Wonder what she died from? Any insight appreciated

[skelso]

I know this could be a common scenario, but tell me what you think.

I had a Beefmaster 1st calf heifer. She calved at 24 months. She was on the small side, 700-800 lbs. Her calf looks and acts great and is on par w/ the other calves of 3-4 calf mothers who are much larger.

One month after delivery mom I noticed that mom had a runny nose, I heard her cough 2X, droopy ears and was walking slower to the lot. I gave her 30cc LA200 that day. She was still eating and baby was doing well, but her disposition did not improve. Three weeks latter (7 weeks after giving birth) I noticed that her eyes were starting to sink, her hip bones and ribs were showing, her ears were still kind of down and she was lying around too much. I had seen her grazing some and I was giving her 2-3lbs of 14% feed separate from the herd. I noticed that she had probably been having diarrhea. I got her up and gave her another 35cc LA200 and 3.5 Sulfa Boluses. While in the chute she had dark bloody diarrhea with chunks of manure in it. I put her and her calf in a separate lot and was going to try to rehydrate her....The next morning she was dead.

She had been vaccinated in April w/ Virashield 6 and UltaChoice 8

1) Any idea what was wrong with her? Was this BVD?

2) I have the 7wk old calf in the lot/barn. She is eating calf starter and taking a bottle 2x day. How long before she leaves quarantine and can re-join the heard?

I moved the herd hay supply and pushed the waste hay/manure into a pile and ran a drag over the place then shoveled the manure out of the lot where the sick cow was and I'm going to spray it with disinfectant.

Thanks for your opinions

 

[dun]

Likely pneumonia. Next time use a real antibiotic.

 

[cross_7]

I'm going to GUESS and that's all anyone can to it aint bvd, but you can take an ear notch from the calf to the vet and have it tested.
I'd say she didn't cleanup good.
But it could be almost anything, she may have ate some hardware or had internal injuries from calving
I doubt the la300 did much, oxytetracycline has it's uses but probably not in this case.
I'd test the calf to ease my mind and really watch the other but I'd bet it wasn't something that the other could have contracted

 

[skelso]

Next time use a real antibiotic.

Yea, I read that over and over as a response, but I don't have any large animal vets close by and my only supplier is the local farm store and ValleyVet.com.

What are your suggestions of antibiotics to keep on hand? and can I get any without a vet prescription? What would you have done w/ this cow and how long would you keep the 7wk old calf up if she's doing good?

I couldn't tell if she was running a fever and I only heard her cough 2x on that one occasion. I do think that I'm going to have 1st calf heifers deliver at 30 months from here on.

Thaks for any advice

 

[cross_7]

Next time use a real antibiotic.

Yea, I read that over and over as a response, but I don't have any large animal vets close by and my only supplier is the local farm store and ValleyVet.com.

What are your suggestions of antibiotics to keep on hand? and can I get any without a vet prescription? What would you have done w/ this cow and how long would you keep the 7wk old calf up if she's doing good?

I couldn't tell if she was running a fever and I only heard her cough 2x on that one occasion. I do think that I'm going to have 1st calf heifers deliver at 30 months from here on.

Thaks for any advice

I aint Dun but I'll tell you keeping "drugs" on hand won't fix them all and probably not in this case
The cough, droopy ears, runny nose, lethargic all sound like respiratory and may have,
but the diarrhea, dark stool(indication of blood), and clumps lead me to think it was something else and maybe a secondary infection.
If I couldnt diagnose it or treat it I say haul her to a vet

 

[cross_7]

Also watch the others for coccidiosis

 

[greybeard]

You might want to do a preventative treatment of amprolium in the water supply for the rest of your herd if you don't have any other way to administer it--if you suspect cocci.

http://www.corid.com/Pages/default.aspx

 

[dun]

Any of the serious antibiotics require a vets perscription or to get it from a vet. Build a relationship with a LA vet, that will make the medical type of issues much easier to deal with. If there are any dairys in the area you can sometimes get medical stuff from them.

 

[skelso]

Thanks,

Moving on to the care of the calf...I'm bottle feeding it medicated milk replacement 2qt twice a day and it it eating a little calf starter and hay throughout the day.


at 7 1/2 wks of age should I give her any vaccines vet? and for what? I don't guess that I can treat her like a healthy 6month old.

Thanks again

 

[dun]

As long as the milk replacer is the stuff from milk and milk byproducts and not soy it should be doing fine. Whatever you would normally vaccinate for will work fine, don;t forget the boosters.

 

[cross_7]

Vaccinate for 7-way blackleg and 5 way IBR, BVD, PI3 and BRSV
You can start by reading the sticky in the Health & Nutrition section
There is more information than you can adsorb available on the internet
Tons of University health and nutrition studies are online
Read all you can

Edit
JMO
but I'd use a killed IBR
http://www.valleyvet.com/c/farm-ranch-s ... cines.html