Dead Cow Walking, I need Help!

[mnmtranching]

So, :shock:

You tell me to go out and spend Buy all the things I want and more. :nod: :nod:
Because you say I'll win Power ball tomorrow. :welcome:

Same odds of having some life threatening disease in my cow herd. :roll:

Common :???: what are the odds?

So what are these dreadful diseases that Y'all are so afraid of,give me some odds :welcome:

 

[TCTara]

I've been sitting here reading this, and I have to out myself. I was on here a while ago, quit because of someone with cranio-rectal inversion, and have been back reading and seldom posting for a couple of months.

Certain diseases can wipe out a herd. This sounds like Johnes, could be a chronic enteritis, could be severe parasitism with hypoalbuminemia. Doesn't matter. She's going to die, likely soon. However, the question is, does what she has have the potential to screw up the rest of the herd or even the land for future animals? What about the neighbouring animals?

So mnmt whatever your name is...play Russian roulette if you like. I happen to agree with Bez+ etc that getting a diagnosis on this animal is way more important than saving the few pennies. I am talking histopathology(can't be done if frozen), culture (can be done if frozen) if required, maybe virology...find out what is happening. I personally think a gross post mortem exam as well is optimal. Cost? Heck of a lot less than losing everything. But hey, what do I know. I've only been doing this for a very long time, and I get paid well for my advice. In the US you have state labs, you can submit the samples yourself, and find out the cost in advance, only problem is interpretation. Here in Canada, the provincial labs have set prices, which can include gross post mortem, needed diagnostics...as a package. Food animals are also cheaper than small animals and horses.

So my advice, for what it's worth, is get a diagnosis. The easiest way is to call a vet or a lab.

Good Luck

 

[mnmtranching]

I notice on these forums that a lot of people want to get that [one more calf" out of old bessy. Then one more.
By not having an eye for culling cows on a timely bases, and hoping to get that [one more calf] your going to end up with a dead cow walking and she will die. Just like every bovine, If they don't go to slaughter their going to die.
I recommended shoot and shovel, said nothing about the need to keep it a secret, no laws against putting down a sick old cow.
Some 100,000 head a day go through USDA inspected slaughtering facilities. How many of these cattle are pulled because of disease? We have a very healthy cattle herd as a whole in the US. Why worry about some strange mankind threatening disease.

 

[regolith]

some strange mankind threatening disease.

Mankind threatening? I thought we were talking about cattle threatening.

Me, I like to know if there's Johne's among my cows. It's the start of getting it *out* of my herd and not seeing any more slowly wasting cattle.

 

[Keren]

You know, it doesnt need to be an end-of-the-world panic stations disease like Johnes, BSE etc.

In the work herd we had a peculiar form of salmonella tear through the place and it was devastating.

We had 23 kids born to a group of does, I worked on those kids day and night and out of the whole lot of them only 2 survived. None of the does had any milk. The kids were born premmie, or full term and weak. None could stand at birth. A really really bad scour went through them - I'd never seen anything like that scour, I could be putting milk in one end and it was almost immediately running out the back end. They would take a bottle, within 2 hours be unresponsive, 2 hours after that scouring like I'd never seen, 2 hours after that they were dead, and any other kid that had been near, even before the scouring started, died also. As for the does, they had no milk, most of them retained a placenta, most of them died. Were reasonably okay one day, dead the next.

Basically, it was a train wreck. A disaster. Perhaps a vet should have been consulted at the beginning, and I would have saved more? As it was, just by my own research I only figured out what it was right at the end of it all, and it was too late.

And before you say that that was goats, not cattle, guess what? It spread to the cattle as well, and I lost 4 very very good cows from it. Also lost a horse.

 

[chippie]

Why not haul the cow to the vet?
I really don't understand why someone would allow a cow to be in such bad shape for months and not do something about it before now.
That is cruel, unnecessary, poor management and bad business.

 

[CattleHand]

I think that "call the Vet" is a good response, must be. You hear that on CT more often then any other response. But, the "call the Vet" is the same as "I don't know" So why aren't there more responses "I don't know" :???:
I would have taken care of the cow at first signs of illness. Probably an antibiotic, maybe a magnet, depending on symptoms.
But I can't see the cow so I don't know. :compute:
If she isn't feverish and getting around she could go for kill.
As far as some contagious, wipe out you entire herd disease. I haven't seen it so I don't worry about stuff like that.
"call the Vet" I wouldn't, I would have handled it myself.
That all being said. I agree. "Call the Vet" :cowboy:

Haha very true. What would you of done if you had a cow with those same symptoms?

Lickin a lot of salt would lead to drinking more. Since it makes you thirsty. Could licking salt be a lack of minerals? My guess would be its the cows diet (that and maybe just plain age since its scrawny). I will admit I got no clue but would be interested in hearing some peoples opinions. Dark green is the troubling part. Diarrhea could just be too much green grass or clover or something else to give a cow the sh!ts.

 

[msscamp]

Because you say I'll win Power ball tomorrow. :welcome:

Same odds of having some life threatening disease in my cow herd. :roll:

Common :???: what are the odds?

You know, I used to have your attitude. I thought I knew enough about how to tell if an animal was healthy that I didn't have to worry about bringing in a disastrous disease to my herd. I bought 2 very nice, perfectly healthy does to add to my goat herd. I also quarantined them for the recommended length of time. About 3 months after adding them to the herd, I had a number of does delivering prematurely. Kids were being delivered weak and, if they were not dead at birth, they died soon after birth. It just so happened that 2 does delivered in the same day - one had a set of twins, the other had a single - all of them were dead. That set off a bell in my head, I took them to the vet and had them tested. Those "2 perfectly healthy does" introduced Q Fever into my herd. My vet was astute enough to recognize the symptoms and suggested that I start feeding Aueromycin before we ever had a difinitive diagnoses from the state lab, and that cut my losses by a very significant degree. The final tally was 10 dead kids. It's just a matter of time before you get caught in the same type of nightmare. Before you state that my problem was with goats, and that doesn't have anything to do with cattle, Q Fever is transmissible to cattle and causes the same kinds of problems.

 

[milkmaid]

Because you say I'll win Power ball tomorrow. :welcome:

Same odds of having some life threatening disease in my cow herd. :roll:

Common :???: what are the odds?

You know, I used to have your attitude. I thought I knew enough about how to tell if an animal was healthy that I didn't have to worry about bringing in a disastrous disease to my herd. I bought 2 very nice, perfectly healthy does to add to my goat herd. I also quarantined them for the recommended length of time. About 3 months after adding them to the herd, I had a number of does delivering prematurely. Kids were being delivered weak and, if they were not dead at birth, they died soon after birth. It just so happened that 2 does delivered in the same day - one had a set of twins, the other had a single - all of them were dead. That set off a bell in my head, I took them to the vet and had them tested. Those "2 perfectly healthy does" introduced Q Fever into my herd. My vet was astute enough to recognize the symptoms and suggested that I start feeding Aueromycin before we ever had a difinitive diagnoses from the state lab, and that cut my losses by a very significant degree. The final tally was 10 dead kids. It's just a matter of time before you get caught in the same type of nightmare. Before you state that my problem was with goats, and that doesn't have anything to do with cattle, Q Fever is transmissible to cattle and causes the same kinds of problems.

And to humans too.

 

[msscamp]

Because you say I'll win Power ball tomorrow. :welcome:

Same odds of having some life threatening disease in my cow herd. :roll:

Common :???: what are the odds?

You know, I used to have your attitude. I thought I knew enough about how to tell if an animal was healthy that I didn't have to worry about bringing in a disastrous disease to my herd. I bought 2 very nice, perfectly healthy does to add to my goat herd. I also quarantined them for the recommended length of time. About 3 months after adding them to the herd, I had a number of does delivering prematurely. Kids were being delivered weak and, if they were not dead at birth, they died soon after birth. It just so happened that 2 does delivered in the same day - one had a set of twins, the other had a single - all of them were dead. That set off a bell in my head, I took them to the vet and had them tested. Those "2 perfectly healthy does" introduced Q Fever into my herd. My vet was astute enough to recognize the symptoms and suggested that I start feeding Aueromycin before we ever had a difinitive diagnoses from the state lab, and that cut my losses by a very significant degree. The final tally was 10 dead kids. It's just a matter of time before you get caught in the same type of nightmare. Before you state that my problem was with goats, and that doesn't have anything to do with cattle, Q Fever is transmissible to cattle and causes the same kinds of problems.

And to humans too.

Yes, it is.

 

[talldog]

You have cattle owners, then you have, CATTLE BREEDERS !!!!

 

[mnmtranching]

If Sharky would have said two cows in the herd in this condition I would have asked for more information.
The picture I get is of an old cow that should have been culled at least a year ago. Old and gone down hill, and her slide is being helped along with an infection. Probably in her reproductive system maybe hardware. Probably has some organ failure. You keep a cow to long and, sure enough she's gonna die. Lots of old cows die. I see NO reason to throw the flag up in this case.
You could give antibiotics, keep her alive for a while, why? she will NEVER be worth anything.
No question get rid of the problem.

 

[Keren]

everyone keeps saying this cow is old, how on earth do you know that :???: I looked back at the original post and maybe I've missed it but we've never been given the age of this cow

 

[hillsdown]

The age was never mentioned so no one knows how old she is just that she is old enough to breed ..

Dollars to donuts it's Johnes and the calf will have it as well as any other animal under a year old that has been exposed to her may have it and will shed and shed and shed until the whole freaking herd has it.. But nooooooo don't worry about it, just shoot her ( or better yet just wait for her to die on her own) and bury her,,,,,, as well as your head while your at it..or maybe the head is buried already.. :?


I am being mean again,,,my bad..

 

[mnmtranching]

Border line-------------PARANOIA :shock: :nod: :help:

 

[ga. prime]

Paranoia is right. Every cow herd in existence has Johnnes in it. Any cow that can walk on and off the trailer and into a sale ring should be allowed to do so. People buying cows at a sale ring know 2 or 3 things about what they're buying from a glance and bid accordingly.

 

[TCTara]

Every cow herd in existence has Johnnes in it.

I'd love to see the data on that supposition. Especially as I know for a fact that it isn't true...
http://www.johnesdisease.org/ has further information on this disease.

 

[ga. prime]

Every cow herd in existence has Johnnes in it.

I'd love to see the data on that supposition. Especially as I know for a fact that it isn't true...
http://www.johnesdisease.org/ has further information on this disease.

Your link is broken. This from the University of Wisconsin Johnes Information Center:

"How common is Johne's disease?

Johne's disease occurs worldwide. In the U.S. it is estimated that 7.8% of the beef herds and 22% of the dairy herds are infected with M. paratuberculosis."

Now, do you really think it is confined to this number? I don't. It's in the ground, it's everywhere.

 

[regolith]

Johne's disease occurs worldwide. In the U.S. it is estimated that 7.8% of the beef herds and 22% of the dairy herds are infected with M. paratuberculosis."

Now, do you really think it is confined to this number? I don't. It's in the ground, it's everywhere.

pure anecdote: I've been working with dairy cows since 1993.
In 2006 I bought mature cows, and a couple months later two recently calved cows lost their milk, lost a lot of weight, one was scouring. My inclination was to presume it was respiratory and start them on antibiotics, but instead I got the vet to look at them.
He told me on sight one was Johne's and blood tested the other - test was positive, both cows were culled. Next time I saw the disease I recognised it.
In the previous thirteen years (five different herds) I had never seen a cow with Johne's.
I think the percentage herds infected in NZ are fairly similar to the numbers quoted... it's possibly more likely to be identified in dairy herds than beef.

 

[ga. prime]

regolith, isn't it true now that you have had a confirmed case on your farm that the Johnes disease organisms are in the ground there and will be viable for years into the future and may or may not infect any ruminant animal with the disease by way of grazing at any time? I think it is and I think this holds true for any farm that has been around for any length of time whether a case has ever been diagnosed or not. I'm not any kind of expert, I'm just saying what I think.