sudden sickness in bullcalf

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KNERSIE

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One of my bullcalves that had just been weaned suddenly got ill. The calves all get a 14% barley based ration and are on short pasture. The sick calf was absolutely 100% healthy this morning, late afternoon I noticed he was a bit lethargic and this evening he was properly sick.

He has a rapid heartbeat, rapid breathing and was salivating profusely. Temperature of 39.5C (103.1 F) and had a nervous twitch in his ears. He was unwilling to walk and unsteady on his feet.

I treated for redwater and gallsickness as its the most deadly this time of the year, and hit him with a broadspectrum antibiotic.

I doubt that its either redwater or gallsickness, aciodosis is unlikely, because the sour smell and scours usually associated with it isn't there. His manure looks normal, but very little as if he didn't eat much today. Thought of urea poisoning as there are NPN in the concentrate, but its unlikely that only 1 out of 17 would be affected. Spoke to vet and according to him I couldn't do much more.

Have any of you experienced this type of symptoms?
 
hillsdown":ja45vd76 said:
Hardware?

I hope not, he doesn't stand with the typical arched back and kicking at the belly. Would hardware have him develope a fever so suddenly? I see and feed these calves twice a day everyday, this specific calf has a lot of potential so I tend to watch him more closely and believe me he was acting normal this morning and eating with a healthy apetite.

What I failed to mention was they were given a shot Ivomec Gold yesterday.
 
I have heard of animals having reactions to vaccines.Did you mention that to your Vet?
I have never seen that first hand though but I have a border collie that when she gets vaccinated for rabies she is very ill for at least two days after. She doesn't eat anything and maybe drinks a cup of water at the most and runs a high fever.The vet said it sometimes happens and to just let her rest and sleep it off.
But there is no way you can do that in this case as it may be too late.Do you think maybe he got to much of his share of food and is just a little off; that temp is not ridiculously high it is just elevated.But the fact that he is so lethargic is not good.

I don't know, sorry. Hopefully someone with more experience with steers will recognise the symptoms.Good luck and I hope he pulls through.
 
Didn't mention the Ivomec to the vet, its standard practice here and has never caused problems. He was vaccinated about two weeks ago with Supavax from Pfizer, there is a bit of a lump at the vaccination site, but if he would have got a allergic reaction he would have got it two weeks ago.

Drenched him with bicarbonate of soda in case he did overindulge and it was indeed acidosis. He is up now, still salivating, but the fever seems to be under control, this is just by feel, its too dark to read the thermometer.

I hope he pulls through, he is still young, but is earmarked (for the moment) as a possible herd bull to continue his line.
 
If the wormer kills migrating grubs in the esophegus or (I think) spine, it can result paralysis or death, or more minor symptoms. I guess that could be a possibility.

Another idea would just be plain 'ol pneumonia.

Keep us posted.
 
here is an update...

bullcalf's temp was back to normal this morning, gave him Rumix and a shot of Alamycin LA 300 (first time I ever used this, new product here) and turned him out on pasture with the other 16 calves. Started grazing almost immediately and tonight came up to feed and acted as if yesterday never happened.

Very relieved, but I am still at a loss what the cause was.
 
cowboyup216":32ywm9fq said:
Heat stress is the only time I see my cows salivating like you describe. Sometimes when it is hot and very humid the cows with thick hair on them tend to get a little overheated and get lethargic and look sick and they pant.

It is winter in the southern hemisphere!
 
cowboyup216":11qgriln said:
They have winter in africa. I thought below the equator it was hot all the time????? Go figure.

On the equator it is hot and humid all the time, the further south or north you go the colder it gets with more variance in minimum and maximum temperatures
 
cowboyup216":21fy6drh said:
They have winter in africa. I thought below the equator it was hot all the time????? Go figure.

Ever here of the antarctic? Or the South Pole? It's colder tan the N Pole, cause Santa's ex resides there.
 

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