Copper Poisening?

Oakshire_Farm · #1 08/18/10, 11:31 PM

Has anyone here heard of copper poisoning in calves?????

We have been raising bull calves for years and all of a sudden we have had HUGE losses? We started with 15 calves and are down to 3! So we have been going through everything that has changed........... We switched from bucket feeding to what we call "tits on the wall" we have rubber teats mounted on the wall with a hose that goes to a check valve and into a tub of milk. Worked great for the first month or two, then the calves started dropping??? We would notice weight loss first, so we would move them into a separate stall, and make sure each one got a turn at the teat, extra grain, lots of hay? But after a day or two they would go down? They still have a appetite? We would get them up during the day make them get exercise. But after about e days of this they loose there appetite, cannot hod them selves up any more and either die or we put them down?

We have scrubbed the barn, moved them to a different pasture away from the barn, and kept loosing them?? Tonight as I was mixing milk for the remaining 3 I noticed the valve that is at the end of the hose (which is copper) is all blue and oxidized. So I showed my hubby and we have been googling it and we have come to the conclusion that we are dealing with copper poisoning!!!!!!!

Has anyone else heard of this????

G. Seddon · #2 08/19/10, 07:26 AM

Get your vet involved. Have you had a necropsy or lab work done on any of them?

sammyd · #3 08/19/10, 09:38 AM

you don't really know till tests are done.
Copper is used in plumbing systems all over without poisoning animals.

cowkeeper · #4 08/19/10, 12:01 PM

Are your cattle getting adequate selenium? Selenium levels in soil on Vancouver Island are very low.ck

Oakshire_Farm · #5 08/19/10, 01:30 PM

Yes, we do supplement with Selenium. All the calves have been buried after they die. We just narrowed it down to the copper poisoning. I have read lots of line and all the symptoms are leading us to believe that is the problem.

I am hesitant to get the vet out to do blood tests....... The cost of that is going to be quite high, the calves are free. I just raise them till they are weaned and sell them. I do not make any thing on them as it is. The last time I had the vet out for a problem with the calf he pointed it out to me that it is just not worth doing any amount of diagnostics on them. I know that sounds harsh but we do not let them suffer if they go down and do not show signs of improving a .22 shell is cheaper than a vet call.

tinknal · #6 08/19/10, 03:33 PM

One calf might not be worth a vet call but 13 are.

francismilker · #7 08/19/10, 03:49 PM

Did all the calves comes from the same place? Do you have one supplier or buy them at a sale barn? I've seen and heard of an entire load of new critters picking something up at the salebarn and being dead in a day or two of some "unknown" illness. ..........just a thought.

**gone-a-milkin** · #8 08/19/10, 03:54 PM

Is the copper fitting sitting right in the milk?
Seriously, I dont see how the milk passing through a copper valve would
allow enough metal to contaminate the milk.

You say you are 'mixing the milk'. Do you mean you are using replacer?
That is the first place I would look for a problem, in the MR.

sammyd · #9 08/19/10, 03:59 PM

http://www.thecattlesite.com/disease...ning-in-cattle

reduced appetite is a symptom you state that they continue to eat..look elsewhere

CCCJerseys · #10 08/19/10, 04:33 PM

No I don't think copper poisoning either. Sounds like a different issue. If they were sheep maybe but not calves. And certainly not from just a valve.
There are many diseases and illnesses that kill quickly.
I would consider many other things and not Copper.

G. Seddon · #11 08/19/10, 05:08 PM

You've lost 80% of your group yet you will not call in a vet or do any testing???????? Unbelievable!

CCCJerseys · #12 08/19/10, 05:37 PM

It could be your Milk Replacer. A dairy here almost had 130 head of cow die because the feed that they ordered was made incorrectly.
Also how do you clean your hoses?

Lizza · #13 08/20/10, 03:09 PM

I can't see copper poisoning from a valve.

Honestly, I too am really shocked that you've lost 13 animals without a call to a vet or a necropsy? If I loose even one animal I do a necropsy, it could be a disease running through my herd or a management problem, you need to know!