Had to shoot a downer.

[angus9259]

6 year old cow. Calved fine 4 days ago. Calf nursing, momma keeping watch. All is well. Found her what appeared to be caste on flat ground today - rear leg all bent up funny underneath her but still alive. Got her rolled around so her feet were all pointing the right direction and she still couldn't get up. Sat for a while appearing to chew her cud. Weird. Used the loader to get her rear end up in the air but she had no real coordination anywhere. Started going down hill pretty quickly. Pretty soon she was on her side and couldn't even sit up. Thrashing about. Had to shoot a real old gal last year too with similar symptoms. But that cow was 15 years old so I just figured it was her time. Vet coming out in the morning to do a post mortem. 4 day old bottle baby in the barn. Here's hoping the heavy bagging momma who also calved today will take a liking to her.

I hate shooting them. What a waste.

 

[Supa Dexta]

Have a first calver in 'rehab' right now - Not sure what happened to her, either hurt breeding, or fell off a ledge are the 2 most possible options - ended up with back end paralysis anyways. Had to lift her daily for a few weeks, and then she started getting up herself. 2 months later, she still stumbles around and walks as if she's drunk as a skunk - no strength or coordination of her rear legs.

But she is getting up and eating daily.. She lost a ton of weight, So I'm only trying to get some weight back on her before I butcher her.

 

[JMJ Farms]

Angus I just walked back in from checking cows. Found a full blood angus cow 6 years old, dead as a hammer. One of the best cows I owned of course. Calved 2 1/2 weeks ago. Had a fine baldie bull calf that's pretty as a speckled puppy. What worries me the most is that I don't know why she died. She was a picture of health on the outside. I don't know whether to try to graft the calf onto another high milking cow with a calf about the same age, or go ahead and bottle him. Sorry your luck is going the same way.

 

[Jessica06]

Angus I just walked back in from checking cows. Found a full blood angus cow 6 years old, dead as a hammer. One of the best cows I owned of course. Calved 2 1/2 weeks ago. Had a fine baldie bull calf that's pretty as a speckled puppy. What worries me the most is that I don't know why she died. She was a picture of health on the outside. I don't know whether to try to graft the calf onto another high milking cow with a calf about the same age, or go ahead and bottle him. Sorry your luck is going the same way.

Sounds like us, too! A 3 year old second calf heifer. It's rare to lose one like that here. The 13" of rain and swarms of mosquitos don't help.

 

[dun]

Getting it posted is a very smart move.

 

[JMJ Farms]

Getting it posted is a very smart move.

I agree. I'm probably gonna do the same if I can get someone to come look.

 

[talltimber]

Sorry to hear of you guys' problems. It's sure no fun when stuff like that happens. Hopefully you can find out what happened to them.

 

[Nesikep]

Here's one of the last ones I 'lost' for no good reason.. I think she had had a stroke... paced the corral right by the fence, always clockwise.. One morning she went down in the mud and couldn't get back up.. it had been 6 weeks since it started and showed no real improvement so I put her down.. REALLY wanted another heifer from her too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Styq1RGJCzs
[youtube]Styq1RGJCzs[/youtube]

 

[TCRanch]

Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry for all of you! It's never easy to put one down, even worse when you have no idea what happened to what appeared to be a perfectly healthy cow. Hope you find some answers.

 

[angus9259]

Yeah - so many ways to die.....

We have so much lush grass here - even for summer - doc suspected grass tet but she has mineral with elevated mag and was on hay in my calving pasture. Maybe milk fever? Didn't really have any of the other signs of milk fever though. Seems rare for a beef cow. Vet will be here this morning. Plenty of time to stew about it. I agree that the worst part is not knowing. That said, this is the third downer like this in three years - though one was 15 years old and was going to be sent on her way after we weaned the calf she had on her. Sure seems like something is up though.

 

[Aaron]

When 6-7 year old cows start going down, BLV should be first in mind.

 

[angus9259]

When 6-7 year old cows start going down, BLV should be first in mind.

Interesting. Pretty heavily vaccinated but I'm not opposed to any possibility

 

[Aaron]

When 6-7 year old cows start going down, BLV should be first in mind.

Interesting. Pretty heavily vaccinated but I'm not opposed to any possibility

There is no vaccine for BLV.

 

[angus9259]

BLV - Sorry - misread that.

Autopsy done. Vet didn't see any signs of cancer in major organs. He said the heart was HUGE. He said if she had been struggling or become caste at all she probably just ceased getting blood to her legs. He also said he saw the "possibility" of clostridial activity in the intestine (due to coloration) but said given my vaccination protocol he really doubted it - said the discoloration could have been from a twist while she was struggling.

Bottom line - he said she had a massive heart problem. Otherwise no real evidence of ill health.

 

[Nesikep]

Well, I guess that was the problem.. at least it's good to know it's very unlikely it was a contagious disease