Rough Morning

[TCRanch]

Went out to check the cows this morning and found a cow bloated, her rectum had prolapsed, a lot of blood coming from her mouth, even her eyes looked bloody. Worse yet, she was still alive (barely), and the cows were going nuts over the smell of blood, one was even bellowing and head butting her. Horrific! Plus, she was due in a couple weeks. Never gets easy, having to put down a good cow.

I've just never seen so much blood from a bloat. Unless there was something else wrong? Yesterday, I noticed she was walking funny and watched her for a while, trying to determine if she was actually limping, and which foot/leg, or if she just had too much mud &/or debris between her toes (we've had a ton of rain). But she seemed fine otherwise and ate cubes with the others. Not going to have her posted, so clearly will never know, but has anyone else had a similar experience?

 

[SBMF 2015]

Went out to check the cows this morning and found a cow bloated, her rectum had prolapsed, a lot of blood coming from her mouth, even her eyes looked bloody. Worse yet, she was still alive (barely), and the cows were going nuts over the smell of blood, one was even bellowing and head butting her. Horrific! Plus, she was due in a couple weeks. Never gets easy, having to put down a good cow.

I've just never seen so much blood from a bloat. Unless there was something else wrong? Yesterday, I noticed she was walking funny and watched her for a while, trying to determine if she was actually limping, and which foot/leg, or if she just had too much mud &/or debris between her toes (we've had a ton of rain). But she seemed fine otherwise and ate cubes with the others. Not going to have her posted, so clearly will never know, but has anyone else had a similar experience?

Well that Sucks! The symptoms don't jive, but to go from walking and eating to dead that fast. I would lean towards hardware?
You've had lots of rain? What about lightning?
Sorry I'm not much help.

 

[Silver]

Sorry about your loss. Had she been on her back and smashing her head around?

 

[TCRanch]

Well that Sucks! The symptoms don't jive, but to go from walking and eating to dead that fast. I would lean towards hardware?
You've had lots of rain? What about lightning?
Sorry I'm not much help.

She did have a magnet. But hardware isn't necessarily caused by metal. That said, no other symptoms, unless it hit her fast & furious. And fortunately, no rain or lightning last night.

The only other thing that keeps nagging at me: she was 6 years old and her dam died of lymphoma 4 years ago. Possible connection? I did have a cow, years ago, that I thought was limping on her hind leg but I couldn't find any foot rot, abscess, stifle. Vet came out, palped her, and discovered she was full of tumors. The cause of the limp was swollen lymph nodes, which I could see when he pointed it out. Things that make you go Hmmmmm?

 

[TCRanch]

Sorry about your loss. Had she been on her back and smashing her head around?

Looked like it, based on the smear of feces and surrounding dirt. She was beyond that point when I found her. Bit her tongue that hard while thrashing?

 

[Silver]

Looked like it, based on the smear of feces and surrounding dirt. She was beyond that point when I found her. Bit her tongue that hard while thrashing?

That would be my guess. They can really beat themselves up when that happens.

 

[TCRanch]

That would be my guess. They can really beat themselves up when that happens.

Gotcha, thanks.

 

[TCRanch]

And because today couldn't suck any more, found an almost 2 day old dead calf. Born Thursday night during a freak rain/sleet/snow storm but deep in the woods with good protection. Had a hard time tagging/working him yesterday morning because he was nursing when I went out. Sweetest mama ever, I tagged him while he was latched on. Waited 'till he was done, and gave him the thigh squeeze while he was still standing to insert the First Defense bolus & Inforce 3. Darn near bucked me off. Seemed fine yesterday afternoon, curled up next to her. Couldn't find him this morning. Search ensued this afternoon and finally found him, with mama standing over him, bawling her heart out. Two now enormous teats, two looked fine. She's still in the woods, I'm not bringing her down to barn to check, but I can only assume she has mastitis and he didn't get enough colostrum & milk because everything else on him looks perfectly normal. Only other scenario I can think of, is that she stepped on him.

Wine, party of one tonight.

 

[TennesseeTuxedo]

I'm sorry about your run of bad luck TC.

 

[Rydero]

Damn that's a rough day. Sorry to hear.

 

[SBMF 2015]

She did have a magnet. But hardware isn't necessarily caused by metal. That said, no other symptoms, unless it hit her fast & furious. And fortunately, no rain or lightning last night.

The only other thing that keeps nagging at me: she was 6 years old and her dam died of lymphoma 4 years ago. Possible connection? I did have a cow, years ago, that I thought was limping on her hind leg but I couldn't find any foot rot, abscess, stifle. Vet came out, palped her, and discovered she was full of tumors. The cause of the limp was swollen lymph nodes, which I could see when he pointed it out. Things that make you go Hmmmmm?

That is definitely a possibility. I have had two or three 10 + cows die from lymphoma. Never had one go quite that fast. But it does make you wonder.

 

[kucala5]

And because today couldn't suck any more, found an almost 2 day old dead calf. Born Thursday night during a freak rain/sleet/snow storm but deep in the woods with good protection. Had a hard time tagging/working him yesterday morning because he was nursing when I went out. Sweetest mama ever, I tagged him while he was latched on. Waited 'till he was done, and gave him the thigh squeeze while he was still standing to insert the First Defense bolus & Inforce 3. Darn near bucked me off. Seemed fine yesterday afternoon, curled up next to her. Couldn't find him this morning. Search ensued this afternoon and finally found him, with mama standing over him, bawling her heart out. Two now enormous teats, two looked fine. She's still in the woods, I'm not bringing her down to barn to check, but I can only assume she has mastitis and he didn't get enough colostrum & milk because everything else on him looks perfectly normal. Only other scenario I can think of, is that she stepped on him.

Wine, party of one tonight.

Soooo sorry for your suck of a day.
Could he have succumbed that quickly to lack of colostrum and milk? We've had several calves that hit one or two the first few days then get to nursing all four within a week.

 

[TCRanch]

That is definitely a possibility. I have had two or three 10 + cows die from lymphoma. Never had one go quite that fast. But it does make you wonder.

Soooo sorry for your suck of a day.
Could he have succumbed that quickly to lack of colostrum and milk? We've had several calves that hit one or two the first few days then get to nursing all four within a week.

@SBMF 2015, @Silver has a good point. Although, Hubby mentioned the trail of blood all the way from the bale area to the road while he was removing her in the track loader. Just so much! It's all bad.

@kucala5, that's the thing! I noticed when she calved she had two questionable teats, but if the calf is spunky (which it was) they eventually latch on & drain 'em. If I'm concerned, I'll help the calf latch on. Nothing set off my radar. And yet, I'm blaming myself because clearly, something wasn't right.

 

[farmerjan]

Sorry @TCRanch ..... sometimes it seems you can't win. Son bought 12 pretty nice 1st calf heifers, and 6 had already calved.... Got them home and another 2 calved, easy as pie.... good momma's. Today there was one that I found prolapsed.... he called the vet and I had to go to work... He texted me a while ago... the vet got it put back in.... I guess they got her up too, as he said he found the calf and got the calf to nurse... Hoping that she will survive it and be able to raise the calf. Nothing else to do... I had thought maybe she hadn't calved yet since I didn't see the calf near her... it was along the back side of the field..... so I am glad that she had already calved and not worse.... I will talk to him in the morning.... really hoping that she will come along....
Lost an old cow a couple months ago; was going to be her last calf.... feet out but no head.... already dead when he found her. She had raised a couple calves for us.... just an average bought cow .....
And he found a 2nd calf cow dead the other day at another place.... she had been fine, has a 200+ lb calf on her, said it is wild as a deer and he is hoping it will steal off another of the cows out there, since he could not get anywhere near it to get it to the catch pen to get it in, there is alot of brush, trees, etc out there. It went running after a couple other calves.... if he can catch it up near the pen he will get it in.... Luckily, we have several cows there that "co-parent" so there is a chance it will latch onto another "mother" and get raised up.
Always something.

 

[Katpau]

So sorry for your losses. It always seems like when you have bad luck, it comes in multitudes. I hope you are through with the bad luck for this year and the rest of calving goes without a hitch. The blood thing seems weird for bloat. Have you asked your Vet what he thinks? There was nothing you could do in either case, but I know that feeling of wondering whether I should have seen something.
We had a heifer that showed up with a new calf on the 15th. We weighed and tagged it, and let them be. I didn't see it nurse, but assumed it had, which turned out to be a mistake. Our cows calve out on pasture and if a calf looks healthy when we find it, I usually don't stand around watching to see if they nurse. I do watch if I see one born, but the ones that are already hours old are usually pretty content, so waiting for them to suck might be a long wait. You saw yours nursing, so there was no reason to expect a problem.
On the morning of the 17th I found that two day old calf laying in the mud with an empty stomach and a cold mouth. A few hours later and I probably would have found her dead. We ended up bringing them in under cover and tubing it for two days and then milking the heifer and bottle feeding it once we got her to suck. It took a week until she finally got the strength and the brains to nurse on the cow. As my husband said this morning when we found her nursing the cow for the first time, "That sucks" isn't always a bad thing.

 

[greybeard]

TCRanch, did yours look anything like this one?





This one was a neighbors I posted in a different thread about a year ago.


Neighbor has had a little problem with bloody poop as well. Adult cows.
2nd one in 2 weeks and I saw another one with bloody poop on her tail when I went over to help bury this one. She had been dead about 8 hrs I estimated. Odd thing, when we picked this one up, it also began bleeding from one of it's eyes and nostrils.
Just laying there, Blood was oozing post mortem from rectum and vulva..I didn't see it while it was still alive that day, but saw it the day before..looked fine then:

 

[TCRanch]

TCRanch, did yours look anything like this one?

View attachment 3286

View attachment 3287

This one was a neighbors I posted in a different thread about a year ago.


Neighbor has had a little problem with bloody poop as well. Adult cows.
2nd one in 2 weeks and I saw another one with bloody poop on her tail when I went over to help bury this one. She had been dead about 8 hrs I estimated. Odd thing, when we picked this one up, it also began bleeding from one of it's eyes and nostrils.
Just laying there, Blood was oozing post mortem from rectum and vulva..I didn't see it while it was still alive that day, but saw it the day before..looked fine then:

Yes! Did your neighbor figure out what happened?

 

[greybeard]

Yes! Did your neighbor figure out what happened?

Unfortunately, no. He isn't exactly the curious or 'concerned' type when it comes to his cows... more of a "they'll either make it or they won't" attitude.


The other one that was showing the same symptoms evidently cleared up and he had no more problems of that nature...that I know about anyway.

 

[TCRanch]

Unfortunately, no. He isn't exactly the curious or 'concerned' type when it comes to his cows... more of a "they'll either make it or they won't" attitude.


The other one that was showing the same symptoms evidently cleared up and he had no more problems of that nature...that I know about anyway.

Thanks, anyway. I'm pretty sure she just couldn't get up for whatever reason & bloated. Still sucks!

 

[Hpacres440p]

I'm confused about the bleeding out though-is there some toxic plant that causes disseminated bleeding? I could understand one or two sites from trauma, but all orifices sounds like a coagulation issue.