downer got up

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ccr

ranch hand
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First time heifer with 2 1/2 month old calf was down yesterday and when I went to check on her she tried to get up, then unable to stand, fell back down. She was alert, ears up and poop looks ok. About 10 minutes later she was able to stand, urinated in squirts, rather than a usual stream. She didn't want to walk to the barn and was nibbling on grass. I took her about 4# of 20% cube.

A couple of hours later we got her to the barn, fed some hay and other than being thin she looks ok. Her calf looks fine, but has runny poop/scours. This morning she is up and eating hay.

After calving she has been getting about 3# of 20% cube daily, free choice mineral (which she doesn't eat much mineral), and has been on native pasture and coastal bermuda grass. Last week we had a freeze and the coastal is brown. Wasn't feeding hay wanting the grass grazed a little lower. This heifer has a small bag but appears to be ok. Will start feeding coastal bermuda hay and maybe a higher protein feed.

Not sure what is going on, but with the calf beginning to scour may be an indication of the problem.

Any suggestions on this is appreciated. Thank you.
 
Bladder infection maybe, high fever made her woozy...I'd get her to a vet..
 
Thanks. Not limping, and haven't put her with the bull yet. I set out a mix of water/electrolytes a couple of hours ago, but she hasn't touched it. The vet will be back open Monday morning.

She has some flaky peeling skin on her nose. Don't remember noticing it before.



 
ccr":1gx7r6hx said:
Thanks. Not limping, and haven't put her with the bull yet. I set out a mix of water/electrolytes a couple of hours ago, but she hasn't touched it. The vet will be back open Monday morning.

She has some flaky peeling skin on her nose. Don't remember noticing it before.



Probably the different smell, I can have one cow balk at some oral meds.in feed, when others won't pull their head up till finished
 
ccr":17gf9sd8 said:
Thanks. Not limping, and haven't put her with the bull yet. I set out a mix of water/electrolytes a couple of hours ago, but she hasn't touched it. The vet will be back open Monday morning.

She has some flaky peeling skin on her nose. Don't remember noticing it before.



Fever?
 
I'll check temp tomorrow. Should we go ahead and give her LA 300 while we got her in the chute?
 
ccr":2is3ue8t said:
I'll check temp tomorrow. Should we go ahead and give her LA 300 while we got her in the chute?
Give her all the grass hay she will eat and go easy on that 20% feed.....listen to vets recommendations.
 
I have noticed a lot of thin cows at the sale barns the last two weeks. We have had a dry fall plus a killing frost in parts of East Texas about 2 weeks ago. Several producers mentioned cows were chasing acorns.
 
BC's comment about the acorns got me thinking. There was small patch of silver leaf nightshade in the trap where she was at, but now it is gone for the most part. Didn't think much about it earlier because I figured the cattle would eat the bermuda and not the nightshade, but as the grass dried up maybe she eat enough of the nightshade to get her down. She is now eating fine, getting up ok, and the calf's runny poop/scours have gone. Everything appears to be back to normal.

Below is a picture of silver leaf nightshade across the fence from where she was at.


Thank you for the comments.
 
I remember some neighbors talking one time, they had a heifer or young cow, bull or another cow jumped her and she fell on some ice and broke her back. Not common but it does happen.
This sounds like something different though, Maybe it is that night shade....
 
After being down last November, she got better and took a calf to weaning at 6 months. I pulled the calf off of her and the next day she was down again and could not get up. When she tried to get up her legs would shake and she would fall down. Gave here a tube of cmpk gel and after 30 minutes gave here another tube of gel. She didn't get up that evening, but was up the next day. The vet came out and said it was magnesium deficiency and need to give her hi-mag mineral (she was getting loose mineral, but not high mag, with her feed). He injected multimin 90, bo-se, and took a fecal which was negative for worms/cocci. The vet noticed her muscles were twitching which he said is sign of mag deficiency.

She is getting hi-mag mineral top dressed on her feed and seems to be doing better now.
 
ccr":32uopop4 said:
After being down last November, she got better and took a calf to weaning at 6 months. I pulled the calf off of her and the next day she was down again and could not get up. When she tried to get up her legs would shake and she would fall down. Gave here a tube of cmpk gel and after 30 minutes gave here another tube of gel. She didn't get up that evening, but was up the next day. The vet came out and said it was magnesium deficiency and need to give her hi-mag mineral (she was getting loose mineral, but not high mag, with her feed). He injected multimin 90, bo-se, and took a fecal which was negative for worms/cocci. The vet noticed her muscles were twitching which he said is sign of mag deficiency.

She is getting hi-mag mineral top dressed on her feed and seems to be doing better now.
Getting that time of year to start feeding hi-mag..getting it in their system.
 
greybeard":3vregn6t said:
You have any green lush forage she's been into back in Nov or now??
No green lush forage (wish there was).

Since November she's been on good bermuda hay, daily feed, and top dressed mineral, but not hi-mag mineral until she went down this second time. This is a Simmental first time calver. She is about a 4 to 4.5 bcs. Other sims and red angus seem to be doing fine and are a 5 - 6.5 bsc.
 

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