Downed heifer

[gulfso]

Have a heifer (4-5 months old) that was looking pretty bad last week so I used the pour on wormer. I left town the next day and sure as ever she went down. Wife has been trying everything while I was gone and I continued when I returned.

We gave her LA 200 for first couple of days, cal/mag for three days and probios for three days. Got to the vet on Monday and she gave an injection of Nuflor. We have been tubing her and giving her milk re-placer (she is about 300 pounds and probably was not weened.) She has been drinking some water and eating a bit of hay, some pulled green grass and some dry feed but she still will not get up. If she lays out flat we have to help her up but then she looks alert. Used the hip lift a couple of times but just doesn't try to move the frond end much. We got her under the barn in a pen to keep her out of the upcoming weather (maybe it was to keep US out of the weather.) Today I even gave her a qt of butter milk (figure I can't do much wrong anyway.) At wits end. Looking for any suggestions

 

[Lucky_P]

Not trying to be mean, but you said, yourself, that she was looking bad. She didn't get in that shape overnight, and sometimes if you let 'em go so far down the tubes that they're down, you're not gonna be able to bring 'em back.
Infectious diseases are a problem, but poor management and lack of adequate nutrition causes a lot more problems than infections.

Bed her well on a thick layer of straw/hay, make sure that she's switched from one side to the other at least 4 times a day - more is better. Even a gaunt 4-5 mo heifer will experience muscle damage just from her sheer weight pressing on muscles on the 'down' side.
Deworm with something other than a pour-on. Make sure she gets plenty of good quality hay and a decent ration of grain. Free access to water.
Not much else to do at this point in time.

 

[backhoeboogie]

Looking for suggestions? I've got a couple and don't mind getting blasted for offering them up.

The last time I saw that in a heifer that age it turned out to be thiamine deficiency. Your case sounds similar. Thiamine is cheap and can be injected easily. Google thiamine deficiencies and read up on it. There's you a suggestion.

Another time one had been licking trash piles. There were batteries and other things in that trash.

What's her temp running?

 

[regolith]

last one I saw like that was a bit older, and ostertagia. We didn't save the two that went down. Did see good improvement in the other poor-doing calves we removed from the group, wormed and fed out of a trough as well as offering the best grass available.

Thiamine is too cheap, easy and fast a cure (if that is the problem) to ignore that suggestion.