Post by mstar on Oct 3, 2011 11:27:49 GMT -5
Hello All,
I had a cow emergency yesterday (well a long decline into an emergency because I was treating her for the wrong thing) that I want try and get more information into and prevention. This is a very long explanation, Buttercup is doing better this morning.
Buttercup is 3 years old and had her first calf last November, she never took the calf so we milked her from the beginning. We bred her in June (she's due Feb.6th) and with school and winter we decided to dry her off in early September. Honestly I didn't watch her very closely, I didn't really think I had to (first of many mistakes on my part). Also around this same time the Alfalfa dried up in our area, we had a very wet spring/early summer and there is a shortage (again) in the Willamette Valley so I had to switch to local grass hay until I found something. We switched back to alfalfa a little over two weeks ago (she lives with the dairy goats and we feed alfalfa year round and they have pasture). About 2-3 weeks ago she started hanging out in the bottom of our fields, in the trees, not coming to the feeders and water very often, we would hike out there and bring her in and noticed that she was loosing a lot of weight and the flies were really bugging her, I certainly didn't think this was an emergency. Usually I do a fecal then worm but she had lost so much weight I just went ahead and wormed her last Thursday and bought the 14 day fly spray, because I thought maybe that was why she wasn't at the feeders, that the flies were bugging her. Then on Friday she looked really low, I gave her some B-Complex and Banamine because I thought she was feeling sick from an over-worm load, I called my one local vet and he wasn't in on Friday so I just treated her myself. Same on Saturday night but she wasn't getting better, tried my vet again, not on call this weekend (his partners won't even call me back, horse vets). She started having muscle spasm's on Saturday night, I just couldn't figure it out, I mean she is a dry cow now, couldn't be milk fever and I thought couldn't be any other metabolic disease. Sunday Morning the muscle twitching was really bad and I realized she has made no dung at all, even though she had stayed in the barn all night, we brought her down to a sick pen and my daughter checked, she had very hard dung stuck, we pulled some out and collected it in a bag. Realizing this is an emergency situation I called my other vet (much farther away), he also is not on call but his partner (another horse vet) will come see her. He made it out last night and basically between us the only thing we could come up is Magnesium Deficiency and he treated her for liver flukes, because my wormer did not (Epernix), even as he left he said he wasn't sure that was the correct diagnosis but she has no displaced abomasim, no twisted gut, and had the muscle twitching and basically all the symptoms of Magnesium Deficiency, but he said she is so young and dry and couldn't figure out why she would have gotten it? Her ears were also ice cold. I chose not to have the hospital run the blood, only because it would have been another $65 and we treated her last night for Magnesium Deficiency.
Last night he gave her about a quart of intravenous CMPK, he tubed her with a couple of gallons of warm water and energy drench, and he did a full rectal exam (baby is fine right now). He felt like the baby is fine and will be fine even with all this (I hope he is right!!!). He also gave her I think B-12 and B-Complex. He left me with two tubes of mineral energy paste and I gave her one tube this morning. Her muscle spasms have stopped and her ears are warmer but she still hasn't made any dung or seems to be drinking much. He is running the fecal and calling me to check on her this morning.
I guess after my very long explanation does anyone have any insight?? I can see many mistakes I made along the way through ignorance but I didn't know a dry cow or I should say newly dried off cow would have this kind of deficiency? Her mammary system is great, dried off with no problems, she also has no signs of any infection or pneumonia. So he didn't do any anti-biotics.
Thank you so much for any help! It was very scary yesterday trying to find a vet to come out and worrying we were loosing her.
I had a cow emergency yesterday (well a long decline into an emergency because I was treating her for the wrong thing) that I want try and get more information into and prevention. This is a very long explanation, Buttercup is doing better this morning.
Buttercup is 3 years old and had her first calf last November, she never took the calf so we milked her from the beginning. We bred her in June (she's due Feb.6th) and with school and winter we decided to dry her off in early September. Honestly I didn't watch her very closely, I didn't really think I had to (first of many mistakes on my part). Also around this same time the Alfalfa dried up in our area, we had a very wet spring/early summer and there is a shortage (again) in the Willamette Valley so I had to switch to local grass hay until I found something. We switched back to alfalfa a little over two weeks ago (she lives with the dairy goats and we feed alfalfa year round and they have pasture). About 2-3 weeks ago she started hanging out in the bottom of our fields, in the trees, not coming to the feeders and water very often, we would hike out there and bring her in and noticed that she was loosing a lot of weight and the flies were really bugging her, I certainly didn't think this was an emergency. Usually I do a fecal then worm but she had lost so much weight I just went ahead and wormed her last Thursday and bought the 14 day fly spray, because I thought maybe that was why she wasn't at the feeders, that the flies were bugging her. Then on Friday she looked really low, I gave her some B-Complex and Banamine because I thought she was feeling sick from an over-worm load, I called my one local vet and he wasn't in on Friday so I just treated her myself. Same on Saturday night but she wasn't getting better, tried my vet again, not on call this weekend (his partners won't even call me back, horse vets). She started having muscle spasm's on Saturday night, I just couldn't figure it out, I mean she is a dry cow now, couldn't be milk fever and I thought couldn't be any other metabolic disease. Sunday Morning the muscle twitching was really bad and I realized she has made no dung at all, even though she had stayed in the barn all night, we brought her down to a sick pen and my daughter checked, she had very hard dung stuck, we pulled some out and collected it in a bag. Realizing this is an emergency situation I called my other vet (much farther away), he also is not on call but his partner (another horse vet) will come see her. He made it out last night and basically between us the only thing we could come up is Magnesium Deficiency and he treated her for liver flukes, because my wormer did not (Epernix), even as he left he said he wasn't sure that was the correct diagnosis but she has no displaced abomasim, no twisted gut, and had the muscle twitching and basically all the symptoms of Magnesium Deficiency, but he said she is so young and dry and couldn't figure out why she would have gotten it? Her ears were also ice cold. I chose not to have the hospital run the blood, only because it would have been another $65 and we treated her last night for Magnesium Deficiency.
Last night he gave her about a quart of intravenous CMPK, he tubed her with a couple of gallons of warm water and energy drench, and he did a full rectal exam (baby is fine right now). He felt like the baby is fine and will be fine even with all this (I hope he is right!!!). He also gave her I think B-12 and B-Complex. He left me with two tubes of mineral energy paste and I gave her one tube this morning. Her muscle spasms have stopped and her ears are warmer but she still hasn't made any dung or seems to be drinking much. He is running the fecal and calling me to check on her this morning.
I guess after my very long explanation does anyone have any insight?? I can see many mistakes I made along the way through ignorance but I didn't know a dry cow or I should say newly dried off cow would have this kind of deficiency? Her mammary system is great, dried off with no problems, she also has no signs of any infection or pneumonia. So he didn't do any anti-biotics.
Thank you so much for any help! It was very scary yesterday trying to find a vet to come out and worrying we were loosing her.