Dead Cow - Second Opinion

[GaryDG]

Found a dead cow in the field this morning. Yesterday evening the animal appeared perfectly normal. No health problems known.

Adjacent to mouth of dead cow found small amount of white to whitsh-red foam (about 20 cubic inches), then blood from mouth and a little blood from nose.

Your opinion as to cause of death, please.

 

[Beefy]

what was the first opinion?

 

[milesvb]

Did you look for a bullet hole?

If not disease, it sounds like a bullet through the lungs.

 

[sidney411]

Gun shot is a deffinate possibility but I've never seen a lungshot animal with white or whitish foam, it would be very bright red.

 

[Workinonit Farm]

Lightning? On Friday night, at the place where I work, a cow was lost due to lightning strike. No actual "burns" just foam and blood from the mouth. Had 2 wicked storms come through that night. Cow was post-mortemed, that was the finding.

Katherine

 

[milesvb]

Gun shot is a deffinate possibility but I've never seen a lungshot animal with white or whitish foam, it would be very bright red.

He said whitish-red. I took that to be pink and frothy like lung blood. Just a guess, I didn't look at her.

 

[Mahoney Pursley Ranch]

Souds like she was shot to me.

 

[TK Ranch]

have anthrax in you area

 

[GaryDG]

I evaluated the cow's body, there were no bullet holes. There's no Antrax in our area.

(first opinion)

I beleive, through neighbors, etc. that the cause of death was the injestion of a small section, perhaps 2-5" of barb wire or wire. The people that owned this property before us were negligent with repect to these sort of things.

what's your view?

 

[dun]

I evaluated the cow's body, there were no bullet holes. There's no Antrax in our area.

(first opinion)

I beleive, through neighbors, etc. that the cause of death was the injestion of a small section, perhaps 2-5" of barb wire or wire. The people that owned this property before us were negligent with repect to these sort of things.

what's your view?

Hardware is usually a longer duration illness. It alwasy is generally evident that there is a problem because of the behaviour or condition of the cow. While I've never seen a quick death from ingestion of wire, I'm sure it's possible. Unless you have a very good metal detector, the only way to know if it is hardware is to cut her open and look.

dun

 

[Bama]

I beleive, through neighbors, etc. that the cause of death was the injestion of a small section, perhaps 2-5" of barb wire or wire. The people that owned this property before us were negligent with repect to these sort of things.

what's your view?

I agree hardware normally has signs before death. In your case it may be worth investing in one of those magnets that you hang from a truck and run it over your pastures. It should work better to pull it along the ground.

 

[TheBullLady]

With hardware she would surely have shown signs of illness and weight loss.

 

[rws]

ive seen where a lot a people uses the term hardware i assume this means barbwire and such but what exactly are some symptoms of this and does it usually kill the cows

 

[Gale Seddon]

My experience with hardware: a coule of years ago, one of our cows went off feed, depressed, lying down a lot, but getting up to move to the shade. Called the vet (got the vet covering for ours that week); he got there within the hour, examined her in the field (tied to a tree). He thought she had a chest tumor (cough, decreased heart rate, slight bloat, fluid in chest bilateral, no temperature). Suggested we send her to VA Tech for a workup (I about fainted, convinced that we'd never see her again if we did that!). Also said we could try giving her a magnet and penicillin (neither of which he had with him, but at least he got there fast and gave me some options).

So, I got a magnet and penicillin, got the cow (and her 1-mo old calf) up into the pen, got the magnet in her (that was interesting!), gave her a shot (my first ever!). As her milk had dried up (that happened VERY fast!), I had to try to bottle-feed her calf (needless to say, the calf did not take kindly to that and just kept trying to nurse her mama).

The next morning, the appetite was back, the milk gradually came back, and all was well. Not bad for a 10-year old cow. We were lucky! Now all of our cows have magnets!

This is an old farm, and every time I got out in any of the pastures I pick up nails, or small pieces of glass, or wire, whatever...never fails...I just keep picking up stuff, especially after a hard rain...stuff keeps coming up out of the soil. And I suspect some stuff comes in the round bales too. Always something out there to pick up.

Hope this helps.

Gale

 

[sidney411]

I guess I don't understand either. Isn't a magnet PREVENTATIVE maintenance? I can't see how if a piece of hardware was already to the point of causing damage and sickness it could be stopped or reversed by the magnet in the stomach, expecially if the hardware had traveled out of the stomach into the inside of the cow, or would that cause death quickly?

 

[dun]

I guess I don't understand either. Isn't a magnet PREVENTATIVE maintenance? I can't see how if a piece of hardware was already to the point of causing damage and sickness it could be stopped or reversed by the magnet in the stomach, expecially if the hardware had traveled out of the stomach into the inside of the cow, or would that cause death quickly?

A magnet may work if the metal is only irritating things and hasn;t punctured. If it's punctured I would expect it to be dead before you can get a magnet in it. But to answer the first question, yes it is usually given as a preventetive. But when you're grasping at straws, a magnet is probably as good of a straw as any.

dun