Show Steer- Sick?

[OliWally]

hey,
I have been watching my showsteer the past few days, and he seems to be getting off his grains as of late. Last night he didn't finish his grain and it is almost all the way full still. He will eat the hay, which has gotten late as of late. He also has a runny nose and is not drinking as much as he should. Any ideas as into what i should look into, or how i should go about fixing his loss of appetite?

 

[dun]

First thing is to shove a fever stick up it's butt. If the temp is normal I would start to think of may be grain overload.

 

[AudieWyoming]

hey,
I have been watching my showsteer the past few days, and he seems to be getting off his grains as of late. Last night he didn't finish his grain and it is almost all the way full still. He will eat the hay, which has gotten late as of late. He also has a runny nose and is not drinking as much as he should. Any ideas as into what i should look into, or how i should go about fixing his loss of appetite?

Oliwally,
You will need to repost more information about this calf. How old is he? How long have you had him? Roughly how much does he weigh? How much grain have you been feeding him? What and when was he vaccinated? What is the weather where you live, has it changed drastically in the last two weeks? Hot days cold nights, wet dusty? Do you have other cattle near/with him?

I would never try to make a diagnosis over the internet. My advice is have a vet look at him, but post all you know about him, there are several knowledgeable people here that will give you a laundry list of possiblities to choose from. Then use your judgement as to which ones might fit. I wish you good luck with your calf.

 

[OliWally]

I know it was a very vague description, but i just shot some sullfa pills down him and in two days I put in some more. He ate to much moldy hay i believe that gave him the runs. the rest of his sickness is from a viral bug that he must have picked up. Thanks

 

[redcowsrule33]

Sooooo... what you're telling us is you have treated a supposed mold ingestion and a virus with an antibiotic that has no effect on either. Well done. See the antibiotic resistance thread. The exact wrong thing to do is throw antibiotics at a problem when you don't what is wrong. All the people that responded had good questions and advice - take it next time.

 

[chippie]

May I ask, Why were you feeding him moldy hay?
You'll be lucky if he recovers well from such a major setback.

 

[VCC]

OK, hopefully all has been taken care of all ready but if not, the first thing you want to do is have him checked by the vet, Take his temp as mentioned above the first thing the vet will do is ask if he has a fever, it is best if you can answer this when you talk to him. While you are waiting for that, take the grain away, give him all the hay (good clean grass hay) and water he wants, get some "Probios gel or Cellarator Turbo Paste" These will help get his guts back to working right. These will also help keep his guts right if you have to give him Antibiotics when the vet comes. (Should always have a tube around for an emergency)

Hopefully after the vet gets him straitened out, you will want to make sure that you get him back on grain slowly. It may take you up to 2 weeks to work back to where he should be. That would be 2-3 percent of his body weight of a good mixed feed.

You also need to make sure that the feed you are feeding stays consistent, if the feed you are feeding is changing from bag to bag or lot to lot it can have an adverse effect on the animal. You should never wait to long before you call the vet. They may go off their feed for a day or to if there is a sudden change in the environment. But if it is not environmental watch carefully and if it last more than a day I would seek help immediate.

Remember you do not buy a winner you feed a winner, and I do not think feeding inferior feed is how you are going to do that.

Hope all works out well for you.

 

[OliWally]

Chippie- i buy cattle grade hay, and it tends to not be as moldy as you would think. the mold has little affect on them because of their superiors digestive systems. I was gone for a few days during this past christmas and my last hay bale got soaked in a storm, and my friend kept feeding him what he had. Trust me, i know what to feed my cattle Thanks for your help.

VCC- My feeding plan is consistant, and only varies once a year when i add in his finisher feed. My program does produce champions as of my recent steers, so i am pretty confident that it is not the feed. I thank you for your advice on the vet stuff, because sometimes it is hard to tell when you should call and when you shouldn't. i am in a vet science course so its always great help to know some tips on putting back onto feed, and what not

thanks again everyone

 

[chippie]

Oliwally,
I apologize for being blunt.
A little bit about me. I am a mom of 5 (ages 17 to 25) whose children showed (and still show) commercial and registered heifers and steers. We are a 4H family and this is our 18th year. Our daughters and son both were in FFA too.

Personally, I would change your feeding the cheap hay. A poor quality hay may be fine for a cow out on the pasture who can pick and choose what to eat. However when you have an animal penned and it gets hungry, it will eat what is in front of it regardless if it is good or not. Our FFA advisor and County Extension agent have always recommended using a good quality sweet smelling hay.

Buying a lower quality hay may be more costly for you in the long run.

Texas A&M has some very good literature for youth beef projects including feeding, illness and managing for show.

You can find them at: http://animalscience.tamu.edu/youth-projects/index.htm

However YMMV.

 

[angie1]

Buying a lower quality hay may be more costly for you in the long run.

I strongly agree with everything you said. Excellent advice! :tiphat:

Personally, I wouldn't use moldy hay for bedding let alone feed ~ but that is just me maybe.

 

[VCC]

Did you get your steer back on his feet?

 

[OliWally]

thanks Chippie! I didn't mean to sound cynical or anything Yes my steer is doing better! Like my advisor said, the sullfa pills did the trick! He is nibbling on some grain, so that is a great sign that made me extremley happy! He is out in his 5 acre pasture grazing away, and he gets his usual alfala/orchard mix of hay twice a day. He is a loner of course cause i only have one steer, but he seems to be happy again. thanks everyone for your great advice, I truly enjoyed it!