Snake bit?

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JenLamb35

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We have a 1 1/2 yr old heifer (approx 750 lbs) that came up to eat last night and her lower lip was hanging down. She still had her appetite but couldn't hold on the range pellets to get them in her mouth. We had to manually put them in the back of her mouth to eat them. At first I thought she might have gotten kicked or something, but the jaw works just fine - it's the lip that is hanging down and looks like it's numb to her. Our vet it out until Thurs but his assistant thought it sounded like it could be a snake bite. Has anyone else had a problem like this? I don't know if she's had this before last night - we were gone the night before and didn't have them come up to eat (they are on pasture). Is there anything we can do for her?
 
Don't know where you are and don't really have an answer for you, but here in Texas we have both rattlers and Copperheads. A copperhead will just lie there and wait for something or someone to come by and bite. They don't tend to run away, so I can see how the heifer could have grazed right up to one and gotten bit on the lip. Best answer is just see what your vet says.

My dad lost a cow to what we think was snake bit about 20 years ago, and I lost one to the same thing about 3 years ago. Both were in the area by the creek where there are lots of copperheads as well as some rattlesnakes. Best of luck with your heifer.
 
All you can do is to give her Predef or something similar for the pain and swelling and make sure she can eat and drink.

If she weighs 750 lbs at 18 months you didn't give her enough loving till now.
 
FYI Knersie - You have no idea how much love and care our heifers get. We are out there every single day with them and feed them better than anyone else I know. She happened to be a calf of a first time heifer that had her too early for her age (so that typically makes them a small calf). Our cattle are more pets to us than just livestock so we're not about to get rid of her. We are KNOWN in our area for having good looking cattle and spoil them rotten. So maybe you need to back off a little with the smart alec comments you tend to make. In fact - I would appreciate it if you didn't respond to anything I post. I don't need the drama of cyber bullies.

Grandpa - We are from SE Kansas and have the same vermon probably as you all do. I was thinking it's a cooperhead as well. She is actually doing much better. The swelling and numbness has went down now and she is eating almost normally now. We are so thankful she is okay now.
 
Knersie gave you good advice on both points. If that was bullying then my apologies as I guess I'm guilty as well. And letting that heifer get bred to early doesn't sound like the love and care that really helps them much.

I am glad to hear she's doing better though. Usually snakebites look alot worse than they are. A snakebite on a grazing cow is roughly the equivelant of you getting a beesting. It swells but there's not enough venom to do any real harm unless they swell enough that they can't breathe. Usually they stumble on the snake by accident so it's not a killing dose of venom that the snake gives her. I'm basing that on rattlers like I have here.
 
Again with background info - WE did not let the heifer get bred too early. It was another person's neglect that caused that. We got her and kept watch on her and she did just fine.

I appreciate any CONSTRUCTIVE advice - I can just do away with the misinformed opinions. I don't visit this forum for drama and smart mouthing - I think this is a good resource if you skip through the blah blah blah of critics. If the smart alec opinions outweigh the fact based information - it's time to find another resource.
 
So far I haven't seen anything in this thread that wasn't constructive and relative to the information that you gave us. :???:
 
JenLamb35":geugw19a said:
Again with background info - WE did not let the heifer get bred too early. It was another person's neglect that caused that. We got her and kept watch on her and she did just fine.

I appreciate any CONSTRUCTIVE advice - I can just do away with the misinformed opinions. I don't visit this forum for drama and smart mouthing - I think this is a good resource if you skip through the blah blah blah of critics. If the smart alec opinions outweigh the fact based information - it's time to find another resource.

Keep in mind that around here most honey comes with a drop of venom.
You get on here asking for advice you need to be careful about admiting that you MIGHT have done some thing no so smart. Knersie didn't go out of his way to hurt your feelings and since you have gone out of your way to admit that you are a hobbyist then you should at least try to take critisism as just that constructive. Believe me you will know when you get your but nailed to the barn around here and this wasn't it. Frankly he is right about her weight assuming that she is a beef type heifer. @ 18months she should be a bit heavier, ezpecially if she had had all that love and care,(feed).
Please stick around and offer some real help to someone else and hopefully they will not be so thinskinned and defensive and leave you sayin to yourself "why did I even bother"

Glad your heifer is OK.
 

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