Quick death

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I had a calf, approximately 8 weeks old, that died very strangely. About two weeks ago it was having problems standing and would walk about 50ft and go down. The next day it was fine and has been until today, when I noticed it doing it again. This time it was having a harder time getting up. I went to the house for about 45 minutes and when I came back it was dead and swelled up like it had been in the sun for a week. It died in the shade. Does anyone know what might have caused the death of this calf? The calf seemed fine a few hours earlier that day before it died.
 
Seems like there has been a lot of strange happenings with the cattle this past winter and now spring. Does that give anyone any thoughts?
 
We had 3 cows die of grass tetany last week from eating oat hay presumably... I'd almost bet that mineral deficenies are a big number of the strange deaths we've had on here this winter. Even with the free-choice minerals out for the cows they still had the magnesium deficency. Seems like this must be a year for tetany because a lot of local guys have lost cow to it.
 
Most cowmen feed minerals free choice, but the minerals may that they are feediing may be deficent in some mineral that is needed in their particuliar area. Most areas where cows are on winter wheat, oats, and rye grass there is a magnesium deficency. The cows should have a high mag. mineral several days before turnout.
 
Did you check for snake bite? One of ours got hit in the lower jaw area, swell up like she had softball in her mouth. Did survive. But was an older heifer.
 
I have a neighbor who had the same thing happen lately to a couple of calves. The first one was blamed on one thing and the next something else. I had my doubts on both cases. I t sure seem's strange.The manner in which they died didn't make sense. Healthy one minute and dead the next.
 
Chances are very good that your calf had an abomasal ulcer two weeks ago and now died from abomasal perforation and peritonitis. Reasons for the ulceration initially include hairballs, which can be caused by lice.

Talk to your vet. Frankly, without a post mortem exam, everyone is shooting in the dark.

V
 
We found an 11 day old, perfectly healthy calf dead last week, blown up like a balloon. Our vet thinks its blackleg. I looked on the internet and it says it sometimes shows no symptoms, they just die. Does anyone else think that could be it ???
 
We found an 11 day old, perfectly healthy calf dead last week, blown up like a balloon. Our vet thinks its blackleg. I looked on the internet and it says it sometimes shows no symptoms, they just die. Does anyone else think that could be it ??? Tonight we found one thats 9 days old and bloated, I'm wondering if this is related, and what to do about it.
 
For both of the last two posters. f all the vet would say is it could be blackleg, you need to find another Vet
 
la4angus":2p257o09 said:
For both of the last two posters. f all the vet would say is it could be blackleg, you need to find another Vet

Agree if you go feel the back legs and it feels like a bag of fritos then it could be blackleg.
 
If you suspect it's blackleg, get a conformation - FAST!!!!!

One of the members of our community pasture did not vaccinate his calves for blackleg at branding time some years back.
HUGE MISTAKE.

Outbreak was noticed when calves started dropping like flies...in the hottest part of summer. Not just his calves, but due to the extremely conatagious nature of the disease, also calves that had been vaccinated a month before turn-out. Apparenty, the calves in herds vaccinated closer to turn-out time had more protection from the anti-bodies they had developed, as they had a lower mortality rate.

There aren't enough words to describe the Hell that the members went through to comb out every head of stock from a bush mountain pasture (muskeg, river breaks, logging slash choked with regrowth, coulees and sheer cliffs thrown in occasionally for good measure) 30 miles long and 8 wide, in the dog days of summer. 2000+ head. Every single surviving animal was revaccinated. Within four days of the realisation of a blackleg outbreak. Difficult is the understatement of the year if you are familiar with how cattle "bush-up" in intense heat.

That particular gentleman was responsible for not only the death of 2/3 of his own calf crop, but the other members herds experienced an average loss of 10 per cent. It was the worst fall money wise for these people (pre-BSE in Canada, that is). All for the want of saving a few bucks at branding time.

I am not trying to cause a nervous breakdown, but for your peace of mind, if a vet suspects blackleg, get it confirmed or denied by a vet. Yesterday!

I'll be keeping my fingers crossed for you. Take care.
ps. Vicki sounds right on the money about the abomasal ulcer. Lost a cracking good calf today to one. Three weeks old. Hate it when that happens, but c'est la vie.
 
The back legs felt normal on the calf. And as far as the snake bite potential, I do have a lot of rattle snakes and copperheads around my farm but I didn't notice any swelling or marks on the calf. I had this calf and another calf, about 10 weeks old, togethor with their moms and a few other cows. These two calves stayed togethor constantly and the other calf is perfectly fine with no signs of problems. One other thing was that it's anus seemed to be protruding out an inch or two as if it where under some type of strain. I can't help but think that my calf had some type of internal problem. But I am not a vet nor have I had a long history in cattle. Thanks for all the post.
 
SLB":qegwn3x1 said:
The back legs felt normal on the calf. And as far as the snake bite potential, I do have a lot of rattle snakes and copperheads around my farm but I didn't notice any swelling or marks on the calf. I had this calf and another calf, about 10 weeks old, togethor with their moms and a few other cows. These two calves stayed togethor constantly and the other calf is perfectly fine with no signs of problems. One other thing was that it's anus seemed to be protruding out an inch or two as if it where under some type of strain. I can't help but think that my calf had some type of internal problem. But I am not a vet nor have I had a long history in cattle. Thanks for all the post.

Sounds like it could be anal prolapse according to my vet it just happens sometimes. I know thats not a good awnser, but we are trying to save a 2000 dollar cow with prolapse right now.
 
Is blackleg contagious? I always thought it was something in the soil, that they had to ingest somehow. If that is true, I don't see how a person not vaccinating his cattle could be responsible for another herds deaths.
 
Huck":mldds3l2 said:
Is blackleg contagious? I always thought it was something in the soil, that they had to ingest somehow. If that is true, I don't see how a person not vaccinating his cattle could be responsible for another herds deaths.
Yes Blackleg is contagious. It is the same as Anthrax.
 
The first sign observed is usually lameness, loss of appetite, rapid breathing and the animal is usually depressed and has a high fever. Characteristic swellings develop in the hip, shoulder, chest, back, neck or elsewhere. First the swelling is small, hot and painful. As the disease progresses, the swelling enlarges and becomes spongy and gaseous. If you press the swelling, gas can be felt under the skin. The animal usually dies in 12 to 48 hours. In most cases the animal is found dead without being previously observed sick. The speed with which blackleg kills usually makes individual treatment useless
 
Neosporosis is a parasitic disease of many species of domestic animals caused by the protozoan Neospora caninum. In cows, the parasite can be transmitted to the fetus via the placenta and cause a variety of clinical effects including abortion. Calves born from Neospora-infected cows may exhibit neurological symptoms and die within one week after birth or may be infected with the parasite and show no clinical signs of disease. There is an urgent need control transmission of the Neospora to offspring by identifying cows infected with the parasite and removing these animals from the breeding population. The present study describes the use of a recombinant antigen-based serological assay to identify cows infected with Neospora. The level of antibodies specific for Neospora remained high in cows for at least one year after a primary neosporosis infection. Also, calves born from parasite-infected cows had high levels of Neospora-specific antibodies in their serum which remained high during the course of the study. Serum from cows which aborted a fetus due to nesoporosis had much higher levels of Neospora-specific antibodies than cows which aborted a fetus due to other causes. These results indicate that the recombinant antigen-based immunoassay is suitable for identifying Neospora-infected cows and may be useful for controlling neosporosis in the field.

Have the cow checked for neospora I forgot we had a problem with this in my area a few years back. Its transmitted by cannies. You coud have a polluted water or feed source.
 

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