Random Question- Vet Issues

[WilsonsFarm]

I wasn't sure which thread to post this in. I'm sorry if it's in the wrong place. I've posted on here before and gotten some great advice and encouragement.

My husband and I had a bull calf that was starting to look sickly. My husband got him up in the pen and gave him antibiotics and he got better. He fed him sweet feed and hay every day.
We also have a heifer that is small for her age. Her mom died when she was just born and we had to bottle feed her. We put her back in the pasture but she didn't do well. She seemed to lose weight and didn't get along very well with the other cows. We put her in a different pen.
The plan was to have our bull calf cut so we could put them both together in a separate pasture from the other cows. Then, when hay time comes around and we need money for fuel, we could take the bull to sale. By then, we were hoping the heifer would be okay to go into the pasture with the others.
When my husband called the vet, he said that he didn't want to cut the bull. He said he banded them at that age all the time (the bull was several hunder pound by then), which was news to me. I thought it was dangerous to band that old but we listened to the advice of our vet. He stayed maybe five minutes, banded the bull, and left.
A few days ago, the bull stopped eating. Everything looked fine from our vantage point but we kept checking on him. Yesterday, we found the bull dead. When my husband loaded him on his tractor, it was easy to see why he died. After being banded (I'm guessing too high), he got a hole and infection.
My husband and I are very disheartened and angry. Was the vet right to band at an older age- probably a little over a year old? What can we say to the vet? We are planning on using someone different from now on. This vet had taken care of my husband's grandfather's cattle before he died. We have a small herd and every single one counts- those of you with small herds understand... especially now when we're preparing for hay season. Not only that, but my husband had done so much to try to help the bull.
Any advice about how to handle this is greatly appreciated.

 

[Anonymous]

Should have been cut because of his age. No question.
Bands are ok for birth to about 3 months. Even the bigger bands after that size have higher risk of complication.
Cutting has a known set of risk no matter what size.

 

[dun]

I would mention it to the vte and see what he thinks, but we have a different kind of relationship with our vet then most poeple have.

 

[Galloways1]

I have been around hundreds of bulls banded after 1 yr of age. A tetnus and an antibiotic were given. Never had any issues. If this calf had been sick, previously, maybe he just relapsed, or the added stress complicated an ongoing illness.

Sorry about your loss.

 

[larryshoat]

1. You can successfully band big bulls, but you must have a band that is big enough and that you can get tight enough. I like the callicrate bander because it has an indicator that tells you when the band is tight enough.

2. If your vet don't know better than that by now there is nothing that you're going to say that will help. Learn your lesson and go on.

3.As far as having a small herd and having every one count, I've got quite a few and every one counts.

Larry

 

[Crazy Farmgirl]

The deacon farm I worked at had left about 500 calves intact until they were well over a year old. In the matter of 2 days we banded all of them and cut horns and cauterized also. Out of all those only 5 had issues with infection and those were also ones that had been "sickly" all along. We did tetnus but not antibiotic's. Few months later had 20 others cut by the vet and ended up with 8 getting infected and lost 2. Each procedure has risks.

While it is hard to lose one I don't think that the vet chosing to band was the wrong choice. The fact that the infection went undetected was probably the unfortunate demise of this animal.

 

[cowpunk'd]

When he stopped eating, did you call the vet? When a calf is sick enough to refuse dinner, it is pretty sick. Also, was he showing discomfort from the infection, hunched over, tail wringing, hind feet stamping? Just maybe, he died of something else.