Is there any relatively easy treatment for acorn toxicity?

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greybeard

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My neighbor has an Angus bull down with what we presume is acorn poisoning. Pin oak acorns.
Down in open pasture since about 2pm yesterday, can't get up and the ground is soggy soggy soggy.
I've seen preventative measures but I never had any eat very many of them myself as I got rid of most of the trees.
preventative

Any insight would be appreciative.
My feeling is he also needs water since he has been without nearly 24 hrs now and has had the squirts pretty bad probably before that.

?
 
There's no easy treatment, and probably not a hard one, either. Large quantities of IV fluids might help flush the toxins out, but if he's already down there's probably nothing that can be done to help. Kidney damage is irreversible.
 
That is as I suspected Buck and what I have found in researching it. He lost one cow to the same problem area about 3 weeks ago and didn't bother closing the gate to that area.
Grass is marginal right now and he hasn't started feeding hay either.
This one, if it doesn't recover, is going to get pretty heavy into his wallet. Bull is just 3 yr old.
 
My neighbor has an Angus bull down with what we presume is acorn poisoning. Pin oak acorns.
Down in open pasture since about 2pm yesterday, can't get up and the ground is soggy soggy soggy.
I've seen preventative measures but I never had any eat very many of them myself as I got rid of most of the trees.
preventative

Any insight would be appreciative.
My feeling is he also needs water since he has been without nearly 24 hrs now and has had the squirts pretty bad probably before that.

?
Just for clarification , your neighbor has a bull down for some professionally undiagnosed reason. You and your neighbor have gotten
your heads together and have presumed a cause for the condition. I am compelled to inquire if said neighbor has the means and
motivation to contact someone locally who would be able to diagnose and perhaps resolve the issue or was the matter delegated to
you? Are we to 'presume' you to be the dietary authority of your neighbors cow herd with first hand knowledge of what they have
been consuming? I have little doubt you will receive some good responses based on what you have posted, however; it will be no
substitute for a hands on observation by someone with a professional knowledge of the situation. Before assigning blame on the
aforementioned acorn perhaps a professional diagnosis should be made lest he find out the problem is another local nut.
 
My neighbor has an Angus bull down with what we presume is acorn poisoning. Pin oak acorns.
Down in open pasture since about 2pm yesterday, can't get up and the ground is soggy soggy soggy.
I've seen preventative measures but I never had any eat very many of them myself as I got rid of most of the trees.
preventative

Any insight would be appreciative.
My feeling is he also needs water since he has been without nearly 24 hrs now and has had the squirts pretty bad probably before that.

?
You got acorn's?? Haven't seen a handful this year.
 
I do not have acorns to any real extent. My neighbor does.
Just for clarification , your neighbor has a bull down for some professionally undiagnosed reason. You and your neighbor have gotten
your heads together and have presumed a cause for the condition.
I am going by what he told me, tho I have seen the bull down (yesterday afternoon and again last night) and I saw both it and the cow that previously died eating acorns like they were candy. He has had cattle here in East Texas for decades and worked on a ranch in central Tx before that so he is not a novice. The rest of his cattle don't seem to be interested in eating them.
I agree that correlation does not always equal causation but when the symptoms and recent dietary intake fit that's what most people go by.
Both the deceased cow and this bull had/has the squirts, dark, smelly and obvious blood present in the feces. He asked me if I could find any information out on it and I have now done so.
If he wants to call the vet out, he will. Not my call.

I will pass your words on to him Lee and I'm sure he will give them all the consideration warranted.
 
What is the toxin in acorns? From what Buck said it sounds like it is a nephrotoxin.

Ken
Tannins. They're GI irritants, nephrotoxic and hepatotoxic in high doses. Some animals appear to be more sensitive than others.

I once had a client who complained that her goat would be "off" intermittently. I could never find anything wrong with him, but she insisted that something wasn't right. One day I showed up to examine him while he was out in the pasture. The owner grabbed a bucket and shook it to get his attention which made him come running. When he got there, she poured out a bunch of acorns. "Oh, he just loves these". Mystery solved.
 
Wouldn't be a buckeye tree in there anywhere would there? Almost lost one to buckeyes recently I didn't know i had. Local vet gave me zuprevo and a steroid shot(don't remember the name) to give it and said give it activated charcoal....I did all that and the next day the calf was fine.....the vet also said too many acorns can do the same thing......same treatment.
 
Deer have proline-rich tannin-binding salivary proteins, which allow them to eat acorns and other high-tannin foodstuffs with no issue. Goats also have tannin-binding salivary proteins, but they are different from the proline-rich ones found in deer saliva. Cattle, sheep, horses lack any of these tannin-binding salivary proteins, so are much more affected by the tannins/gallotannins present in acorns.

I've seen acorn-poisoned cattle down, treated with IV & oral fluids, laxatives, charcoal, get up and stagger over to go right back to eating acorns.
 
Maybe others have had different experiences, but I've never seen cows have trouble with acorns on decent pasture.
I actually have seen one cow on good pasture stand under an oak tree waiting for them to fall. She lost some weight but recovered as soon as the acorns were gone.
 
Wouldn't be a buckeye tree in there anywhere would there? Almost lost one to buckeyes recently I didn't know i had. Local vet gave me zuprevo and a steroid shot(don't remember the name) to give it and said give it activated charcoal....I did all that and the next day the calf was fine.....the vet also said too many acorns can do the same thing......same treatment.
There is a Texas buckeye but I've never seen one here.
 

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