Cow acting odd

[shortybreeder]

I have a big 6 year old cow who is acting a little odd recently (I haven't been around to watch her until yesterday, so no idea how she's been acting prior). Yesterday she was laying a little distance away from the group, and didn't seem to care when I was approaching. Normally she is the 1st to notice me, and keeps her distance (her nickname is Crazy). She got up and walked away once I got close, but I got closer than usual. Today, she's breathing more rapidly than the others (60 degrees in MN, I'm just about down to a T-shirt, shorts, and tennis shoes out here) and has many beads of sweat on her nose. I've also heard her cough twice in the 20 minutes I've been out here. She was due to calve on Feb. 26th, and her teats are really swelled up, so it should be any day now.

So basically, she's acting hot and lethargic. I'm hoping this is because she's so close to calving, but wondering if I should be concerned about anything else? They are out on corn stalks with hay and some corn silage. They've been out here since November-ish. Everyone else is fine (and only 1 cow had her calf on time, everyone else was late) and the calves are all acting spunky.

Thanks in advance!

 

[goddy]

Is there a chance she could have started to calve with a breech presentation and has given up trying to push and is waiting for assistance ? I'd be inclined to glove up and check to see if there is anything going on. Good luck

 

[W.B.]

Consult your vet. These type of deals hard to diagnose without actually seeing your cow.

 

[Son of Butch]

Beads of sweat on the nose is a sign of duress. Weather change, wet and sloppy from early snow melt ect.
She needs to be caught, take her temp and examine more closely would not surprise me if she is coming down with pneumonia.

 

[dun]

Beads of sweat on the nose is a sign of duress. Weather change, wet and sloppy from early snow melt ect.
She needs to be caught, take her temp and examine more closely would not surprise me if she is coming down with pneumonia.

Pretty well sums it up

 

[Randi]

Beads of sweat on the nose is a sign of duress. Weather change, wet and sloppy from early snow melt ect.
She needs to be caught, take her temp and examine more closely would not surprise me if she is coming down with pneumonia.

Pretty well sums it up

My first thought as well.

 

[shortybreeder]

Thank you for pointing us towards pneumonia. I got her caught and took her temp. 103.8. Called the vet, he agreed that it sounded like pneumonia. We gave her some Oxytet 300, and then I sleeved her to make sure things were alright. We will check her temp tomorrow to make sure it doesn't keep going up. Thanks for the help everyone.

 

[angus9259]

Oxy 300 - interesting selection for pnuemonia. Anyone else use that? Probably cheaper than the Nuflor I have on hand.... Just curious if there's a better mousetrap.

 

[Till-Hill]

We quit using any oxy products few years ago. Just don't seem to work here on anything but pinkeye.

Not sold on Draxxin. Expensive!

Won't use Micotil myself. Life to short to deal with that stuff.

Nuflor was never impressed with. Heard good things about Nuflor gold?

Zactran works awesome. Advison or something like that seems to do the trick too.

Babies I use Baytril.

But always when treating with a temp I give Banamine (in vein for fast relief) or a steroid (not on preg cow tho).

Something is better than nothing. Monitor your cow Shorty with your vets guidance and you'll be fine. Don't know if they are even available anymore but them old Sulfur pills used to work wonders on cows with some lung issues.

 

[Son of Butch]

Oxy 300 - interesting selection for pnuemonia. Anyone else use that? Probably cheaper than the Nuflor I have on hand.... Just curious if there's a better mousetrap.

Nuflor and Nuflor Gold are both good. But Zactran is our go to.
Zactran is a little cheaper per animal treated, syringes easier and its longer lasting than Nuflor.
Our success rate has been the same with all three products.

 

[TCRanch]

We use Resflor Gold with great success & it already has banamine in it.

 

[shortybreeder]

Checked her temp tonight again, 104.0. Called the vet, he checked her over. He wanted to give her Dex to help bring her temp down, and we added Lut in order to induce her because she was AI bred with a due date of Feb. 26th. Hopefully things go well, but in the interest of time we had to set her up for calving between 5pm and 5am tomorrow night...

 

[angus9259]

Checked her temp tonight again, 104.0. Called the vet, he checked her over. He wanted to give her Dex to help bring her temp down, and we added Lut in order to induce her because she was AI bred with a due date of Feb. 26th. Hopefully things go well, but in the interest of time we had to set her up for calving between 5pm and 5am tomorrow night...

Inducing her calving seems wise to get that part done in case she's fixing to die on you.

Might want to ask vet about higher power drugs as has been mentioned by others. I forgot about banamine.

 

[W.B.]

I would consider possibility of early stages of hardware disease.

 

[shortybreeder]

The other vet I talked to did suggest banamine, but we will see what happens in the next day or so. I got her into the barn today, temp is down to 102.5! I know it's not perfect, but it's half-way there, and her breathing has definitely calmed down, thought still not perfect. Got a nice area bedded down with straw and some hay that she will stay in until the calf is out because we're supposed to get 2 inches of rain in the next 24 hours or so. Now I guess it is a waiting game. Thanks again everyone!

Edit: I looked up symptoms of hardware disease and found an article from feedlot magazine. That doesn't seem to be the case because she doesn't have trouble walking, her back isn't arched, and she still has plenty of appetite. Thanks for the suggestion though!

 

[gizmom]

Shorty

Glad she is doing some better. I would add sustain III sulfur bolus to the treatment, it stays in their system for 72 hours and will work on bacterial pneumonia. Hope it turns out well for you and she has a healthy baby.

Gizmom

 

[Randi]

Oxy 300 - interesting selection for pnuemonia. Anyone else use that? Probably cheaper than the Nuflor I have on hand.... Just curious if there's a better mousetrap.

About all we use Oxy for is footrot and pinkeye.

For pneumonia, I like Excenel, prefer it actually, except the fact that you have to needle them every day for 3 days. Resflor (Nuflor with painkiller) is our go to drug, one that we keep on hand all the time.

Micotil, I won't have around the place, too dangerous IMO.

The other high power drugs we have not really ever needed to use, or if we did only got 1 shot from the vet.

 

[shortybreeder]

Well I checked the cow at 210 this morning, and by 230 I had a live bull calf on the ground! I'm pretty excited because he's a full brother to my show steer that won Champion Rate-of-Gain with 3.77lbs/day, but also a little disappointed because the cow has yet to give us a heifer to replace her with. Also I checked her temp last night around 630 and she was down to 101.9/102.0! Thanks again everyone!

 

[dun]

Well I checked the cow at 210 this morning, and by 230 I had a live bull calf on the ground! I'm pretty excited because he's a full brother to my show steer that won Champion Rate-of-Gain with 3.77lbs/day, but also a little disappointed because the cow has yet to give us a heifer to replace her with. Also I checked her temp last night around 630 and she was down to 101.9/102.0! Thanks again everyone!

I hope you don;t have to wait as long for her to give you a replacemnt as we did with Granny. Although it was worth it at thend. We hadn;t had a heifer from her ever until the last 5, all heifers. I guess she was catching up to the average.