sick cow

[holdenchick]

Hi, im from australia but cant find any other sites that will help me diagnose my cattle illness so im hoping someone here can help.
We have a 2 year old cow that gave birth 5 weeks ago.
About 4 days ago she went down in the paddock and hasnt moved since. She's eating and drinking well, she has lost condition but that might be due to the drought - we do feed her hay twice daily though. She seems to be paralised in the legs as she cant stand, we have treated her with antibiotics for milk fever, tick paralisis, and a general antibiotic, nothing has seemed to work as she is still down. We thought we should move her to her other side today as she's been on the one side for 4 days and we thought she might be loosing blood circulation on the oside of the body she was layin on but within 5 minutes of her being turned over, she actually looked really ill, her breathing became slow and raspy, and she started having little fits??? Please if u guys have any ideas let me know.
Amanda

 

[dun]

Why antibiotics for milk fever? I'm no expert on it but that's sure what it sounds like.
http://www.qmscotland.co.uk/analysis/do ... 0Fever.pdf
Also could be ketosis maybe

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

If she is a heavy milker, I also thought it sounded like Milk fever. You don't give antibiotics for that. Down cattle should be "turned" daily - if not twice a day.
Being down that long, she may be developing pneumonia.

 

[3MR]

Another reason a good mineral supplement should be available. I know, I for one, need to do a better job keeping them replinished.

 

[J&T Farm]

Sounds like milk fever to me too. We had one do the same thing 2 years ago her calf was 4 weeks old. Have you given her calcium gluconate? about 1 hour after we ran a bottle in ours she started trying to get up. She had been down for 3 days. If you haven't tried it yet be careful not to run it to fast or it will kill her quick. Our vet told us that it takes a larger dose on some cows that have been down a while, we gave ours another bottle 6 hours later. Hope you get it figured out. Good Luck with her.

 

[Vicky the vet]

Picture having 350-500kg on your leg for 4 days, the muscle dying from lack of blood, toxins pooling because of this, then after 4 days, suddenly having the influx of blood. The toxins then rush out of the area, hit the heart, distribute to the brain....yeah, you might just look a little sick.

After 4 days down on one side, your chance of her ever standing again are low, especially when you don't know what's wrong with her. Is it just milk fever? Unlikely she'd still be alive after this long IMO. Also she's 2 years old--again unlikely unless she's a Jersey. I'm going to be the devil's advocate here, especially since I know there are excellent vets in Oz, and ask why you haven't contacted one.....?

V

 

[holdenchick]

We've had 2 different vets out continuously for the whole time she's been down and they have no idea either, we've treated for milk fever with antibiotics and the calcium gluconate drip (3 doses) and still she is down. She went down hill last night and is barely moving now, last night she was spasming and had froth coming from her mouth and clear liquid from her nose.

 

[dun]

Sounds to me like time to inoculate with a bullet!

 

[byrd73farms]

put her down and save yourself time and money.

 

[dun]

put her down and save yourself time and money.

To say nothing of the cows suffering!

 

[holdenchick]

we have started her on a course of general antibiotics this morning and she seemed alot better by lunch as she started eating and drinking again. Could it be 3 day sickness?? We've had others about 6mths ago with 3 day sickness that had the same symptons as she did last night but they seemed to go down straight away and wouldnt eat or drink. Moneys not the issue as she is part of the family cause she was hand fed from just a baby

 

[Bez>]

Down for four days as of last Monday?

Still down?

Time to shoot.

If up time to ship once drugs have been purged.

Bez>

 

[GMN]

Hi, im from australia but cant find any other sites that will help me diagnose my cattle illness so im hoping someone here can help.
We have a 2 year old cow that gave birth 5 weeks ago.
About 4 days ago she went down in the paddock and hasnt moved since. She's eating and drinking well, she has lost condition but that might be due to the drought - we do feed her hay twice daily though. She seems to be paralised in the legs as she cant stand, we have treated her with antibiotics for milk fever, tick paralisis, and a general antibiotic, nothing has seemed to work as she is still down. We thought we should move her to her other side today as she's been on the one side for 4 days and we thought she might be loosing blood circulation on the oside of the body she was layin on but within 5 minutes of her being turned over, she actually looked really ill, her breathing became slow and raspy, and she started having little fits??? Please if u guys have any ideas let me know.
Amanda

Being she did not go down right after calving I doubt it is milk fever. Sounds like paralysis due from the calving. Dexamethazone is what we use, and Banamine. A drug with a anti inflammatory, coritozone would help. Hip lifting her is also a must. In mild cases they do come out of it, but sometimes they don't. Nothing worse than a downer cow.

Gail