Cow ill...

[showing71]

We have a PB Angus cow who is ill. She is a condition score 6, 9 year old cow. We put a cidr in her about 3 weeks ago, and she was fine then. She then gradually lost weight. We pulled the cidr out a week later, and she had dropped to a condition score 4. We separated her and her calf from the herd and kept her close to home to keep an eye on her. We fed her and her calf hay and corn. She eats enough to survive, but nothing more. Her calf usually finishes the feed. We had a cow like this last year, but she bounced back about 2 weeks later and was perfectly fine, so we figured it was the same thing.

Today we took her to the vet, she was running a fever of 105-106 degrees (this was a new thing, she hadn't ran a fever before then). He gave her LA 200, tetracycline (sp?), sulfa boluses, and a magnet and also took a stool sample and blood sample. He and another vet there have no idea what is wrong. Does anyone else have any ideas? The vet tech said she has a cow like this too.

 

[aussie_cowgirl]

Movement of the stomach maybe?

 

[ffamom]

Mastitis? I sure that checked her for that, but that would be top on my list to check.

 

[showing71]

Does anyone know if there'd be some kind of plant that would cause this? The vet thought she had Johne's, but because of her temp, he ruled it out with tests. She's a little better today, her head is being held a little higher.

 

[regolith]

Showing71 - condition can melt off apparently overnight if they stop eating, a lot of it being down to dehydration and tucked-up gut.

These are generalised symptoms that could point to any number of diseases and conditions - including plant poisoning. High temperature is usually indicative of infection, which may not be the cause of all the symptoms.
If the vet can't find a definite cause between examining the cow and brainstorming, about all you can do is treat the symptoms - antibiotic, and anti-inflammatory for pain and if no immediate response is seen, perhaps move to a different antibiotic (but it sounds as if she is responding to her initial treatment).

Do you have a specific plant in mind that she might have had access to?
A full blood screen may shed some light on this. Our vets have what they call a 'sick animal screen' which is expensive, but they get the lab to test for a heap of different chemicals that can indicate heart/kidney/liver function, inflammation levels. I've had it done for two cows and one of those died, the other was inconclusive and got better on her own. So I'd probably only do it again for a cow really worth keeping.