teat problems

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Beefy

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We have a cow, Beefmaster Charolais X, 9 years old, calved on march 5th. 2 weeks ago she started acting funny. She would lay down, and get up and walk around and lay back down, get up and kick her back feet at her belly like she had flies down there, and lay back down, get up, walk around ..etc. She was on rye grass so i was like, uh oh, i bet shes got grass tetany and the next day i ran her into a different field with some special pairs (a breech, an old cow, a premie) to keep an eye on her. All the cows had been getting plenty of minerals prior to this and the "special" pasture had a troughful of minerals too but she ignored those. anyway, this cow normally has pink teats but i noticed when i ran her in that they were discolored, brownish, but i assumed she had been lying in the mud, no big deal. well.. it is a big deal b/c her teats (all four) are now black and chapped and look like they are rotten. if youve ever seen a cow that has stepped on her teat and it sloughed off, it is colored like that. This cow had normal sized and shaped teats and all were functional prior to this though and the calf WAS doing great but i dont think shes nursed in a few days. i also noticed that she had lost some hair on the back of her bag today. Anybody know whats going on?
 
Have you tried to milk her and see if she has some sort of mastitis type of infection?

dun
 
Unfortunately I have about concluded that this cow has ergot poisoning and has "dry gangrene" of her teats. dry gangrene can also occur on the feet, tail, ears, etc. it totally sucks. the calf seems to think one teat is salvageable so i'll hope for the best, but i think she has about dried up.

Does anyone know anything about this condition?? had experience with ergot poisoning?

what a crappy year so far.
 
Beefy

I do not know anything about this condition; but I did a Google search by
typing in "ergot poisoning is caused from" and there is a good report from
Iowa State University in PDF format.

I have never run into this problem and from the sounds of it I sure hope I don't.
 
i think its pretty rare for extremities to rot off, but thats my luck.

thanks for the info!
 
this ergot poisoning could possibly explain the outbreak (4 instances) of what we may have been mistakenly treating as foot rot, which we've never had before until this year. conditions were right for ergot to thrive and we did feed a lot of wheat, rye, oat haylage when the "foot rot" happened and now the cows have been grazing rye that has headed b/c of lack of rain. it makes so much sense b/c all the foot rot cases were occuring in the back of the foot instead of in the front (vet thought it was odd footrot too)and i would describe the first one as gangrenous but that cow recovered. the others were mild cases easily treated. I knew something fishy was going on. i should take pictures so that Ruby can post them.
 
I can only post pictures from a website.

Beefy":xdfi6o2x said:
this ergot poisoning could possibly explain the outbreak (4 instances) of what we may have been mistakenly treating as foot rot, which we've never had before until this year. conditions were right for ergot to thrive and we did feed a lot of wheat, rye, oat haylage when the "foot rot" happened and now the cows have been grazing rye that has headed b/c of lack of rain. it makes so much sense b/c all the foot rot cases were occuring in the back of the foot instead of in the front (vet thought it was odd footrot too)and i would describe the first one as gangrenous but that cow recovered. the others were mild cases easily treated. I knew something fishy was going on. i should take pictures so that Ruby can post them.
 
the first case of "foot rot" looked like the foot in the top of this picture except it was on the back of foot and down at the bottom of the foot the hoof was cracked off as if she had pulled it off somehow. the gangrenous outer skin sloughed off and became pink. she walks fine now, had a calf a few weeks ago, but it will be her time to go soon, nonetheless.

(this is gangrenous from ergot poisoning)

pp551-5.jpg


this animals ears are the result of ergot poisoning:

pp551-6.jpg
 
Ergot can be tested for at most labs. There are very specific levels which will cause symptoms. The damage caused can improve but not necessarily 100%--frankly, if there is necrosis of a tip of a tail and it falls off, it's gone! As for teat ends, it depends on the degree of avascular necrosis as to whether the teats will regain function. Talk to your vet or your nearest vet college.

Good Luck! V

Also....I'm heading on vacation (first real one in quite a few years...) to Jamaica and will be off the computer for a couple of weeks. Take care and stay out of trouble!
 
Hi Vicki
have a pleasant and enjoyable. I know that Jamaica will be a well deserved vacation after this past winter in Canada Don't eat to much of that Jamaican jerk pork and chicken. Some of the Wid It's are real tasty also.
Have a pleasant vacation.
 

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