cattle wasting away

[Anonymous]

Cattle progressively waste away over a period of several months and die. Eat and drink well. Appear bright. Awkward stiff walk. No diarrhea. Vet thought it might be Johne's disease. We lost a bull and cow, both over 5 years old, and are wondering about a third animal, a cow, who has just delivered. Calf is healthy and thriving. Mom produces milk but is starting to get noticeably thin. Any ideas what is going on here? We do not vaccinate.

 

[Anonymous]

Johnes is the most likely but not only possible culprit. Have you thought about testing? CBC, profile, Johne's test???

 

[dun]

Johnes is the most likely but not only possible culprit. Have you thought about testing? CBC, profile, Johne's test???

I'm curious why vacinating isn't done

dun

 

[Michelle Pankonien]

There is not a vaccine for Johne's

Bovine leucosis is also a waisting DZ in cattle and can be detected in the CSF of the animal on a slide, best done by a vet

When cattle have any type of waisting DZ, get the vet out ASAP, pull blood, do a fecal, find the cause and fix it, don't let it progress till all the cattle are gone or are suffering beyond what they should have to

 

[TheBullLady]

It sure sounds like Johne's to me.. the age is about right (I believe they generally show symptoms between 2 and 6 years old) and they'll show symptoms after stress. ie: calving, weaning, etc.

Good luck... Johne's is a nasty disease.

 

[Michelle Pankonien]

Could also be liver flukes, ask your vet if they are indemic to your area, and if so if they suggest worming with injectable v pour on, check mouth to make sure cattle have good teeth, if teeth or comming out, or gone, it makes it more difficult to eat

 

[monkeywerkz]

new to cattle and have never run into a cow with a disease. My question is, and please bear with my naivity, is a cow with a disease still okay to send to the butcher and eat, or is the meat tainted and unhealthy? Are there some general health guidelines that I should be watching for?

Thanks for the help.

 

[D.R. Cattle]

Depends on the disease.

 

[Michelle Pankonien]

I believe the was a post on one of the boards a few weeks back that indicated that a Johne's Positive animal was banned from sale to the human food chain,

we test our herd, I have never had a possitive, so I am not sure what happens when you end up with one that is positve, if the state gets involved or what, we participated in a multi herd state test and 60% of the herds tested were positive, or had at leaste one animal in the herd test positive, but I did not find out what happened to the positive animals

An animal with DZ, should be considered not safe for human consumtion, due to unthriftyness and the over all unwholesomeness of the meat, due to any imune reactions the body may have had to the DZ, best just redered, at least you get that much back