Dead Calves

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Anonymous

I had a December born calf die this morning. She was healthy up until perhaps day before yesterday, when she was ignoring the hay for the most part, but did seem alert. She was nursing OK. No Cough no scours, no nasal discharge, no outward signs of illness, other than the lethargy.

Yesterday she was ignoring the hay again, and was laying in the field sunning herself. I walked to her and she did get up, and let me lead her into a smaller corrale. The Vet prescribed Baytril, A vitimin shot and an analgesic. I gave her the shots, and she walked over to a sunny location and stood for a while then laid down near a fence line watching the breatheren.

This morning she was dead.

Last December, I had a similar death, from a bottle fed calf that had been born last August. He was eating fine in a pasture, then the following say he had lethargy, drank some milk from a pail, and that evening he died.

I am feeding the cows and calves alfalfa, half a small square per cow/calf unit per day. With the rare exception the cows are not loosing too much condition.

I also freely feed Breeder Cubes once a week as a treat.

All the other calves appear healthy, but so did this one two dys ago....

Any suggestions?

Eaglewerks



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Last Wednbesday I had a nice angus steer that the previous day was eating like a cow laying down in the pasture, legs straight out and bloating starting. I rolled him over and got him up onto his feet. The vat came out and said he was probably not drinking enought water and gave him a shot of some anti-biotic and said that he would be fine. I watched him and for the next day had to get him back up about 8 times. One of the times when he was down and Ihad nbt yet rolle him onto his feet the vet came out and gave him about a gallon of mineral oil ad also three big pink tablets which the vet described as cow ex-lax. Vet again check him over and said he would be fine. He was essentially off any food, though he was offered free choice nice alfalfa and also grain and also breeder cubes. He had easy access to fresh water in a large trough. The pasture was level. Prior he also had free access to salt, minerlal and sweetlick with magnesium.

He died this afternoon. would not get up and simply stopped trying.

I am thinking I should have him autopsied by the vet, I hop whatever it is in not contageious.

Any thoughts? Hardware Disease? There is not sufficient green forage to cause any problem.

Eaglewerks



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Sorry to hear of your losses. Thing that comes to mind is too much alfalfa. 1/2 bale per cow/calf unit daily without plenty of free choice plain grass hay might be an issue here. We only feed about 2-4" flake of alfalfa once a day per unit and they all have free choice bermuda grass pasture as well as free choice "haygrazer" in a round bale feeder. I'm not a vet or a nutrition expert by any means; however, things sound like a bloating problem or whatever from too much nitrogen rich alfalfa.
 
We had an autopsy done this morning. Good News: Nothing unusual, no internal infection, etc. EXCEPT he had a urinary blockage. The Bladder was full with no where to go...

I've kept fresh water always available, even heated when needed, and also salt and mineral licks, and also some salted first cutting Alfalfa/grass mixture being fed daily.

Any suggestions to prevent this in the future??

Eaglewerks

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Of what did the blockage consist of?

dun

> We had an autopsy done this
> morning. Good News: Nothing
> unusual, no internal infection,
> etc. EXCEPT he had a urinary
> blockage. The Bladder was full
> with no where to go...

> I've kept fresh water always
> available, even heated when
> needed, and also salt and mineral
> licks, and also some salted first
> cutting Alfalfa/grass mixture
> being fed daily.

> Any suggestions to prevent this in
> the future??

> Eaglewerks
 
> Of what did the blockage consist
> of? > dun

Dun, When the Vet cut the urethra leading from the bladder it was filled with a white matter, looked to me like worms, but the vet said it was caused by insuficient water intake. The vet also said there was no disease or obvious infection. The vet said there was nothing I could have done, that this fella just didn't drink enough water.

Eaglewerks



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What the animal died from was a urolith, which develops from insufficient water intake to DILUTE THE MINERALS WHICH CAUSE THE STONE. Without knowing what the stone was made from, I can't help you to modify diet to prevent the next one. When I worked in Saskatchewan, silicates were the big cause. Here in Ontario, I tend to see calcium oxalate stones. Other regions have different prevalences. The animal didn't cause this, the mineral balance did. He just showed the disease because his water intake help speed formation of the stone, or else he was genetically predisposed to the stone formation. Check out urolith bovine (or cattle) on google.com and see if you can get some information to help. V
 

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