why won't my steer eat his grain?

[KMA]

I have a fairly large framey steer that has to be finished by the end of september. He was just brought home from a small pasture where he was eating grass and i was feeding him grain and a flake of hay morning and night. when we brought him home he stopped eating his grain, COB, and he isn't drinking enough. He is still eating his hay though. His feces are kindof greyish and runny that is the only sign that i can tell other than him not eating his grain that there i any thing wrong with him. any suggestions on what i can do or ideas of what would be wrong with him would be much apreciated. thanx

 

[jkwilson]

Change of diet and stress of moving can screw up his system. Also, if you moved him to or from city water, it will make him slow to drink because the water smells different. Give him all the hay he'll eat, a dose of probiotic, and then after a day or two offer him a little grain.

 

[cowgirl580]

this may not be what your looking for but, when my steer wouldn't eat for 4-h i would hose him down so that he was cool and not hot any more and walk him. not necessarily in that order. that way he'd worked up an appetite and he wasn't too hot to eat. also, adding gatorade or something along those lines with electrolytes in them sometimes helps with the drinking diff water. and as jk suggested, he may just not be used to his surroundings. good luck

 

[milkmaid]

His feces are kindof greyish and runny that is the only sign that i can tell other than him not eating his grain

If I recall correctly, that may be a sign of acidosis (may not be spelled right). In short, too much grain/too much energy. How much grain was he on before, and how much is he on now - in pounds? did you just change his feed, or raise the amount of grain by a significant amount?

 

[MY]

If you have the luxury of doing this before you move one, it will help with the water change jkwilson mentioned. Just add a large envelope or two of Kool Aid mix to the water, and they won't know that the water is different. This works for animals being transported too so they will stay wet.

 

[TheBullLady]

Do you have another steer or heifer you can put in with him? They eat better with someone else eating with them.

 

[SF]

Probably an upset stomach. Give him plenty of hay and water for a day or so, introduce him to the grain gradual. Another steer in the pen will help too. Cattle are herd animals, they like to have company

 

[msscamp]

I would agree with Milkmaid. Sounds like too much grain too soon. Give him some probios, and re-introduce the grain gradually.

 

[cowgirl580]

do you happen to know how much grain per feeding he is getting?

 

[TxCoUnTrYbOy]

Gatorade works wonders. My bull would never drink much of anything when I took him to shows (well water at the barn, city water at shows), so I started bringing a little thing of Gatorade powder to throw in his water. Now cant get him enough water and he eats a lot more.

 

[DOC HARRIS]

I hope everyone realizes what a fantastic learning opportunity these posts are - on just about every topic. You would have to pay a fortune to get the great information from consultants that you get here by just logging on and reading! These people are really true Americans! God Bless All of You! :heart:

 

[bigjohn513]

Doc, I couldn't agree more!!!

 

[Bama]

One of the biggest things I have found is that we all call thing by differant names. Case in point shredding a pasture is bushhogging to me. A storage bin is a silo around here. It funny how things are the same yet differant.