apt (calfhood and covexin), and showed Saturday.
I have seen wormy horses, and you can tell. She did not look wormy. Her hair coat was good and thick, lush, and had good health. She has never had symptoms of being a sick calf until Sunday night.
Thanks for asking Vince. Hopefully, someone can learn from my bad luck.

 

[True Grit Farms]

This was our first year using Long Range (we treated everyone in April). I saw awesome results with hair shedding and less flies.
She had no signs of being wormy, as you can tell by her picture at the show on Saturday. She was our best eater, first to the bunk every night. Our vet was looking for Coccidiosis, not worms. He was shocked to see her overload of worms since he knows our program here. Our show heifers are treated with Valbazen once a month. Since she was younger, she was not in the show barn until August, when she was weaned. We did not treat her at weaning. She went to state fair, and they were kicked out to pasture (our last big show is state fair). So no one was treated in September. She slipped through a crack in my system that way. We pulled them from pasture on Friday, for the vet apt (calfhood and covexin), and showed Saturday.
I have seen wormy horses, and you can tell. She did not look wormy. Her hair coat was good and thick, lush, and had good health. She has never had symptoms of being a sick calf until Sunday night.
Thanks for asking Vince. Hopefully, someone can learn from my bad luck.

Thank you for taking the time to post, this is what it's all about. I enjoy the bs here, but learning about cows is where it's at. The picture of her eye on Sunday will stick with me forever.

 

[farmerjan]

So sorry for your, and your daughter's, loss. As the vet said, the perfect storm and it sounds like you are very "up and on top of it" with your animals and with the showing and all. Sometimes it seems to hit the favourite ones so fast that you can't blink but they are critical...

It has been a pretty tough week for us; a 1st calf heifer had a premie, hairless, maybe 20-30 lbs, then died; found them both dead so don't know if she had another in there or what. Had another get into the only mucky spot under an old barn and pulled her out, couldn't get up but would drink, died 2 days later, and just found one dead that had her back down the hill and obviously couldn't get herself rolled over enough to get up. And she has a 2 month calf that I can't get near to catch. All in the same pasture....all 2 1/2 yrs old....all in 4 days..... We can go months with nothing, then this....

So I can sympathize, and ours weren't nice well bred show cattle but just average commercial animals.

 

[Coosh71]

I am so sorry to hear about your troubles. I live in the Texas Panhandle and we were very dry this summer and flies were terrible. We wormed in May and again in early September. Tried multiple fly tactics this year, with little positive results. I have believed for years now that a good vacation plan is the best we can do... And prayers on top of that. Sorry for the loss. It's always tuff.