Spider bite, hornet attack?

[Chris H]

Got a 10 year old cow w/4 month old calf. She's been healthy but she was marked to be culled as soon as we could easily wean the calf. We put her with the fall calving group & another cow w/calf destined to be culled so we could load her out at any time. That was Sept 5th that she was moved to the small pasture. She was fine that evening. Sat morning, Sept 8th, she had a swelling under her jaw that looked similar to 'bottle jaw'. She couldn't eat hay or grass, she could lick at some grain but not really chew. She could drink. Called the vet about noon, he got back with us later and was still tied up. We decided not to call another vet since she could drink.
Sunday morning the swelling extended up around the side of her face. Vet saw her late Sunday afternoon. He couldn't figure out what was wrong. He said it didn't look quite like 'bottle jaw' since the swelling didn't go as far back as bottle jaw. Besides, it had a quick onset, and we could rule out the common reasons for bottle jaw. He thought she might have been stung by hornets, but couldn't find any evidence. He gave her a shot of Banamine for the swelling & pain. She started to slowly get better and by Wednesday we knew she'd recover. I weaned her calf on Thursday figuring her milk production would have dropped way off while she wasn't eating and no sense restarting it at this point. We kept the calf in an adjoining pen to keep her from fretting too much.
We've got a friend that also thinks it could have been hornets, or maybe a spider. Has anyone had hornets or maybe a spider injure a cow?

 

[denvermartinfarms]

never had either one but what about a snake bite.in my expierence that is how the reactetion is from one.

 

[3waycross]

Sounds like snakebite to me.

 

[Isomade]

Sounds like snakebite to me.

That's what immediately came to mind, but I'd have thought the vet would be able to find remnants of the punctures.

 

[greybeard]

Hard to see fang punctures--and sometimes there is only 1 puncture. (Fangs break off and don't always re-grow.)
When I got bit by a copperhead, if it were not for the swelling and redness, I would have never seen the puncture itself, so I can imagine it would be double difficult on large livestock.

Hornets? I don't think she would have stuck around long enough for them to do that much stinging and ya would think they wouldn't be concentrated in one place. I've seen cows walk over a ground hornet nest and then take off like the devil himself was in chase--it don't take 'em long to get out of harm's way.
Don't know what kind of serpents you have in Ohio, but that would be my 1st guess.

 

[Chris H]

I never thought about a snake bite. Don't know why, but all snakes have been scarce around here this summer. As far as I know, copperheads are the only poisonous snakes in our area, and they are very uncommon. We'll keep our eyes open for snakes since that seems as likely as anything else.

 

[inyati13]

Unless you are in the southeast Ohio, you are not going to have copperheads. Also, the timber rattlesnake does not occur in Ohio unless you are on the edge with West Virginia. I did my MS thesis on herptiles at Morehead State University so I know a good bit about their distribution in our area (Ohio and Kentucky). Don't even depend on any general nature books for precise distribution. They are hard to pin down on distribution. For example, the audubon society book for amphibians and reptiles shows the copperhead all over Kentucky. Just not so. Go look for copperheads in the Bluegrass counties and except for along the Kentucky River they are absent in most areas. I have never heard anyone (not even the good ole hillbillies) say they saw a copperhead in Pendleton County but the book says they are all over the county. Where are you in Ohio? I am near Maysville, Ky which is just across the Ohio River from Aberdeen, Ohio.

 

[Chris H]

Unless you are in the southeast Ohio, you are not going to have copperheads. Also, the timber rattlesnake does not occur in Ohio unless you are on the edge with West Virginia. I did my MS thesis on herptiles at Morehead State University so I know a good bit about their distribution in our area (Ohio and Kentucky). Don't even depend on any general nature books for precise distribution. They are hard to pin down on distribution. For example, the audubon society book for amphibians and reptiles shows the copperhead all over Kentucky. Just not so. Go look for copperheads in the Bluegrass counties and except for along the Kentucky River they are absent in most areas. I have never heard anyone (not even the good ole hillbillies) say they saw a copperhead in Pendleton County but the book says they are all over the county. Where are you in Ohio? I am near Maysville, Ky which is just across the Ohio River from Aberdeen, Ohio.

Southwest Ohio, an hour straight north of Cincinnati, in Preble County. Our farm, and in particular the pasture this cow is in, is not what I'd call copperhead habitat. However, there are a few people who should be able to identify copperheads who claim to have seen them within 10 miles of our location. I'd disagree based on the official information like you posted, but I'm not getting close enough to any snake to try to make a positive ID.

 

[inyati13]

Chris H, I will stake my entire reputation as a herpetologist that there are no copperheads where you live. Most people are very inept at identifying snakes. Many people see a scarlet kingsnake or such and call it a copperhead. The one that always amazed me was people saying they saw a rattlesnake. How can you misidentify the only snake in the universe that has a rattle on the end of its body!!!

 

[Anonymous]

It was that special rattlesnake that something bit the rattles off

 

[inyati13]

Woe to he who bites the rattles off rattlesnakes. You guys got the big ones down there. Crotalus adamanteus.

 

[Anonymous]

The Easterns have been strangely quiet this year. Maybe the 12g is starting to thin them down around here. I'm not going to hold my breath

 

[brihop]

Prob too late now, and the vet may have done so, but it would have been good to put her in a head chute & look inside her mouth too, for any bite marks or injury.

 

[Chris H]

Prob too late now, and the vet may have done so, but it would have been good to put her in a head chute & look inside her mouth too, for any bite marks or injury.

Vet did, I wasn't there when he looked at her, husband was. They put her in the chute & the Vet could find no sign of injury inside her mouth, but he also couldn't find any sign of injury outside.
We're at day 10 after the swelling first appeared. Although it started under her jaw it progressed to the side of her jaw by the 2nd day. It was very symmetrical at that time. The swelling has subsided enough that she can eat hay, but it did not subside evenly. The swelling on one side is still noticible.

I just asked my husband how well doc could see in her mouth, he said not very much. Now I wonder if an abscessed jaw tooth could have done this?

 

[Nite Hawk]

An abscessed tooth would have possibly required antibiotics to clear it up.
Foxtail or other sharp grasses can cause a lump on the jaw to form, but from the sound of it this was pretty large and covered the side of her face. I lean more towards a snake bite or sting of some kind, although a kick in the face from another cow can do the same thing.
We had a steer once that was a "wicked" kicker, and he put lots of very large lumps on some of the other cattle.
The main thing is that it appears she is improving.
Nite Hawk

 

[Chris H]

Well, we shipped the cow yesterday but the packer condemned her. After the initial swelling went down a large lump was left on the side of her jaw and her brisket got a lump in it. It was likely an injury from eating something thorny or rough, then got infected.
Win some, lose some. I'm glad she's gone at this point.

 

[NorfolkCattleCo]

When you say the packer " condemned " her, does that mean she was not used for meat? If that is the case I suppose she is a total loss? This may be a silly question but I am new to cattle and doing a lot of reading to get ready for a herd of my own one day. Thanks.

 

[Chris H]

When you say the packer " condemned " her, does that mean she was not used for meat? If that is the case I suppose she is a total loss? This may be a silly question but I am new to cattle and doing a lot of reading to get ready for a herd of my own one day. Thanks.

Correct, she was not used for meat. A rendering plant picked up her carcass. We had several we shipped that day and I didn't look at the receipt we got with the check but I'm pretty sure we paid for the 'dead wagon' to pick her up.