yearling down

[buckeye]

checked pasture tonight and had yearling steer laying down flat. calf acted normal yesterday and the stool and breathing are normal. calf is sitting upright now and hope to try again at getting it up. has anyone else seen this before?

 

[A.J.]

Sorry to hear that. It's hard to say without seeing it, and it could be any number of things. It could possibly be something poison that it ate, or could it have fallen and hurt its back, leg, or hip maybe? Does it act like it tries to get up, but can't, or does it not try? If you're not sure and it's not making any progress I would contact a vet ASAP, because the longer it's down the harder it's going to be for it to get back up. Their muscles and nerves can can go downhill really fast when they are down like that. Hoping it's back up next time you go to check on it.

 

[buckeye]

thanks for the reply, not exactly sure what the cause was but i surmise either acorns (?) or acidous from Corn (half bucket for seven head seemed doubtful). I seen no improvement so he went to a better place friday, there was some bruises on his hind quarter though. so really not sure what happened hated losing a 700lb calf when the day before it was fine.

 

[cowsrus]

We found two 400-550lb bull calves dead yesterday in different pastures. They were ok a couple days ago. It's bewildering why this happens (finding big calves that were apparently healthy) dead. If it had been a baby calf, i could understand it getting sick or not getting enough milk and something happening to it. We left our bull in this year and my son thinks the bull injured them enough to kill them, but i have never heard of that happening, although i have seen bulls knock over calves with a swipe of his head before. I still think it was something else, but i don't have a clue what.

 

[Phil in Tupelo]

Don't know guys, but both circumstances could be blackleg. Unless you are certain of an injury or something that is not contagious, other cattle, yours and others could be at risk. How did you dispose of carcesse? If not buried or burned could really spread infection. Wish ya'll luck.

 

[Anonymous]

How do you get black leg from that limited description? It could also be quite a few other things. And sometimes they just die

 

[Phil in Tupelo]

Hook,

You are right, it was just a shot in the dark. But if you have other animals at risk and have no clue what the deal is, do you just walk off and hope for the best. Here in Mississippi, a young calf death maybe anything based on circumstances, but in the summer, with heat, and short grass, blackleg would be high up on the list. Also blackleg seems to hunt the best calf or calves in the group. Just thinking if I had other animals, I would really like to know what the cause was. One unexplained dead may be ok, but a couple and you could have some kind of wreck on your hands, unless you are pretty sure of what is going on.

 

[Anonymous]

Well, if your up on your vaccinations blackleg is easy to rule out.

 

[greybeard]

Prussic acid:
Any sorghum or even sudan type grasses that may have suffered frost damage lately then began growing again?

 

[cowsrus]

Thanks for the info, Blackleg is a real possibility. We didn't vacinate for it. Im going to look at the carcasses tomorrow.
I found this fact sheet on it.
http://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets ... cattle.pdf

 

[greybeard]

Don't know guys, but both circumstances could be blackleg. Unless you are certain of an injury or something that is not contagious, other cattle, yours and others could be at risk. How did you dispose of carcesse? If not buried or burned could really spread infection. Wish ya'll luck.

Any injury, such as a bull butting them and causing a bruise or open wound certainly can trigger blackleg if the spores were already present in the muscle tissue. It doesn't take long once the bacteria becomes active to start producing the toxins that attack the muscles. Even sudden activity such as working them or physical stress related to weaning can trigger it.

 

[Phil in Tupelo]

Hook was correct in that based on facts my answer was short... however any cattle under 1 year old sudden death.. blackleg is the first thing to consider. As Hook pointed out, easy if vaccinated, if not still might be BL. I understand you can rub legs of carcass and it will crack or pop like wadding up paper. Other possibilities? Lightning, Perilla Mint, Cherry leaves, other poisons either uncovered for some reason in pasture or just deposited in pasture. Always made me real nervous when I lost a calf and didn't know why. Feared the others were as risk, until I was certain.

One other question... and I don't wish to steal this thread, but...

if unexplained death without wounds, how do ya'll dispose of carcass? Bury. Burn. Predators (coyotes, dogs domestic or wild, buzzard etc? If a diease it really makes a difference.

 

[greybeard]

Bury, but I have a backhoe.
Unless you have a lot of scrap wood or limbs, it's pretty hard to burn one up. Takes lots of diesel.

 

[cowsrus]

Burn, got lots of brush to pile on.

 

[Anonymous]

Hook was correct in that based on facts my answer was short... however any cattle under 1 year old sudden death.. blackleg is the first thing to consider. As Hook pointed out, easy if vaccinated, if not still might be BL. I understand you can rub legs of carcass and it will crack or pop like wadding up paper. Other possibilities? Lightning, Perilla Mint, Cherry leaves, other poisons either uncovered for some reason in pasture or just deposited in pasture. Always made me real nervous when I lost a calf and didn't know why. Feared the others were as risk, until I was certain.

One other question... and I don't wish to steal this thread, but...

if unexplained death without wounds, how do ya'll dispose of carcass? Bury. Burn. Predators (coyotes, dogs domestic or wild, buzzard etc? If a diease it really makes a difference.

In this case you may have been accurate with your quick answer Phil. Good call

 

[Phil in Tupelo]

Thanks. Old saying is "even a blind hog finds an acorn now and then". This is somewhat safer. In Mississippi any unexplained calf death, start with blackleg and go from there. Regards.