heifer not eating

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woody

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Hi all I'm new here. I have a small herd of beef. I live in north eastern pa. I saw this site and it looked like a good one. I have a year old heifer off her feed and hay. She acts like her mouth may be hurting. I watched her try to eat some grain today and she just mouthed it a little bit and most of it fell back out.same with hay she just is not agressive on eating. I did have a cow doing almost the same thing this winter and after a few days she just started eating again. Today is the first I noticed the heifer. May go the same as the cow , just wondering If some one else may have ever had this problem. I feed round bales and am wondering if maybe they are picking up something in them. Thanks
 
Edit: After re-thinking the problem, the first thing I would do is get her in the chute and check her teeth and for blisters or sores in her mouth. Depending on what I found, I would go looking for the source. The usual culprits in hay are beards (wheat heads, barley heads, etc.) foxtail, cheat grass, needle grass, and there is another kind that I can't remember the name of. I doubt that your hay is the problem, because if there was something in there you would probably have more than one heifer/cow off feed. But, better to be thorough. Is she showing any signs of being tender-footed or lame along with being off feed? Just my thoughts.
 

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