Stocker Steve":2cngje91 said:Been there and submitted the placenta too. Got back thick reports with big words. :help: Called the vet for a translation. He said moldy hay. That aside, genetics and stress also play a role.
I think the best way re reduce a one off problem is to eat the heifer.
One year we had an abortion storm. Babies basicly were rotte and falling apart. Sent several to the lab and they couldn;t come up with a for sure reason. We managed to send a placenta and from the face of the cotyledons they cultured Chlamydia.Lucky_P":1vfrvpin said:Lots of things can cause abortions - some infectious, some contagious, some neither - and a lot of the time, we can never figure out what caused it.
Diagnosticians at U.Saskatchewan, back in the 1980s, looked at 'fresh' third-trimester bovine fetuses... cultured cells from pericarcial sac, then karyotyped them... about 11% had chromosomal abnormalities that may or may not have been lethal mutations, although these calves looked 'normal'. Most diagnostic labs are not set up to do that sort of research project-style testing on every case... and even if they were, it would only be applicable to do on the ones that weren't dead for 2-3 days inside the cow before she expelled them, or that lay out in the sun for a day or so before someone found them.
I've been involved in veterinary medicine either as a student, practitioner, or diagnostic pathologist for right at 40 years... and have seen a bit... but I've not yet seen a mycotic abortion(from moldy hay); I know it happens... and I've fed some pretty nasty moldy hay in my day ... but I've never yet seen one.
BK9954":1dx4ukx1 said:Selenium deficiency can cause an abortion in cattle.
dun":32y05t57 said:One year we had an abortion storm. Babies basicly were rotte and falling apart. Sent several to the lab and they couldn;t come up with a for sure reason. We managed to send a placenta and from the face of the cotyledons they cultured Chlamydia.
Lucky_P":yh06d2w7 said:Chlamydia abortion in ruminants is not really a venereally-transmitted condition. Principally contracted by exposure to aborted fetus/placenta/discharges... but also present in the GI tract of some animals, so fecal exposure is also a route.
It is transmitted though soil, etc. It's also called "foothills abortion disease". Usually only happens very much in really wet years. We got it from a bred show female that when she had hers it contaminated the rest of the herd. Turns out the jerk we got her from had it rampant in his herd and always considerd the first offpsring a throw away pregnancy. Once they;ve had it and they've aborted from it they never get it again. Not sure if they still slough the stuff after that. We treated with aureomycin in the water for 3 or 4 months and that cleared it up.angus9259":168q49yu said:dun":168q49yu said:One year we had an abortion storm. Babies basicly were rotte and falling apart. Sent several to the lab and they couldn;t come up with a for sure reason. We managed to send a placenta and from the face of the cotyledons they cultured Chlamydia.
Chlamydia? Was your bull not a virgin? Or was that waaaaay back in your youth before you knew not to use rented bulls?
dun":258a4fes said:It is transmitted though soil, etc. It's also called "foothills abortion disease". Usually only happens very much in really wet years. We got it from a bred show female that when she had hers it contaminated the rest of the herd. Turns out the jerk we got her from had it rampant in his herd and always considerd the first offpsring a throw away pregnancy. Once they;ve had it and they've aborted from it they never get it again. Not sure if they still slough the stuff after that. We treated with aureomycin in the water for 3 or 4 months and that cleared it up.angus9259":258a4fes said:dun":258a4fes said:One year we had an abortion storm. Babies basicly were rotte and falling apart. Sent several to the lab and they couldn;t come up with a for sure reason. We managed to send a placenta and from the face of the cotyledons they cultured Chlamydia.
Chlamydia? Was your bull not a virgin? Or was that waaaaay back in your youth before you knew not to use rented bulls?