white muscle disease

[memanpa]

yesterday i heard form my meat processor that on 2 yr old holstin hiefer that i had taken to him to slaughter had white muscle disease, i knew she was stove up and had a hard time moving around, had since i bought her as a calf, i thought (i know stupid) is was just a form of arthritus, she actually got around ok just had some problems getting up on cold morning (Heck i do that ) anyway i did not have her checked out by a vet due to the fact she did get around ok and other than that her health seemed fine.
but the past few months she seemed to have a harder time moving around that usual so i decided to turn her into hamburger. oppppps tooooo late
doing some research on the net has enlightned me of things to be more aware of. very interesting selenium definency is basically unheard of in these partsfrom what i can determine by asking around,
looks like i was lucky she lived as long as she did.

 

[Green Creek]

Several years ago we purchased Char/Sim cross cows that were large, healthy looking animals but their calves were just not very thrifty and were prone to scours, etc. We had one posted after it died and the vet diagnosed white muscle disease. He was from the east coast and said it was prevalent in dairy herds there. That was the first we had heard of it too but have been feeding mineral with selenium ever since with no problems.

 

[memanpa]

the hiefer was a dairy calf, and assumed a freemartin, not sure where it came from as i bought it from an idividual. but i feed a free choice mineral base and will make sure it has the se i need

lesson learned

 

[Beefy]

what kind of effects does white muscle disease have on the meat?

 

[memanpa]

from what i am finding out the meat is unedable, has no value what so ever, the pic ture i have seen on the web show no red meat only white cells and what apppears to be tendons although they are not.
from what my processor (licensed and usda inpected) told me about the only thing that was even close to being salvagable was the chuck area and not a lot of that.

what was about 700# hanging weight will give me maybe 50 # of hamburger, talk about a low yielder, i am still doing some net research so i am not really vey well informed

 

[Beefy]

so, at that age...if you had supplied the calf with selenium (and in what forms? shots or minerals) could the problem be corrected gradually or not?

 

[memanpa]

from what i am understanding if nipped in the bud it might have been less severe,
what i am understanding it is passed from mother to offspring , as i stated i am doing more research looking for answers
so far all i have is the net to supply me with answers. slenium defencency can be HELPED by shots and a mineral program, however the amount neededis just a trace the shot seems to be an over kill (do not take my word for this only what i am reading)

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

White Muscle disease is not a DISEASE passed on to offspring. It is caused by SE deficiency. Mostly hits newborns. WMD affects large muscles - heart, lung, tongue, & leg muscles. Calves can do OK, than if they get up & start running, they can keel over - heart & lungs can't handle it.
I NEVER heard of a full grown 2 year old that far along w/ WMD?? pretty amazing.
The biggest thing is calves won't suck. They don't have the energy to get up & get going, than when they do, their tongue won't work right for them (dumb suckers).
If given SE suppliment, they come out of it right away.