Hi! I have a 4 year old cow nursing her 2nd calf. It's been a rough winter here and I'm sure she's ... "Susie".. just rundown. I have her separated with her calf..."Boy named Sue" so she's getting grain, brome, fresh water, mineral, salt block and a LOT of TLC!!!! I gave her a B-complex + shot yesterday. I also poured about 2 cups of mineral oil... down her throat as she was constipated.......that symptom soon was remedied!!!!! :haha: Susie still is not eating much, she seems to be very thin and of course, not much milk. "Boy named Sue" is very healthy...he's a 4 month calf. The one thing that really confuses me is that she keeps eating mud!! Sometimes big bites full!!!! I know she's looking for something, what could it be? Any ideas? My hubby is at work, so, I'm trying to "dr" Susie on my own...I would appreciate any suggestions you might have.... thanks....Bobbi from the Kansas Flint Hills (surragate cow-mom!!!)
My first thought is worms or parasites.Get some pour on Ivomec and worm her and the calf. The next thing I would do is check her teeth and see if she is able to chew properly.Are you feeding all the hay she will clean up and is the quality good? Is the water source clean and warm she needs a lot of water for herself and to make milk for the calf.Its hard to get a heavy milking cow to gain wieght when she looses condition so worm her and give her the best feed you can give her!!! Mr. Wanda Mike
You might consider early weaning the calf. He's old enough to do it. I also agree with all of Mr. Wanda's suggestions. Jena
On the mud, usually a depraved appitite is due to a mineral deficience, usually phosphorus. Get her a trace mineral salt block and I suspect she will take right to it. You might also take a stool sample into the vet for analysis. Ask for both worms and a mineral analysis. Vet may also want to do a blood test. Ken Scharabok
Susie is isolated so she has all the hay and grain she wants. The water I'm giving her is fresh...clean...straight from the tap and the hay is fresh brome...very good condition! She has a trace mineral block and some lose mineral available. She has little appetite for anything but the hay and not much for that. We have some Cydectin in the cattle meds cabinet...I'll use that on the calf and cow. We normally don't wein until 6 months...but...in this case.... at the very least both Susie and Boy named Sue will go to the barn and start on a grain/hay schedule! We've had several feet of snow in the past month...lots of ice and now with melting...lots of mud...we have a spot around the mineral feeder where the cows have been 'hanging around' and I've seen some of the cows/calves drinking the muddy/manure puddles. My hubby is wondering if some of Susie's problem could be Nitrate poisening? Anybody have any thought on that? Thank you all so much for your help!!! I am taking it all in!!!! Bobbi
Hmmm....I found this, http://www.saltinstitute.org/47g.html about salt deficiency in dairy cattle. Is this a dairy cow? The symptoms here sure seem to hit the mark. Was she lacking salt before? The only other thing I found was ketosis, which doesn't seem to fit. I've never had a constipated cow before, so I googled that. You will get some weird hits though It does not sound like nitrate poisoning to me, but maybe you need to call the vet to come take a look. There's always "hardware"....the definitive diagnosis when no one knows what it is. Jena
I'll check out the site you sent....thanks! Susie is a Horned Hereford. Nothing has changed except a cold, snowy, icy past 5-6 weeks for all the cows. I'm going to check with the vet tomorrow....It's been 24 hours and she's not improving much..... I wondered if she might have milkfever? Bobbi
I checked out the salt site Jena and that sure sounds like a lot of Susie's symptoms..... I'm going to show all of this info to my hubby....he knows a lot more about cattle than I do...he's a 'lifer'! He will know what to do tomorrow and now I have some great suggestions to 'offer' him....isn't that what farmwives do? :yeeha: I'll be back in touch tomorrow.... Thanks again to all... Bobbi from the Kansas Flint Hills!
The area around the mineral feeder would have been soaked in urine. What i urine high in? Salt. Ken S. in WC TN
I always use loose mineral and loose salt. It is very hard for a cow to get enough of salt or mineral from a block. Take her a couple of cups of plain old kitchen salt and she will answer the salt question for you real quick The mud and water around your mineral would have a concentrated amount of salt leached out by the snow melt and she can get it without a lot of work. The bad part is manure that will carry a large parasite load!!!Is her rumen activaty good does she chew her cud regularly when at rest? This is very very important!!!! Mr. Wanda Mike
Bobbi, Did your salt get snowed over or frozen? I agree with Mike, take some loose salt out there and see what happens. Jena
A few years ago, we used cydectin and found that we still had a parasite problem, checked back with the vet we purchased from and everybody had the same problem (the batch was bad for some reason). I'd try everything else but I'd retreat for parasites, just to be safe.
