Surprise diagnosis- FINALLY!

[branguscowgirl]

I have had a strange paralysis affecting one of my very best young cows for over a year. (Some of you may have read my past posts on Dalisgrass staggers.)
When she first appeared to have a problem, it looked like a classic Dalisgrass staggers case. Then it seemed evident that maybe she had and injury. (Lameness in the back legs.) It had progressed to difficulty rising, pulling herself up with her front legs first. A long story short, she had went through a battery of blood tests. I even took her to UCD teaching hospital where they performed an ultrasound and x-rays of her spine and hips. A spinal tap was attempted multiple times without success. Never anything found. Over a period of a year, she gradually improved to the point that she would only fall down in the back end if she was trying to move very quickly. But for the most part she seemed very happy and healthy so I went ahead and AI'd her. We had come to the conclusion that she probably had a pinched nerve in her back, but did not appear to be painful.

Well, my Dalisgrass was let grow for the past couple of months to "stock pile" extra feed for winter. (I usually keep it mowed.)
Again, she began moving very strangely and falling down. This time she was extremely spooky and had tremors of the head and neck.
We thought this was a classic case of Dalisgrass staggers and quickly mowed down the seed heads. However, I just needed to know for sure this time!
Blood, grass, and stool were all sent to the lab. She was tested for "heavy metals", "mycotoxins", Chem panel, CBC, ext. ext.. At the last minute I asked the vet to check her Selenium level.

BINGO! The last result to come in, and finally confirmed the diagnosis was EXTREMELY LOW SELENIUM LEVELS! (Zinc was fine, Copper slightly low.)

Now, I used to give Muse injections to all of my cattle 2x per year. (Now I only give it to newborn calves.) The reason is because it is very short acting, so I decided that the good loose minerals and good feed should be adequate. I was wrong!
All the cattle have immediately received Muse injections and the vet is coming over to help me put slow release Boluses into them, along with Copper Boluses. His recommendation, "Western Sweet Goat Minerals."

The moral of my story is that most people do not pursue a definitive diagnosis as aggressively as I have. Many would just "cull" a lame cow, and never be any wiser on what is silently affecting their herd. (I had lost a cow 2 years ago to what the vet had diagnosed as a "spinal abscess." Now I have to wonder if it was actually the Selenium deficiency!)
Thankfully my whole herd will benefit from this discovery. I also hope that others will realize the importance of having lab work done on our animals periodically to confirm that they are getting the full benefits of what we are providing to them. Or if we need to improve our program. :cboy:

 

[dun]

I know others on here have problems with low selenium, have you checked to see if you can get minerals with higher then usual SE. I would think that the feedstores or co-op in your area would know of the problem and have minerals or some supplement to address it

 

[branguscowgirl]

Dun, they used to do a custom mix for our area and sell it through our local Walco vet supply house. It is no longer available.
My problem is consumption. My cattle do not eat the loose minerals. I think the Boluses and injections are going to be my best hope.....
My vet uses the sweet goat one for everything. Even horses. I guess I will try that too.

I wonder, how many people have culled "lame" cows that simply have a mineral deficiency?

 

[Nesikep]

Good to hear you got it figured out. For me I decided to do a mineral panel on Tizia when she wasn't breeding back, I could just have easily shipped her and not learned anything.. For me it makes me wonder how many good cows (all the heavy producers) I shipped because they were breeding late or open. I was very low in copper and phosphorus, and marginal in selenium (and this wasn't too long after she got a Vit E/Se shot of 8cc).

Have you been having retained placenta?


How's she doing now?

 

[branguscowgirl]

Nesi as soon as I penned her up and had to feed her hay, (thinking that I was flushing the Dalisgrass out of her) I saw rapid improvement. The hay obviously has a better Se content than the grass she was on.
After the Muse injection yesterday, she looks awesome today! I have not seen her excited and attempting to run yet, so I will reserve judgement as to whether she still has the " pinched nerve" issue or not. Or if it was strictly a Selenium issue, was there permanent muscle damage. Still some unanswered questions.
I am also watching another older cow that has been painful but improving over the past month or so. She appeared to have been injured during mounting activity.......Now wondering if it is just the tell tale muscle weakness from Se deficiency.

I have never had the other expected symptoms in my cattle. No retained placentas at all. No weak calves either.

 

[Nesikep]

We never had any of those weaknesses in ours, but had fairly common RP, Tizia always had RP. Last season I don't think we had a single case.

Also, when buying minerals, look at the tag EACH TIME. I started buying 6/12 mineral, and when I started buying it, it had 125mg/kg Se, the next year it was 100mg, which was still good, but this year I bought 8 bags and when I got it home they had cut the levels of nearly anything I needed, and Se was only 30mg/kg.. I blew a top with the store!

 

[regolith]

Selenium is one of the things I screen every blood test for the herd - usually twice a year, the vets like to see at least 6 - 8 samples & it gets quite expensive. I guess it's worth it if they find something low before it causes major problems.

It can be a bit hit and miss. If you recall at calving time I screened bloods twice for calcium, magnesium, selenium and copper; out of about sixteen cows we hit *one* low calcium - I'd been able to draft a cow into the group right at the stage after calving when they would usually go down.

Now selenium - as mentioned in an earlier thread, a lot of people in NZ put it on in the fertiliser so that it is then taken up by the grass. It's effective, we had issues with Retained cleanings one year when the company claimed the selprill was a stronger product and could be used at half rates, we went straight back to the old rate (about a lb an acre) after that, but the 'wait three weeks or for heavy rain before regrazing the pasture' really does apply because Se is quite toxic.
That might be helpful if it's difficult to get it into the cows other ways. I also keep a little supplemented at base rate through a daily drench, or through dispensers in the water trough for cows that I'm not bringing in to milk. Obviously drenching will be impractical for you but water treatment may be an option.

 

[cowgirl8]

Good deal :banana:

 

[AllForage]

Sorry if I missed it, Did the grass tissue analysis match the blood work?

It is a curious thing how X amount of cows can tolerate and live with a mineral shortage while a few suffer the symptoms.

Does your loose mineral have salt mixed in? I 'm willing to bet if you increase the salt content they would eat some, maybe???

 

[skyhightree1]

I give selenium shots to every calf.

 

[branguscowgirl]

Allforage I am not sure about the grass vs the blood work. I only clipped the Dalisgrass for the vet to send off with the samples. We were quite confident that we would find evidence of the fungus at that time, but did not. Obviously we have a mixture of other grasses to look at for Se. So that may be a consideration. However, probably a waste of money due to the fact that we are known for extremely low levels here.
As far as "salt" goes, yes the loose mineral has it included. But obviously, if they are not craving salt at various times, they are not getting enough Se. So I am thinking that depending solely on the loose mineral route is not going to work for me, and caution everyone about thinking that their animals are safe from deficiencies just because they have them available.

Thanks for the info Regolith. I was wondering about the pasture application. Unfortunately it would not be possible to remove my cattle from the field for 3 weeks.

Sky I also give Se injections at birth. However they only last them 30-60 days.
My best defense is going to be the slow release boluses in addition to Muse injections, I believe.

I will retest some blood work in a few months to see if my plan is working.

 

[M.Magis]

Have you tried different minerals? I had to go through a few before I found one the cows would eat.
I have to be honest, if I had one cow that couldn't thrive without special attention, even if I knew what the issue was, I'd probably still cull her. I would make attempts to fix with another mineral, but eventually I'd have to replace her with one that didn't require anything the rest didn't.

 

[branguscowgirl]

M.Magis I have not tried a bunch of different minerals. My first switch will be to the "sweet goat mineral" that the vet has recommended.
"Culling" her because of my mistake is not an option. #1 because she is a special cow to me. She is young, and this started a few months after she had calved. Which tells me, due to her age and giving everything to her calf made her more susceptible over the older cows. Without further testing of all the cattle, I can not attest that they do not have a problem also.
Just glad that I now know there is a "fixable" problem, and I hope others can learn from my experience.

 

[M.Magis]

I understand, I wasn't suggesting that you should. Just pointing out that, right or wrong, it could still be considered a "cullable offense" to some. I don't have many animals and I live on the farm, so I do have the means to baby one if necessary. But I make a point not to get attached to my animals so as to not be tempted. Now is a tough time to get back into cattle, price wise, so I need each cow to make me as much money as possible. But I do understand your view as well.

 

[milkmaid]

Remember that there's this concept called the "iceberg principle" - in other words, one animal may have clinical signs (part of the iceberg you see above the water), and then another 70-90% subclinical (below the water). If you have on animal with selenium deficiency, I wouldn't cull that animal - I'd test another half dozen in the herd and find out how big a problem the deficiency is.

 

[branguscowgirl]

Remember that there's this concept called the "iceberg principle" - in other words, one animal may have clinical signs (part of the iceberg you see above the water), and then another 70-90% subclinical (below the water). If you have on animal with selenium deficiency, I wouldn't cull that animal - I'd test another half dozen in the herd and find out how big a problem the deficiency is.

Good concept. My thoughts exactly. Most likely all my animals are affected in varying degrees, even the horses.

 

[branguscowgirl]

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FYI- Over the past year she was evaluated by 2 different vets here at home, and multiple vets, (including a Neurologist at UCD). No one had suggested doing a serum Selenium level......... :???:

 

[Nesikep]

I think once you're onto the problem, you're much more alert for signs... If you aren't aware at all, you aren't going to look.

The cow I tested had clinical signs, and was one of the heaviest producers.. I figured she milked 5 gal/ day after calving. I noticed if exposed to the bull right away, she'd breed back fine, but if she calved early, thus only being exposed to the bull 4 months after calving, she couldn't do it... That led me to suspect that she was getting run down on something, and the blood tests proved it.

Now I'm more on-the-ball watching for signs

 

[slick4591]

Glad you solved your mystery.

 

[branguscowgirl]

Glad you solved your mystery.

Thank you all. I am glad also!
Most of my cattle looked like the the picture of good health, yet they were still suffering. I feel really bad that I did not catch it sooner. Hopefully someone will learn from my experience and question undiagnosed lameness in their cattle.