Cows breathing heavily

[jgn]

I'm needeing some help. Lately I have several cows in my herd that are having snotty noses, labored breathing through their nose and seem to be breathing through their mouths alot, and are sneezing and rubbing their noses on anything they can find even have one that is running small tree branches up it's nose to scratch it, and are drooling some. Their body condition is good and they are still eating well and chewing their cud. They are in pasture of fescue, clover of several varieties, some orchard grass and other mixed grasses. They travel with the other cows throughout the day and are acting normal except for the above symptoms. Any ideas on problems that could be causing this. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks, Greg

 

[la4angus]

Could be not enough exercise. There has been some recent studies that cattle getting enough exercise can show those same symptons.
If you will register, I will find the info on the studies and post it.

 

[jgn]

These cattle are roaming in about 20 acres of pasture right now and cover the majority of the area throughout the day, don't think it would be from lack of exercise but I don't know for sure what it may be. As far as being registered I already am, if I wasn't I wouldn't register just because someone told me to in order to get their help.

 

[dun]

Could be pollen, dust, allergies, IBR, heat and humidity, summer cold (snots), a jillion things. Have you temped them? If elevated early in the morning, antibiotics may be needed. As long as they're eating and interacting with the other cows normally I would tend to just keep an eye on them and let them get over whatever it is by themselves.

dun

These cattle are roaming in about 20 acres of pasture right now and cover the majority of the area throughout the day, don't think it would be from lack of exercise but I don't know for sure what it may be. As far as being registered I already am, if I wasn't I wouldn't register just because someone told me to in order to get their help.

 

[Howdyjabo]

Can cattle suffer from nasal bots??
Reminds me of my sheeps symptoms when they were suffering from them.

 

[txshowmom]

Could be the heat. Have the been vaccinated for repitory disease?

 

[jgn]

Dun as far as treating them the watching them and seeing if it goes away on its own is what I was really doing at this time. I know they're all still interacting with each other (no loners), and acting normal except for these symptoms. I was afraid really to try and round them up right now with they're breathing being labored as this would only exacerbate it more maybe causing more harm than good. Thanks to all for the insights.

 

[dun]

We're huge believers in "benign neglect". I would much rather have them kick the problem on their own then mess with them if they're not actaully sick. Last year we did have to treat a calf for foot rot, and 2 years ago we had a heifer born with scepticemia. Those are the only antibiotics we've used in many years.
As has been said before, won;t work for everyone. But now that we can treat them more as ahobby then a living I keep a much closer eye on them so it works for us. When we would only see a cow every week or so we shot them up with antibiotics when we saw them with a problem, didn't wait to see if it was anything real or not.

dun

Dun as far as treating them the watching them and seeing if it goes away on its own is what I was really doing at this time. I know they're all still interacting with each other (no loners), and acting normal except for these symptoms. I was afraid really to try and round them up right now with they're breathing being labored as this would only exacerbate it more maybe causing more harm than good. Thanks to all for the insights.

 

[Anonymous]

I'm needeing some help. Lately I have several cows in my herd that are having snotty noses, labored breathing through their nose and seem to be breathing through their mouths alot, and are sneezing and rubbing their noses on anything they can find even have one that is running small tree branches up it's nose to scratch it, and are drooling some. Their body condition is good and they are still eating well and chewing their cud. They are in pasture of fescue, clover of several varieties, some orchard grass and other mixed grasses. They travel with the other cows throughout the day and are acting normal except for the above symptoms. Any ideas on problems that could be causing this. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks, Greg

you said your cows are on fescue how much fescue? the majority of fescue is contaminated with endrophytes. this will cause your animals body tempreture to be raised by three or four degrees. it also will cause a loss of milk production and they will not breed back as quick as the norm they will also develop long dull hair coats over time contaminated fescue is very toxic. i speak from experince and research on the subject. it is the most toxic when it makes the seed head and the seed is capable of germinating.

here is a thought for you i have heard time and time again how bramah cttle are able to indure heat this is true but any breed that is on toxic fescue will be pond loafers!

 

[Anonymous]

These cattle are roaming in about 20 acres of pasture right now and cover the majority of the area throughout the day, don't think it would be from lack of exercise but I don't know for sure what it may be. As far as being registered I already am, if I wasn't I wouldn't register just because someone told me to in order to get their help.

if you will watch that is a pet peve of la4angus he by his posts. {register register register}

one can only perceive that dialogue to him is not as important as his obsession with who one is.

i chose not to register because its a right of what i have read. allso they tell you on the board that they will store up info on you but not sell it without your permission. plus when somebody else has your email address then thats just one more source that you can obtain a computer virus from1

 

[dun]

Fescue and endophyte.
You can mitigate a lot of the affect of the endophyte by diluting it with another forage. We use clover and OG. Pastures are in the 50-70 year old range. Never had it tested, but because of the lushness and the persistence most of the wizards around here think that it's got a very high endophyte contamination. Of the grass, fescue makes up probably around 80-90%, but most pastures are also 30-70% clover. On the other farm when we added RC to the fescue our weaning weights went up 50lbs per cow on average. The biggest problem we're having is the cows being too fat. The poorest they get anymore (other then one cow) is about BCS 6-6.5. On stockpiled fescue over the winter come spring they calve at around a 7-7.5. Calving interval runs 11 1/2 to 12 1/2 months. but over a cows life time it averages out to just under 12 months. We start breeding the 20th of May so any body that was in heat the week before will be 3 weeks later calving then if we bred them earlier. This past calving season was 36 days and that last straggler was 4 days late.
I personally hate fescue, but in this part of the country if it wasn't for fescue there wouldn't be any beef cows.
Once the seed gets to the point that it will easily strip from the stalk we clip the pastures before turning the girls in.
To use fescue takes some managment that isn't required for other forage bases. I think that once you get the balance of something to dilute the endophyte and the fescue that it can really work for you.
If managing it isn;t desired, you can graze the snot out of it continuously and it will stand up to it. The price is poorer performance of the cattle. Cattle that have been raised on endophyte fescue and are from adapted cows don't have problems with shedding out/rough coats, etc. None adapted cattle tend to have more problems in severe winters with loses of extremities, mostly the switch but sometimes hooves and ends of the ears also.

dun

 

[Howdyjabo]

I have been reading some good results from feeding kelp and heard there is another product coming out soon that has tested out to bind the toxins from fescue.

Karen