Thirsty Cow

[bandit80]

I would be inclined to give her the nuflor now.

 

[Angus Cowman]

Are you by any chance feeding fescue hay nad is the cow from a local area that would have been on fescue in the past?

dun, just curious as to why you are asking that question about the fescue?

Cows not accustomed to fescue can have serious problems with the endophyte. Besides inhibited cblood circulation it can cause higher then normal temperatures.
That's the reason one of my selection criteria for buying cattle is that they are from a fescue forage system.

and cows that have run on fescue all their lives can still show signs of the endophyte that is one reason I keep mineral with CTC in it out for the cows it seems to help alot

 

[hillsdown]

I would be inclined to give her the nuflor now.

I agree Nuflor now..If you wait you probably won't have to treat her at all. BTW, where is your new thermometer?????

 

[dirtdoctor]

Hit her with some nuflor. If that dont fix her up hit her with baytril or micotil. Do you vaccinate your cattle for IBR?

Just got back from giving her the Nuflor, 60 cc in 6 shots under the skin in the neck, hopefully and with God's help she'll make it thru this. Nuflor is the strongest thing I can get my hands on since the vets gone. As to the vaccinations - she was vaccinated 11/1/08 using Elite 9 and Alpha-7.

If you wait you probably won't have to treat her at all. BTW, where is your new thermometer?????

That's what I'm worried about.

This just hasn't been my week; sick cow, no vet, Southern States, the only farm store around, doesn't have thermometers in stock, (guess I should buy a regular one), it's been raining for 2 days now. Oh, did I mention the sick cow?
:frowns:

 

[dirtdoctor]

Well, she didn't make it thru the night. I feel terrible but I feel like we fought the fight with what we had but lost the battle. I do want to thank everyone for there help it has been very much appreciated.

 

[angus9259]

man, that sucks.

 

[RanchManager]

The fescue issue you are refering to is usually caused by ergovaline (an alkaloid) formed by ergot (a fungus). Ergovaline is a vasal constricter and cows don't build a resistance to it, but have no problems with low dosages of it. We often feed fescue straw (fescue hay that was cut and baled after the fescue seed was combined off) at 50% of the ration. We feed it to hundreds of cows each winter as a low cost roughage source (we grow fescue seed too). We have a lab test done first to see what the ergovaline level is (some fescue varieties are ergot free). Once we know we can then determine how much of it can go into the ration safetly. Accidentally feeding excessive amounts of ergot in the summer months is usually not critical. You will find the cows standing in water (because of the fever), drinking excessive water, and going off feed for a day or two. They pass the feed and their metabolism returns to normal. In the winter though the ergovaline restricts blood flow to the extremities causing frostbite and the lose of tails, ears, feet, etc. Often you loose the cow. We had a case a few years ago, in the neighboring county, of a guy loosing two hundred head because he bought fescue straw cheap and that was all he fed to his cows in the winter. FYI you can find ergot in bluegrass hay/straw as well. A neighbor of ours cleans fescue and bluegrass seed in their plant. They pelletize the screenings and feed it in their feedlot. The ergovaline levels are often extraordinary. They remedy this by feeding MTB by AllTech. It apparently binds the alkaloids. They used to have to dump hundreds of tons of screenings, but now feed it out. We havn't tried it yet, but it is on the list of things to try.