Sick Miniature Jersey Bull

Ronney · #21 09/24/10, 05:20 PM

Bob, the chances of this bull having pneumonia are so slim as to not be worth considering. Oedema in the ball bag and eyes, apparent blindness, sudden loss of appetite and condition, and high fever are signs of a very sick animal, not the signs of something with pneumonia which hasn't yet settled on the lungs. If he had pneumonia the lungs would already be well congested and the vet would have heard that.

Pink eye, cancer eye and the oedema attached to various diseases can all cause opaqueness in the eye. Given the bull's general, deteriorating condition, it is probably safe to rule out pink eye which is the easiest to treat.

Jersey cattle are in fact very robust little blighters and I've certainly never found them to fall over at the drop of a hat or act like a dieing duck in a thunderstorm.

Cheers,
Ronnie

Ronney · #22 09/24/10, 05:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by luvncountrylivn

He had all the symptoms of the MCF and looked exactly like the pics I found of other cattle with it. He was very sick. He obviously couldn't see, was disoriented, had bloody mucous coming out of his nostrils, was salivating out of his mouth, wouldn't eat or drink (wouldn't even consider it) and was just completely in misery. He could barely walk. He would but he was way off balance. We ended up taking him to the butcher which probably would've happened at some point anyway since we didn't want to keep him and weren't having any success selling him. We only needed him to breed our heifer which he did. We're hoping that we can get the meat from him at least.

Your right, those are all the classic symptoms and it's awful just watching them go downhill. I'm so pleased you made the call when you did but sorry that it had to happen. If it is of any consolation, you will probably never have another case of it. I continue to run cattle and sheep and have never had it again. The only change is that I now do not bounder on to a deer farm.

Cheers,
Ronnie

luvncountrylivn · #23 09/24/10, 05:40 PM

Our pasture back ups to the woods and I have seen white tail deer out there. Should we be concerned about that? So we shouldn't have to sell our goats then? I definitely don't want our heifer getting it.

luvncountrylivn · #24 09/24/10, 05:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ronney

Your right, those are all the classic symptoms and it's awful just watching them go downhill. I'm so pleased you made the call when you did but sorry that it had to happen. If it is of any consolation, you will probably never have another case of it. I continue to run cattle and sheep and have never had it again. The only change is that I now do not bounder on to a deer farm.

Cheers,
Ronnie

I just want to thank you for your helpful input. If it wasn't for what you told me we wouldn't have even known about it.

Creamers · #25 09/24/10, 07:32 PM

Quote:

Jersey cattle are in fact very robust little blighters

Yep, I agree.

Sorry about your bull - how sad!

Ronney · #26 09/25/10, 06:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by luvncountrylivn

I just want to thank you for your helpful input. If it wasn't for what you told me we wouldn't have even known about it.

Your very welcome and I'm glad that my learning curve was able to help somebody else further down the track.

I haven't had the time to do any research on the goat aspect of it but need to speak to my own vet on Monday so will try to remember to ask him. However, I wouldn't worry too much about it as I suspect that it is one of those things we have little control over and doesn't occur frequently enough to warrant losing sleep over. I have never met another person other than yourself that has had to deal with it, and apart from the vets, most don't even know what it is.

Cheers,
Ronnie