Whole herd had diarrhea

[millstreaminn]

I've been feeding wrapped bales of hay to my cows since last fall with no problems. Last week the whole herd got diarrhea. Stinking, bubbly diarrhea. I even saw some with some bloody mucous in it. I immediately removed all of their wrapped hay and put them on some 3 year old dry round bales I had. The cows never went off feed while they were on the wrapped bales (and had diarrhea), but it took them 2 days to start eating the dry stuff. They have been on the dry hay for 3 days now and their manure is back to normal. I have to start re-feeding the wrapped hay as I don't have enough dry to last the winter. I'm hesitant to put them back on the wrapped and throw their stomachs off again. I want to feed them 1/2 dry and 1/2 wrapped but if given the choice they will only eat the wrapped and leave the dry.

The wrapped hay I've been feeding is second cut grass (orchard, brome, timothy) and is real nice stuff. I'm kinda hoping that the diarrhea was just a bug that went through them and not a result of the wrapped hay I am feeding. That kind of diarrhea wasn't the type I've seen when the cows are given too much protein. Just hoping it was a one time thing... :???:

 

[Koffi Babone]

Winter dysentery???

http://www.merckmanuals.com/vet/digesti ... l#v3263211

 

[Son of Butch]

I would vaccinate both pregnant cows and oral vaccination of all calves at birth with Calf-Guard to prevent a possible deadly outbreak of cornavirus calf scours this spring. Also make sure your BVD vaccination program is up to date.

http://www.leedstone.com/calf-guard-reg-14243.html

 

[angus9259]

seems odd it would be the feed all of a sudden after they'd been on it that long.

the blood makes me think coccidia.

can you take a stool sample to vet?

 

[bigbull338]

sounds like its 2 things to me 1 is winter disentry.the other is you should always have dry hay out free choice along with the silage bales.

 

[Howdyjabo]

Bubbly is classic acidosis- the mucous and blood is not as common but possible.

Must be some real good baleage. You are going to have to cut it with something or sell it/trade it for some more grass hay.

 

[millstreaminn]

Winter dysentery???

http://www.merckmanuals.com/vet/digesti ... l#v3263211

That sounds exactly like what they had. Explosive diarrhea, bit of a cough and spontaneous recovery. I had 3 round bales of dry hay out for them which they had been reluctantly eating the last few days. Last night I put out 3/4 bale of the wrapped hay and you would have thought they were starving to death. They ate that bale in an hour. I feed in headlocks so I was able to lock them in and distribute the hay between them so nobody got too much. Stools were fine this morning so we'll see. Thanks for the info. Here's a pic of the bales last summer just before I wrapped them. Very early cut, still dandelion heads in it.

 

[millstreaminn]

I would vaccinate both pregnant cows and oral vaccination of all calves at birth with Calf-Guard to prevent a possible deadly outbreak of cornavirus calf scours this spring. Also make sure your BVD vaccination program is up to date.

http://www.leedstone.com/calf-guard-reg-14243.html

I've got a bottle of Triangle 10 in the fridge. I'll give them all a booster tonight. Thank you.

 

[AllForage]

Did you have the baleage tested? What about a mold spore count and analysis? Just curious.

 

[millstreaminn]

Did you have the baleage tested? What about a mold spore count and analysis? Just curious.

No I did not. Used to have the hay for the dairy cows done, but never have for the beef. They stay fatter than pigs so I know the hay is good quality. Also, I make the hay myself so I have pretty good control over the quality.

 

[TexasBred]

Did you have the baleage tested? What about a mold spore count and analysis? Just curious.

No I did not. Used to have the hay for the dairy cows done, but never have for the beef. They stay fatter than pigs so I know the hay is good quality. Also, I make the hay myself so I have pretty good control over the quality.

You probably just had a group of cattle pig out on some extremely high moisture hay that their system wasn't use to. Protein shouldn't be any higher than your typical hay that you put up.