Death Losses to Going Cast

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angus9259

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Seems like one a year - perfectly healthy animal on grass hay all bloated up and dead in the morning. My ground in very uneven and this time of year the clay gets super greasy especially when it's hard frozen underneath and starts to melt on top. Seems like if they just get laying the wrong way a little bit, they can't get up sometimes. Caught two yearling bulls last year before it happened and managed to get their feet rolled underneath them before they died. Of course, if you don't see it happening, you just do really wonder. This last one happened last night. Young seemingly healthy cow laying down where they always lay out of the wind - all bloated and dead. However head was pointing down slope. Always a sign - but never a certainty. I also once read to move hay feeders around this time of year. Lost a yearling heifer to cast (I think) one year upside down in a tractor tire run next to the feeder.
 
Seems like one a year - perfectly healthy animal on grass hay all bloated up and dead in the morning. My ground in very uneven and this time of year the clay gets super greasy especially when it's hard frozen underneath and starts to melt on top. Seems like if they just get laying the wrong way a little bit, they can't get up sometimes. Caught two yearling bulls last year before it happened and managed to get their feet rolled underneath them before they died. Of course, if you don't see it happening, you just do really wonder. This last one happened last night. Young seemingly healthy cow laying down where they always lay out of the wind - all bloated and dead. However head was pointing down slope. Always a sign - but never a certainty. I also once read to move hay feeders around this time of year. Lost a yearling heifer to cast (I think) one year upside down in a tractor tire run next to the feeder.
Could you set up a windbreak in a less lethal area?
 
We fed cows on an upper bench during the winter. We always moved them down by the house/creek for calving. We moved them on Wednesday morning. Cow must have gotten on her back in a ditch Tuesday evening/night and that's right where she expired. If we had moved them one day earlier, we would have been a cow to the good.

Like gcreekrnch says, "no matter how hard we try, we can't kill them all."
 
That sucks, I've had it happen myself. Caught the first 2 that did it but didn't catch the third one. Two of the ones I had do it, did it on an old hay ring and one was on uneven ground. I have since gone to primarily unrolling to at least eliminate the old round bale feeding areas.
 
Could you set up a windbreak in a less lethal area?
Funny. You should see where it's at. It's not bad - one of my flatter spots. It doesn't seem like it takes much of a slope though. They don't all die in the same place either. That's just where this one paid the price. Who knows.... as someone on these boards said once, it seems like they are born looking for a way to die.
 
That's a bit tough Angus, sounds like something needs to change a bit, not always easy to do. You do get runs of things happening so hopefully this is the end of the run for a while.

Ken
 

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