Katie
Well-known member
I purchased four heifers from a reputable breeder at weaning they were all 5-7 months when I purchased them. At about 22 or 23 months of age one started looking off losing weight just looked rough I thought possible parasites so I used ivermectin pour on no change so about 2 months later at 24 months after she calved I took her to the vet and he did a fecal and said she did have a heavy load of parasites so he wormed with ivermectin plus injectable. I also started supplementing with feed 12 % horse and cattle sweet feed I worked her up to about 16 lbs per day divided into 2 feedings. She would not eat it all when I tried to increase more. At about 26 months it was time for her annual vaccinations so I went ahead and wormed her again with injectable ivermectin plus. She has gained some mabe 50 to 75 lbs but she will get diarrhea and go off of feed for a few days, but this usually coincided with a feed change even though it was a small amount. She will get over diarrhea in a couple of days and go back on feed but I have to start all over gradually working her back up to the original amount of feed and it looks like she draws very quickly during that time. She also stopped producing milk for her calf and he is 4 months of age despite my supplementing her. She also has not been cycling until just this week which coincides with her drying up. Even with the weight gain she looks like walking death body score of about 2. I talk to the vet again today and I am going to bring her in tomorrow for johne's testing. I am hoping she is not positive what are ya'lls thoughts. I had planned on culling her anyway since she wasn't keeping condition but I hadn't thought of Johnes I guess if she comes up positive we will just shoot her. The other three are in great shape body scores of 7 while raising calves.