Tetanus

[MO_cows]

Well we are in the middle of learning an expensive lesson about tetanus aka lockjaw, so thought I would share so maybe somebody can learn the easy way. We had the vet out and worked all the cattle and castrated two little bulls in early April. Over the weekend, one of them bloated. We have a lot of clover so I thought he just overdid it. Had the vet out today to treat the bloat, turns out that is the least of his problems. He has tetanus. I learned that 80% of animals infected with tetanus will die. I learned that tetanus is a spore that can stay in the ground for years and years and that horses shed it in their manure. So, if you have ever had horses kept on your property, or you use horse manure for compost/fertilizer, make sure you keep current on your own tetanus shot. And if you keep other livestock, consider adding tetanus to their vaccination regimen. We used to keep horses and always kept them vaccinated for tetanus, but it wasn't recommended by our vet to vaccinate the cattle so we didn't. We will now! Our steer was in the earlier stages, so hopefully he can recover. He still has a lot of life and fight in him so we are gonna pay for the treatment and give him a chance.

[rancher1913]

we use tetnus shots whenever we band.

[copperhead46]

Ditto, whenever we castrate, even banding them, my vet always gives a tetnus shot, I can't believe your vet didn't do that. So sorry your steer is so sick, hopefully you caught it in time and he will recover. thats a really expensive lesson.
P.J.

[MO_cows]

That is what has me scratching my head. When you give the tetanus shot, it takes time for the animal to build up the antibodies that protect it from the "real" tetanus. So it seems like a waste of time and money to give the shot at the same time you band or cut??? The vet said tonight that ideally, you would give a tetanus shot 30 days prior and a booster 2 weeks prior to castration. But we aren't set up for that intensive of management. In the future, we will use one of the vaccinations that includes tetanus and hit everybody with it. Then the cows have immunity and pass it to the calves with the colostrum.

The steer got a major dose of tetanus anti-toxin and also penicillin. We have to hit him with the penicillin daily for awhile. I don't know if it was the meds or just getting the pain and pressure relieved from the bloat, but he was walking better and looked more alert about an hour after we treated him. We caught it fairly early, he didn't have all the symptoms yet, so hopefully he will beat the odds. I would hate to lose the beef, and I especially hate to see an animal suffer and/or die because we made a mistake in management.

[oneokie]

The tetanus anti-toxin is supposed to give almost instaneous immunity.
I give one dose of it (5cc) when I band 500 to 600 lb bulls, and (knock on wood) haven't lost one.

[chrisntiff]

Oneokie is correct. There are two types of tetanus shots. One is for long term protection and will take time to build up the antibodies. This would be like the Barvac CD&T. We give one shot and then three weeks later give another to "lock" the build up of anti-bodies. Then there is the instant anti-toxin which gives protection for about 14 days. This is what you use on young animals after banding or dehorning.

[MO_cows]

Originally Posted by chrisntiff

Oneokie is correct. There are two types of tetanus shots. One is for long term protection and will take time to build up the antibodies. This would be like the Barvac CD&T. We give one shot and then three weeks later give another to "lock" the build up of anti-bodies. Then there is the instant anti-toxin which gives protection for about 14 days. This is what you use on young animals after banding or dehorning.

That is what I didn't grasp. Two different shots with two different purposes. I had never requested a tetanus shot at castration or dehorning because I thought it needed 2 weeks to give them any protection. The vet didn't suggest it and he sure feels bad now. I think he had forgotten we used to have horses on the property. Any rate, we will improve our practices and I posted here it in the hope somebody else can learn from our mistake.

This morning the steer had a mouthful of hay, but acted like he couldn't chew it. We are gonna soak some pellets tonight and see if he can slurp them up. He's still on his feet and fighting to live.

[chrisntiff]

Good luck. We have lost a goat to tetanus and it is not very pretty. The chance of survival after you first see symptoms is extremely low- I believe 20% or so. We opted to put the poor animal out of its misery once we tried to aggressively treat with no signs of improvement.

[SCRancher]

So if you band at birth (within the first week) do you need tetanus?

[myersfarm]

if I use a rubber band with metal clip I give tetanus shot if full rubber I do not...it works for me....i use the tetanus with black leg mixed with it