Ergot pics

[DiamondSCattleCo]

About three days ago, I noticed a feeder whose ears were starting to curl, almost as though they were freezing. I didn't think a whole bunch of it, as I've got them in a pen next to my horse, who has a history of chewing calf's ears whenever he gets the chance. Today, I noticed one of my purebreds has an ear doing the same thing.

So I'm thinking its ergot poisoning, which is the only thing I can think of that would cause something along these lines. I've seen ergot poisoning before, and this looks similar, but it was so long ago my memory may be shot. I'm feeding a few pounds of oats, but in all my years in this area, I've never once seen ergot in oats. I spread out a couple 5 gallon pails of oats to see if I could spot some. I found a couple kernels that look as though they _may_ be ergot, but I've never seen what ergot looks like in oats, just wheat. Does ergot that shows in oats look exactly the same as that in wheat?

I prowled the internet, found several dozen websites with ergot pics, but nary a pic of it in oats. I did also notice that ergot could grow in quackgrass, and I'm feeding some hay with headed out quack in it. And I also found mention of ergot in redtop. The field that this oats came from was polluted with redtop. Unfortunately, again I couldn't find a single picture of ergot in either quackgrass or red top.

Anyone have _good_ pictures of ergot in oats, redtop and/or quackgrass?

Or does anyone have any other idea what could be causing the feeders ear to curl like that? One animal is 550 lbs, the other is over 800lbs. Neither shows any signs of other sickness, nor do they show signs of lameness. I did see a couple tails in the pen that didn't look healthy, but not enough to cause any real concern.

Rod

 

[msscamp]

Rod, someone else posted a thread about curling ears and received a response that it could be/was (I don't remember which) lice. Might want to do a search.

 

[Beefy]

Diamonds,
you'll find that ergot is a mysterious subject and hard to find information about. i never even heard of it until a few years ago. our rye and wheat was heading out before the cows got to it and we were feeding oats and wheat haylage too. to make a long story short we had one cow whos foot started rotting (which may or may not have been some kind of foot rot, still dont know for sure) and we had one cow whos teats began rotting and sloughing off (ergot may cause gangrene of the extremities). I think ears and tails are the most common extremeties afflicted. if you can rule out frost bite, and your horse, it may very well be ergot poisoning if you are feeding wheat or oats or anything with a seedhead. as far as i know it looks the same in all..blackish in the seedhead. i dont know what those other grasses are you describe.

 

[DiamondSCattleCo]

Rod, someone else posted a thread about curling ears and received a response that it could be/was (I don't remember which) lice. Might want to do a search.

I remember seeing that, but I don't think its lice. I just Ivomeced 3 weeks ago. And I could be wrong, but if lice are usually bad enough to cause ear troubles, you'll see other signs of it (rubbing, licking), which aren't present.

Rod

 

[msscamp]

Rod, someone else posted a thread about curling ears and received a response that it could be/was (I don't remember which) lice. Might want to do a search.

I remember seeing that, but I don't think its lice. I just Ivomeced 3 weeks ago. And I could be wrong, but if lice are usually bad enough to cause ear troubles, you'll see other signs of it (rubbing, licking), which aren't present.

Rod

I don't know - never had a case, just thought I would pass that along in case it might be helpful.

 

[Beefy]

has it not been cold in scatchewan?

 

[DiamondSCattleCo]

I don't know - never had a case, just thought I would pass that along in case it might be helpful.

Believe me MSS, your suggestion was very much appreciated. Any others? Even offbeat stuff?

This has been one heckuva year for me. Usually I treat 1 or 2 animals for a snotty nose, or in very rare cases, scours. With the ultra wet year, no way to clean pens (they were under water for most of the year), animals from outside the ranch coming in and this warm winter, I've been burning through NuFlor, Liquicycin, Penicillin and patience.

Beefy, its been positively toasty this winter. Today was -7C or so, and thats the coldest its been for almost a month. And I've never even had feeder's ears freeze in -40, unless they were sick, which these guys are not.

Rod

 

[Beefy]

i'm guessing its the headed out quackgrass, whatever that is. i think most anything with a seedhead can have ergot.

 

[msscamp]

I don't know - never had a case, just thought I would pass that along in case it might be helpful.

Believe me MSS, your suggestion was very much appreciated. Any others? Even offbeat stuff?

This has been one heckuva year for me. Usually I treat 1 or 2 animals for a snotty nose, or in very rare cases, scours. With the ultra wet year, no way to clean pens (they were under water for most of the year), animals from outside the ranch coming in and this warm winter, I've been burning through NuFlor, Liquicycin, Penicillin and patience.

Rod

Probably not going to be much help, but the only other thing I can think of would be some type of fungal infection from the wet? I can't say that I've ever seen ears curling on cattle before, sorry.

 

[CattleAnnie]

Hey Rod,

Here's a link with information on ergot and pictures of both grain infected with it and an animal that's got ergot poisoning.

http://www.ext.nodak.edu/extpubs/plants ... pp551w.htm

Just found a link from Alberta ag dept of ergot in oats.

http://www1.agric.gov.ab.ca/$department ... endocument

Take care.

 

[DiamondSCattleCo]

Thanks Annie, the Alberta site I hadn't found. That gets me a little closer, although is the link to the exploded view of the oats broken in your browser as well?

Rod

 

[DiamondSCattleCo]

Well, hell. Took the three critters to the vet this afternoon, just to make sure it was ergot poisoning and it definitely is. Checked the oats over real close, took it to the elevator and no ergot there. So that leaves my hay. After talking to a livestock nutritionist, poisonous ergot levels in hay are virtually undetectable by the naked eye, so I've got to core sample each fields hay and send them in for testing.

Get this, within North America, there is only ONE lab capable of testing for ergot in hay and thats in Missouri. 3 weeks lag time So I guess I'll be rolling some barley tomorrow and feeding straw.....

Rod

 

[msscamp]

That bites!

 

[DiamondSCattleCo]

That bites!

It does. My feeders were really pourin on the weight. I was on target to ship an average of 50 lbs more calf than I've ever shipped before, and that was even with 40% of the herd calving second cycle. Now it'll just be a maintenance diet until the ringworm clears up, and I'll ship em.

Did catch a little piece of luck. Nothing is going to lose hooves or tails, and the registered heifer was caught JUST in time. She was getting sores on her legs that I couldn't see until we had her trapped up in the headgate.

Rod

 

[Beefy]

ergot is about the nastiest thing ive ever experienced. glad you caught it in time.

 

[buckaroo_bif]

as a matter of fact Rod I was just reading about ergots the other day right here> http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl= ... D%26sa%3DG

seems witches like the stuff, i don't think i care for it myself
this is ergot in rye here
bif

 

[ga. prime]

Ergot? I thought it said erotic pics. What a disappointment.

 

[DiamondSCattleCo]

:lol: Believe me, I would have much rather had my critters get into a stack of Playboys....

 

[Knapview]

Rod - your message is very timely for us here :frowns: . We had a calf that the vet had to put down yesterday and it looks like it's Ergot. Our vet didn't have a lot of info as he said he's only seen it once or twice in his life. This picture of the calf feet with the pastern and hoof sloughing off is exactly what this calf had. We're the same as far as frostbite - it's been balmy here all winter so we knew it wasn't that. Now we have to figure out where it's coming from and exactly how much damage it's done in the rest of the herd. We have a first calf heifer that was due early April - she started to spring up about a week and a half ago and the vet thinks that the calf is dead and she's getting ready to dump it (we were already kind of suspecting that) - we're wondering if it's dead as a result of ergot poisoning & it makes us more than a little worried about where we headed next. Please keep me posted how you make out. Good luck.

Deb

 

[DiamondSCattleCo]

Deb,

Definitely ergot poisoning on that hoof. I've seen a few dozen pics of that kind of thing now.

Where I've went so far is to completely stop feeding all my hay that could possibly have anything in it with a seed head such as quack grass or red top. I also stopped feeding from the oat bin I'd been feeding from. To be toxic in oats only requires .025% ergot, so my visual inspection may have missed it.

That doesn't leave me much, so I rolled up some barley and am feeding straw bales and borrowed hay bales to my calves until I can get the ringworm cleared up and get them shipped.

My bred cows appear to be ok, but they're eating hay that had some rain on it and came from a new field with no quackgrass. Unfortunately, that feed is almost gone. The feed store is supposed to come and core sample tomorrow, then send the samples off. It then takes 3 weeks to get the results back. I'll be nip and tuck for feed until then.

I'd recommend pulling them off whatever feed you're giving the animals until you can have it tested. If you've got straw, make them eat straw (almost no chance of ergot in straw,unless the combine didn't thresh it properly) for awhile until you definitely pinpoint the source.

Rod