Pine Needle Abortion

[Susie David]

Yesterday I found that one of the heifers had just slipped her calf, two of the cows were discharging and one big Herf heifer had bagged up and looked like she was a day or two from calving with a floppy vagina and discharge. The animals are in the second and late first trimesters so the bagging Herf puzzles me, she is in her second trimester . The rest of the cows and heifers are fine.

I made a quick tour of the pastures and only found the fetus but no signs of anything that could have poisoned the cows.
The only thing that I can think of is that we had real high winds about four nights back and some of the pine boughs could have blown down and the gals had a feed on them as I didn't find any signs of limbs down and we have the trees trimmed up ten feet.

This morning the Herf looked like her udder is going down, still discharging but more clear and the others have stopped the discharge, don't know about the slipped heifer, no discharge, will check her for a retained placenta tomorrow.

Haven't seen pine needle abortion since I left Arizona but have herd that it is common up here when things dry out.

Just thought I'd post and share another aspect of the business that can sneek in and bite a fella on the south end when he least expects it.
Dave Mc

 

[msscamp]

Dave, cows usually won't eat pine needles unless there is nothing else for them to eat. We had a lot of pine trees on the ranch, but the only time we had problems with abortions due to pine needles was when a snowstorm/blizzard drove the cows up onto the ridge, we were not able to get to them to get them off it for a couple of days, and there was nothing else for them to eat.

 

[Susie David]

Some cows seem to like the taste even though we feed twice a day.
Found the second fetus, a well shaped bull calf. Hefiers appear to have flushed and are acting normal.
Dave Mc

 

[msscamp]

Very bad break.