Heifer aborted today.

[Cucumber35]

Pulled in the lane this morning and saw a buzzard fly away from near the hay feeder and a couple others circling. Found an aborted fetus the size of a large cat or small dog, guessed to be about 5 months along or so. Checked the herd and it was clearly from one of the yearling heifers. She would have been 12-13 months when the bull was turned out on April 25th. Vaccinated as a calf with 2 rounds of Triangle10 and an annual booster about a month ago with the rest of the herd. The fetus was pretty picked apart by buzzards already so I pitched it in the woods. Wondering now if I shouldn't have saved it to have checked. Really hoping this doesn't become a pattern, I have 16 more heifers in that group. Any ideas of possible causes or insight on what to look for in the future? I know there's a lot of variables, just hoping I'm not headed down a dark path and this was a fluke.

 

[Bright Raven]

Triangle 10 covers the 5 fetal protection viruses. Also the 5 species of the Leptospira bacteria but it does not cover the Hardjo-Bovis serovar.

Other causes could be developmental defect, neospora or vibriosis. Might also have been a genetic defect which can be lumped under the developmental disorder.

Just something for reference:
Neospora caninum Abortion in Cattle. Neospora caninum is a protozoan parasite that is emerging as an important infectious cause of weak calves and abortion in cattle. ... An important feature of this parasite is that once it infects an adult cow or bull, a calf or a fetus, it is maintained as a life-long infection.

 

[Cucumber35]

Triangle 10 covers the 5 fetal protection viruses. Also the 5 species of the Leptospira bacteria but it does not cover the Hardjo-Bovis serovar.

Other causes could be developmental defect, neospora or vibriosis. Might also have been a genetic defect which can be lumped under the developmental disorder.

Just something for reference:
Neospora caninum Abortion in Cattle. Neospora caninum is a protozoan parasite that is emerging as an important infectious cause of weak calves and abortion in cattle. ... An important feature of this parasite is that once it infects an adult cow or bull, a calf or a fetus, it is maintained as a life-long infection.

I did get the Triangle 10 HB which covers the Hardjo-Bovis. I did some quick research earlier and was reading about neosporosis. It seems like a possible culprit for sure. Anybody have any experience with it? Seems there's not a lot of options for dealing with it.

 

[Bright Raven]

Triangle 10 covers the 5 fetal protection viruses. Also the 5 species of the Leptospira bacteria but it does not cover the Hardjo-Bovis serovar.

Other causes could be developmental defect, neospora or vibriosis. Might also have been a genetic defect which can be lumped under the developmental disorder.

Just something for reference:
Neospora caninum Abortion in Cattle. Neospora caninum is a protozoan parasite that is emerging as an important infectious cause of weak calves and abortion in cattle. ... An important feature of this parasite is that once it infects an adult cow or bull, a calf or a fetus, it is maintained as a life-long infection.

I did get the Triangle 10 HB which covers the Hardjo-Bovis. I did some quick research earlier and was reading about neosporosis. It seems like a possible culprit for sure. Anybody have any experience with it? Seems there's not a lot of options for dealing with it.

Lucky has seen a lot of it in his practice. Send him.a PM.

 

[CSM]

Zoetis claims that Triangle 10 will not come close to Bovi-shield Gold and Cattlemaster vaccines with FP. I don't have copies of the research and he was trying to get us to buy from Zoetis.

 

[kenny thomas]

Any of the above but since you feed in a hayring it could be as simple as one of the others butting her while she was eating.

 

[Cucumber35]

Any of the above but since you feed in a hayring it could be as simple as one of the others butting her while she was eating.

I was trying to think of something as simple as that. I did booster weaned calves yesterday and two of them got out on me. Had to round them up with the four wheeler and had some cows and heifers mixed in for a few minutes until we got everything sorted back out but it wasn't a rodeo of any sorts. No more than usual at least :lol: . I wouldn't think that would be enough stress but I guess anything is possible. She's certainly not one of my favorite heifers but now I'm scared of having a problem that will cause more.

 

[kenny thomas]

I sure don't disagree with any of the above but sometimes we overlook the obvious and look for the worst.

 

[Supa Dexta]

Only one I had abort last yr, didnt rebreed this year. She's already thru the freezer.

 

[Lucky_P]

Could be a random thing, or could be the beginning of a storm. No way to know without submitting fetus/placenta/maternal serum for testing - and even then, definitive diagnosis may not be possible... especially if placenta is not available.
Most abortions I've seen in my 30+ years of diagnostics were single events... have rarely been involved in 'abortion storms'... but the do occur.
Most common infectious cause of abortion that we've seen here in western KY over the past 5-10 years (at least on the cases submitted to the lab, that we were able to come up with a diagnosis on...) has been Neospora - usually second to early-third trimester abortions.

On the suggestion of another cow butting a pregnant one and causing abortion... I see folks throw that out there from time to time... I do not think that it happens... or if it does, it's exceedingly rare. Hide, abdominal wall musculature, uterine wall, uterine fluid... those little buggers are pretty well protected in there... I just have serious doubts about another animal causing enough trauma to induce abortion, no matter how many folks have made the claim. That's just my 2 cents.

 

[dcrogers11]

Can a cow be tested for Neospora as I've had one early miscarriage and one still born calf this year.

 

[Lucky_P]

Yes. There is a serologic test for antibodies against Neospora.
A positive result indicates that the cow is infected. There is no effective treatment, and infected cows can -and do- pass the infection to their offspring.
I've had two cows abort due to Neospora, several years ago. Sold both the next time the herd rotated back by the barnlot. No sense keeping that sort of thing around.