Sick Lethargic Heifer

[aplusmnt]

Have a 17 month old heifer that is acting weird and lethargic. She walks around with her back humped up. I first noticed her doing this when we put Cidr in her a few weeks ago. But she is still doing it. She is very lethargic, lays around a bunch.

She also walks around like it is sore to walk. We had her hoofs trimmed a month or so ago and thought this was the cause of that. But she is still walking slow and taking small steps, she use to really walk with big steps.

Vet said he thought she had a kidney infection and gave her some antibiotics.

Any other ideas?

Ps. She is a show heifer and on full feed and hay.

 

[semen demon]

Have her checked for hardware.

 

[jkwilson]

Ps. She is a show heifer and on full feed and hay.

Full feed? As in as much as she wants? Too much for a heifer if that's the case. Having to trim feet indicates you may be pushing her pretty hard, or that she is particularly sensitive to a high energy diet. Sometimes animals can't tolerate very high energy feed, and they have joint pain in their legs from it. Make sure you have plenty of calcium in your mineral and cut her feed back. I like to replace corn with oats for heifers to cut the energy.

 

[aplusmnt]

I have wondered if feeding her so agressive, could be the cause. Been thinking about turning her out in pasture for while with the cows, taking her off feed and just hay and mineral and see how she does. She is not overly fat but does eat a lot of feed.

 

[got_cows?]

We had a fair steer founder?? I'm not sure if that is the correct term or not but he couldn't handle the high energy concentrated feed we were giving him. His manure was runny and he walked like his hooves and legs hurt him. He needed more hay in his diet so his stomach could keep working properly (that and $80 worth of the vet). Now when we start giving feed to the fair animals it gets weighed each day and adjusted very slowly.

Good luck.

 

[aplusmnt]

If this heifer did founder, or was affected by to much feed. How would this affect her as far as being a cow? Was thinking when a horse founders it is something they have problems with their whole life?

What are the odds if I just turn her out on pasture, she would get over it and still do good as a cow? I would rather have her as a cow than continue to show her.

 

[jkwilson]

If this heifer did founder, or was affected by to much feed. How would this affect her as far as being a cow? Was thinking when a horse founders it is something they have problems with their whole life?

What are the odds if I just turn her out on pasture, she would get over it and still do good as a cow? I would rather have her as a cow than continue to show her.

We had a Polled Hereford heifer 3 years ago who was a show animal for the kids. Around 800 lbs she started walking tenderly. Vet suggested the feed was too "hot", so we cut the amount down by a third, substituted oats for about half of the corn, switched to a more palatable mineral, and left her in the show lot with all of the grass hay she wanted. It took 4 or 5 weeks for her walking to improve, but she recovered completely. She showed well, and is a good cow now.
I'm believing more and more that you don't need much feed to raise heifers, just make sure they get enough protein to grow their frame.
Anytime I'm raising a heifer and see fat start to deposit beside the tail head, she goes on a hay only diet.

 

[bward]

Is she urinating frequently? and in small amounts? Can you see any shreds of tissue in the dribbles of urine? Did she improve at all with the antibiotics? .... If it is kidney then it may require a heck of a lot of antibiotics used in an aggresive manner. Why didn't the vet do blood and urine tests? argh.

 

[aplusmnt]

Have not noticed anything special about her urine, but most of time when I go out to check on her she is laying down. I do not know why the vet did not do blood or urine test, I just trusted him that he knew what he was doing. But I have been starting to doubt him. Sometimes I think he is like one of those Mechanics that just replace parts with out testing things.

Have not noticed her being much better yet, but like I said above she is laying down most of time. Planning on hitting her with some more antibiotics, vet did mention she might need some more in couple days.

 

[GMN]

We had a first calf heifer last year, which got founder, in her back foot, from too high of protein in the alfalfa, and grain she was eating. We took her to the vet, he put blocks on that one foot, which stayed on for a couple of weeks, also cut back the grain level of protein, and wthin 2 months she was back to normal.

GMN

 

[aplusmnt]

How do you tell if a foot is foundered? Both her back hoofs grew real long and had to trim them.

 

[jkwilson]

Here's a good description of what causes founder in cattle:http://cvm.msu.edu/extension/docs/heel_fr_lm.htm

What most people are refering to when they talk about cattle foundering is the laminitis that results from the rumen problems that occur when feeding too much carbohydrate in the ration.

 

[GMN]

We had no idea what it was, the heifer was limping in one foot, not putting any weight on it at all. The vet said the inside of the foot was soft, cleaned it up, put the blocks on. frankly I had my doubts about it all, that the blocks would heal the foot up, but it worked, and cutting back the protein was a winner too. that year we had gotten some very good alfalfa, RFV of 200plus, which turned out to be not so good of a thing for her and I had one other that came down with the same thing. Haven't had it since.

Hope this helps, and good luck.

GMN

 

[GMN]

One other thing, part of the hoof was growing curved, also a sign of founder, that was another reason for blocking the foot.

GMN

 

[msscamp]

Was thinking when a horse founders it is something they have problems with their whole life?

Not necessarily....Depends on how bad the founder is, how soon it was caught, and how much the coffin bone has rotated.