Mysterious calf death?

[gertman]

Hey yall a friend lost a calf Wednesday that was fine on Tuesday. The right side of his face was swollen so bad his eye was shut and his nose was runny. I guessed snake bite or gunshot, he thinks a respiratory disease. The calf was around 6 mos. old and weighed 550-600lbs. Any thoughts?

 

[nap]

Sounds like snake bite to me. One of my cattle dogs was bit by a copperhead last fall while I watched. The side of her face swelled up like a grapefruit. The vet said she would be all right unlessthe tissue in the neck swelled to the point that it would cut of her trachea or wind pipe. The dog survived but scared me to death. I think it is a good bet that your calf died of suffixation.

 

[Boldcat]

I lost a very nice heifer 2 days ago that was born in Feb.I tubed it for 2 days trying to get it up and going along with trivetrin shots.
I opened it up to see if it had a blockage or if I the bull had broke through her vagina since some of the heifers were coming into heat.
Anyway the stomach was full but at one point the intestines were bloody,quite inflamed, the intestine was twisted off like a sausage and beyond that point the intestines were full of puss.
Has anyone else had that happen ? That was a first for me .

 

[R-E]

sounds like she might have gotten stepped on, and it caused her intestines to twist and shift around. Was there any internal bleeding you could see?

 

[Boldcat]

Come to think of it there was some brusing on the flank area , maybe she was stepped on. I guess we'll never know for sure.

 

[Bez+]

I always figured that unless the cause was clear to me - or I decided to actually pay a veterinarian to tell me how the animal died, that the animal simply had dead cow / dead calf disease.

Bez+