Cattle Eating Prickly Pears

[AngelaInAbilene]

Is there anything you can give cattle to dissolve ingested prickly pear needles?

 

[raykour]

Generally they won't bother them once they are down that hatch.

 

[AngelaInAbilene]

Thank you! That's what I thought. You settled a domestic dispute.

 

[Nesikep]

I'd only guess that they could get abscessed needles in their nose and tongue.

 

[Hackamore]

Their digestive acids will take car of them. The problem you need to watch for is them breaking the needles off inside their lips and gums and causing them to get so sore they won't eat and start falling off in weight. Don't worry about the ones swallowed, their gone. If they stop eating and you can see some swelling you need to get them to a chute, open their mouths and find the broken off needles and take needle nose pliers and pull the thorns out. Most likely from my experience it won't matter they will go back and eat more. They seem to like them.