Cow with low appetite, droopy ears and isolating

[jlahc]

We have a cow (charolais) who has been acting a little strange over the last few days and were wondering if anyone might have an idea of what is happening.
She is isolating herself from the rest of the herd, her ears are droopy and though she eats, she doesn't seem to have much of an appetite. She looks a little thinner than the other cattle, but not bad.
She is also due to calve in about 6 weeks or so (the vet preg checked the herd in the fall), and did not show the same kind of behaviour last year.
I don't think she is ready to calve (ie. not bagged up, no mucous dripping or loosening up of the backend).

Any ideas would be appreciated.

 

[randiliana]

Could be many, many things. Those are classic signs of some sort of illness. My first guess would be pnemonia, but that would depend on her breathing. Is she breathing heavy (can you hear her) is she coughing. You need to take her temp, and get close to her to see if there are any other symptoms. Without more symptoms, it is almost impossible to tell you what could be wrong with her.

 

[jlahc]

Thanks for the info. I figured the symptoms were pretty generic, but I hadn't seen the droopy ears before and so I wasn't sure if that was an indicator of something in particular.
I noticed today she has a bit of a cough and runny nose and is a little drooly as well. Her eyes are also very dull looking. Her breath sounds normal though, and she looks like she has been eating at least a little. We took her temp and it was 103.7.
We decided to treat her with penicillin this afternoon when she didn't get up for her grain. Hopefully she will come around.

Thanks again. I just found these forums yesterday and have been scanning through the postings. Lots of interesting info. and perspectives.

 

[OK Jeanne]

Could also be anaplazmosis, which would call for a
big dose of that stronger version of biomicin. If that
might be it; do not by any means excite the cow;
if thats it, they do not have enough red blood cells
to carry adequate oxygen to all the organs and muscles.

 

[Dusty]

she got married ??? :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: SMILE you thought it was funny to !! ;-)

 

[BlackBaldyMan]

Droopy ears usually means ear infection, we use NuFlor or Draxxin to cure that but I am not real sure for pregnant cattle.

 

[milkmaid]

We decided to treat her with penicillin this afternoon when she didn't get up for her grain. Hopefully she will come around.

For what it's worth -- most people don't treat with enough pennicillin to really make a difference. Even though the label says 1mL/100lbs or 2mL/150lbs (depending on what type you're giving), a mature cow needs about 60cc's. You didn't say how much you gave, but I thought I'd just throw that bit of information out just incase. It won't do a thing for her if she's treated at the label dosage. I use about 5mL/100lbs every 24 hours with the TwinPenn (long-lasting) stuff - yes it's per vet's orders - and yes it's for everything from diseases and infections to post-surgery prevention.

 

[Alice]

droopy ears is always something that sends up a red flag around here...that and a hanging head...and especially isolating.

Penicillin may not be strong enough...nuflor or draxxin, like blackbaldyman said, might be what it takes.

Watch her close...I've been reading on here about a real fast acting pneumonia. And, since she's close to calving, calling the vet seems to be in order.

Good luck, Alice

 

[GMN]

Maybe she aborted, or has a dead calf inside of her, causing an infection, I'd have her checked.

GMN

 

[jlahc]

Just thought I'd post and let everyone you was nice enough to provide suggestions know what the problem was. This morning we went to check on her and she was in the middle of pushing out a dead calf
She got it out on her own, and then we checked her to make sure she didn't have another calf inside her (she didn't).
She got up and seems to be cleaning out nicely. Her ears are up and her eyes are not glazed over any more. She was actually interested in the hay and grain we put out for her too, which was nice to see. We'll probably treat her with penecillin and give her a few days to rest and then let her back out. We're not sure if we will keep her or ship her out yet.

We are on a vaccination program, and the cows all get mineral and vitamins in their diet, so we aren't sure what caused it. We talked to the vet, and unless we have another cow with problems, we aren't going to pursue the expense of finding out what killed the calf.

Thanks again for all your ideas/suggestions. Its an unfortunate ending, but at least we learned from it.

 

[Dusty Britches]

Sometimes they eat something that kills the calf.

Sorry to hear about your loss, but glad you didn't lose the cow. Last year on the same morning I had 2 calves born. The first was dead on arrival. The second died 4 weeks later of pnemonia - short on colostrum. I ain't much on supersition or reading the stars, but I figured it was the alignment of the moon or something weird about that day.

 

[jlahc]

One other thing to note with this calf that was aborted is that is was born with no hair. We thought that the lack of hair was because it was 2 months early but a friend of ours didn't think that was normal. Does anyone have thoughts on the hairlessness of the dead calf?

 

[jlahc]

It should have been at about the 7 month age range and it was about 40 - 50 lbs.