HOT HOT HOT Bull

Help Support CattleToday:

TR

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 26, 2003
Messages
353
Reaction score
1
Location
S. Central, TX
Hi All,

I know....its been a while, but you know how it goes :oops: .....In the meanwhile, I have an 8 mo bull calf who is so hot he's panting. Granted, its been over 100 degrees for the past oh, 38 days or so, and he's on free feed creep, but he's the only one who's eating the stuff and is open mouth panting. I think it has to do with the 14% protein in the feed, but I'm hesitant to take him down to anything lower as he's a big calf and is in need of some weight. He has plenty of shade and water that's in the shade.....I wouldn't call it cool as its now 103 degrees out there, but its cooler than if it were standing in a trough in the sun. What does one do when they're panting like that? Is it something to worry about or just keep a watchful eye on? Any feed suggestions to help him grow that may not be as hot for him? Keep in mind there is no grass....hasn't been for a month or so. Everyone here is on winter rations right now which = horse quality coastal hay and range meal (13% protein).....14% creep for the calves although the only two eating the creep are this bull calf and a heifer who's about 6 weeks older than he is.

'Preciate all your input!

TR
 
Doesn't sound like he is on pasture, or has access to creeks/ponds, etc.

What breed is he?? That might give an indication as how well he handles heat.

It gets hot here too, but I have never seen cattle actively pant. Breathing may increase, but not panting. My cattle also have acces to timber shade, ponds, creeks, etc. Could be the creep ration he is on is producing too much heat, and he would be better served to not be fed that ration. I could easily be wrong, as nutrition is not my specialty.
 
TR, is he "fat"?? How much is he eating everyday? Unless you're really pushing him for some reason, I'd take the creep away, let him have access to the range meal and free choice hay, show him where the stock tank is and tell him to "wade out". :) Again, what breed of calf is this?
 
Oh heck....sorry, he's a polled Hereford.

So, here in Central Texas, the ponds/creeks/tanks/puddles/etc dried up weeks ago. There is no water. Period. Except for what I put in the water troughs for them to drink. We have had no rain since May 13th. Not one drop....excuse me, I felt 2 drops when the outer bands of Dolly graced us....one on my wrist, and when I looked up, the other drop hit my forehead. That was it. The only good thing is that its a dry heat, but at 103+, what's the difference, and that there is lots of shade for him. That being said, he IS on pasture, only there's no grass in the pasture. It dried up over a month ago. Seriously, We're on the "west side of 35" where the dirt is 4 to 6 inches deep before you hit the bedrock. While most years there is grass of a sort for them, we always suppliment protein as the grass isn't very nutritious.....

I've had one other polled Hereford pant like this but that was 3 years ago and it just wasn't as hot for as long then as it is for this guy, so I'm wondering if there isn't anything I should do for him until we get a break in the heat....you know...maybe around OCTOBER..... :cry2:
 
The only time I've seen mine pant is when I'm working cows and had to chase them all over the pasture before they decided to cooperate :p... or when they have pneumonia.

Take his temp tomorrow morning (you're more likely to get an accurate reading in the morning vs afternoon/evening) and see how he's doing.

Might just be that it's hot out and he's a Hereford in TX, but his temp will tell you if he's running a fever or just being a wuss. :p
 
TexasBred":20yvvfrz said:
TR, is he "fat"?? How much is he eating everyday? Unless you're really pushing him for some reason, I'd take the creep away, let him have access to the range meal and free choice hay, show him where the stock tank is and tell him to "wade out". :) Again, what breed of calf is this?

Unfortunately, he's not fat and truly looks lean to me...he seems to be putting most of his growth energy into his frame (he's a big framed Herf) hence the being on creep. I dont think he's eating but maybe 10 lbs or less a day. Its free choice for him and the heifer, and the heifer is a pig....she eats more than he does, then swings her head in the trough and shoves half the feed out. So I'm going through about 20 lbs a day? He may not even be eating that much.....and certainly not in one sitting.

TexasBred, sure wish there was water in the tank.....dried up weeks ago. Got the neighbor's cows on our water trough now too.......
 
TR..wow you guys ARE dry aren't you. I think I'd still take the creep away but keep the range meal out and as MM said you might want to check his temp. but if he's doing it regularly and otherwise appears healhy (eyes, ears, alertness) I doubt he has a fever....just like the rest of us the heat is hurting...
 
milkmaid":1x1ew758 said:
The only time I've seen mine pant is when I'm working cows and had to chase them all over the pasture before they decided to cooperate :p... or when they have pneumonia.

Take his temp tomorrow morning (you're more likely to get an accurate reading in the morning vs afternoon/evening) and see how he's doing.

Might just be that it's hot out and he's a Hereford in TX, but his temp will tell you if he's running a fever or just being a wuss. :p

This sounds like a good plan to me . If no temp then he is just hot . Does he stop panting at night when it cools off ? We used to have some trouble at the fair with cattle panting in hot weather . I would have my daughter stay there during the day and keep them wet and we had fans on them, but it seldom goes over 100 here .

Larry
 
Yeh, I tend to think its too much protein for him in this heat, AND that he's a bit of a wuss, but will temp him tomorrow morning just to be sure......we all know the only sure fire way to know that he's not coming down with something or maybe trying to fight a bug off is to temp him. He's fine in the late evenings and the mornings, and he's alert when he's panting; licks himself, noses the leaves on the ground (pretending to graze since there's no grass) and he certainly doesn't look or act like a sick calf.

He does need some kind of protein suppliment for his growth though. The range meal that we're feeding is about 13.5% protein which is only half a percent lower than the creep, but maybe with the salt limiter, he won't eat as much so the protein level may not be as much of a problem as it is with the creep. I'm just worried that I'm not going to meet his nutritional requirements without the extra protein for him.
 
Some of my herefords were standing in the shade and panting the other day when the wind wasn't blowing also.  Just to danged hot.  As has been suggested,  good hay, range meal/salt/mineral, plenty of water and shade.  Probably nothing October won't fix.
 
If he's not fat, but looks lean to you, maybe he needs worming also. But why not hose him down? But I have a question for Milk Maid. Was it hot when you were chasing your cattle around the pasture, or did you just have to chase them for a good while to make them pant? Maybe different circumstances, but I've always found working them slow works better. I think once you have to "chase " them you just lost 'em and you'll be chasing them a lot longer. Don't know what you had to do , but, thats just my opinion, which was not asked for.
 
Roadapple -- combination of both, and I should have clarified earlier (but didn't since it seemed to add unneccessary information) that the cows weren't mine. My herd works nice and slow, at a walk, and I move them all on foot. The ones that had to be chased were some of boss's wild heifers that only see a human once a week or so during the summer, and we needed to bring in a couple calvy heifers.
 
TR,

Is it possible to put up a low volume sprinkler or something? They are pretty cheap and easy to set up. If you can get it up around 10' or so it can keep a lot of animals cool. Maybe clamp it to a 2x4 and nail that to a post or something. You just need the valve turned on a little bit to provide enough pressure to put out a nice mist. That is what I do when it gets really hot and humid and they start panting.

You might want to be a little carefull about hosing them off, my uncle was hualing a pot load in really hot weather and made a stop an thought it would be a good idea to cool them down by spraying them with water. Several of them went into shock and died. Probably not very common, but you may want to keep it in the back of your mind.

Personally I don't like changing feed rations any more than I have to.

Good Luck
 
Well......thought I'd better temp the little guy this morning as MM suggested just to be sure and sure-as-shootin, at 10:00am, his temp was 103.4. Ok, quick call to the Vet (high dollar bull calf-don't want ANY chances taken) and a ride to the Dr, his temp was at 105.6 an hour and a half later......he's a sick puppy........We hit him with Draxxin and Banamine and will re-evaluate him tonight and again in the morning and for the next few days.

Gotta say here, other than the panting, this calf was not acting sick. He was not droopy, he was eating and drinking and doing it well, and there was no nasal discharge, poop looked good, eyes not sunken in, still interested in his surroundings and all the stuff you'd see a normal calf doing; except for the open mouth breathing in the heat of the day. His breathing was normal last evening and earlier this morning, but at 10:00am when I saw him, he was starting to breath heavy. It was only around 91 at that time. Certainly not hot enough for heavy breathing. So, out came the thermometer and there you have it....103.4 and an hour and a half later, 105.6.
 
Good work TR ! It amazes me the number of people that will not temp a calf . I think you just saved yourself a bull calf.

Larry
 
To get a baseline you need to temp him in the early morning or late night when it's cool, he may not actually be sick, just very intolerant of heat and humidity. I'll see if I can find the thread on heat stress and what temps and humidity levels are problems.
 
dun":1pwohx28 said:
The original link doesn;t work anymore but here's a link that has a table at the bottom that will give you heat danger areas
http://www.hubbardfeeds.com/beef/Guides ... Stress.pdf

Boy Dun, there's all sorts of good information from that link. Thanks! So, based on the information there, he could have been in a stage 4 heat stress (maybe bordering on stage 5) situation, or he's sick. So, I tend to practice your MO of "Benign Neglect" for the most part but wouldn't be me if I didn't second guess myself......so what call would you have made?
 
I would have made the same choice given the rectal temperature readings. You did say you took him to the vet -- didn't your vet listen to his lungs? I had a calf recently that did a lot of panting, but acted okay for the most part otherwise. She'd been treated for pneumonia before, ate, drank, gained weight, but I had my vet out to check her and she still had fluid in her lungs. Two shots of Draxxin and a dose of Nasal-gen, and she's been looking good since then.

Re-evaluate the calf tomorrow morning... If he really was sick, you should notice a difference in the next couple days. That's the real test of whether you made the right choice.
 
milkmaid":1nkxsg26 said:
You did say you took him to the vet -- didn't your vet listen to his lungs?

Oh heck, yes, he sure did, and at that point I got the lifted eyebrow and the look that said, "what in the heck took YOU (of all people) so long to bring him in?" He took his temp then showed me the thermometer which read the 105.6, then listened to his lungs, then said that he's a sick, sick calf.....to the point of any later, he could be dead kind of sick calf. I didn't ask any questions about what he heard in his lungs after that, but I'll ask more detailed questions of him when I talk to him tomorrow morning. So, in retrospect, I think I made the right call or should say that I'm comfortable about the decision to take him up to the vet. He's staying up there for a couple of days so that if he needs re-treatment, it can be done with minimal stress.....their pens are much better set up than ours are, and it will be less stressful for the little guy to go through theirs for his temp taking 2Xday as well as any additional treatment he may need.
 

Latest posts

Top