When you find a dead one, what happened?

[CKC1586]

Please update us when your vet completes his tests....

 

[Putangitangi]

Of course. I would expect to hear something today (Monday).

 

[Commercialfarmer]

Because we shot her in the head, I didn't think there would be much point in cutting it open to get brain samples, but in retrospect that would have been a good idea, if I'd also had some formalin on hand. A test on brain tissue might have confirmed Thiamine deficiency. After rejecting the idea of lead, I've said yes to testing for it, since it would be stupid not to eliminate it. I haven't lived here forever; who knows what there might be around the paddocks which I've never noticed?

Duoject? B1 & 12?

I will supplement Mg for the next few days, just in case. But the violence and duration of the seizure was extreme and I'd have expected (wouldn't I?) to have seen some sort of indication of something going a bit wrong beforehand? The weird behavior 20 days before with complete recovery afterwards does suggest something more particular to this animal. These are relatively well-fed, quietly farmed animals in good health and if something is awry, it's usually pretty easy to spot a change in behavior.

Whatever, if she'd survived, it would only have been for salvage and I'd have spent the next few weeks wondering if it was going to happen again. That's no way to live, I know from a year's experience with the grand-mother favorite cow!

The grand dam having similar symptoms and the normal time between symptoms with this being the only animal affected should weigh heavily when considering all differentials if you do not have a definitive answer in the end. Ruling out lead and thiamine deficiency is just smart to do since there are so many unknown factors, and you can do something about them. But I am thinking along the same lines as you, that with normal behavior in between- polioencephalomalacia, lead toxicosis, plant toxicities and disorders that generally carry other symptoms (depressed or altered mentation) and aren't here now gone in 10 minutes type situations- they are pretty low on my list of possibilities.

As was stated earlier, without a necropsy of the brain, you likely won't find the definitive answer. But it is understandable why you didn't get a sample in this situation.

 

[Putangitangi]

I was doing a bit of self-kicking this morning, thinking we should have cut her up a bit more. But it's hard at the time to do that stuff. I was so shocked by the whole thing, both from watching it happen and because she was such a lovely heifer, carrying high hopes for a long future. My pretty-tough partner cried when he shot her! We both found it extremely distressing.

I bravely cut open the head of my favorite-ever cow, her grandmother, and that achieved nothing except a permanent memory of unpleasantness and some residual annoyance at the vet. In this case it presumably would have been hard to see whether any bleeding or other abnormality was present before or because she was shot. Shooting her seemed the only reasonable thing to do at the time.

A brain sample may have eliminated the Thiamine question.

Results back so far are simply that her liver stores of copper and selenium were ok. I wondered about the copper, having not injected that group lately (our iron levels disrupt copper absorption in the cattle on this farm). I'm told the lead test takes a couple of weeks.

I appreciate all your thoughts on this.

 

[Putangitangi]

Sorry I forgot to post back about the last liver test. (My partner tried to amputate his big toe by dropping a huge pruned tree branch on it and things got a bit busy!)
Lead was negative.

 

[Kathie in Thorp]

I think I can say Craaaap!!!! Just a comment. Sorry Putang. You are not having a good time.

 

[Putangitangi]

It could get worse, then it did - now have a horrid cold or 'flu, not sure which, hot and weak and sore throat. I guess it could be worse than this yet! Hopefully it doesn't come to that. At least I know it won't snow.

 

[Workinonit Farm]

Oh Putangitangi I hope you feel better soon! Yes, at least you won't be getting any snow.

Katherine

 

[CheyenneLittle]

Was she vax for rabies? We have had a few rabies cases up here where we are with similar symptoms. Scary stuff.