Post by Applelonia on Jan 3, 2017 11:30:42 GMT -5
Our cows are all dehorned, bangs vaccinated, and hoof trimmed and *knock on wood* not one has ever tested positive for BLV.
Besides the bangs, you can totally do the others on your own, even other vaccinations you can do on your own. Nowadays with cheap equipment, there's really no reason to reuse needles, etc. other than in ignorance. I have a hunch that if you explained to your vet concerns about spread of disease, I bet they'd even sanitize their tattooing equipment (soak in alcohol or something).
There comes a point where we have to balance proper management of an animal with potential health risks. Being lame from lack of hoof trimming can be more deadly to a cow that the remote possibility of one disease. Being gored by a horn means death for a human. When I hear of a farm not doing "anything" management, it's often tied to poor management rather than being ultra savvy and I'd be quite suspect.
I have hoof trimming equipment and may attempt to trim Apps hooves in the future if needed. Our vet will show me how to do it. A few weeks ago I decided to see if she'd let me pick up her hoof - never had I tried before. I ran my hand down her leg and lifted the leg/hoof as one would do on a horse. She let me hold it up and she sifted her weight to her other legs. I then put it down. Told her what a fabulous cow she was! Then two weeks later, I told her I was going to "pick up Appy foot." As I approached her she shifted her weight away from that foot I had picked up two weeks ago and let me pick it up and place it down several times. Randalls seem to have rather nice hooves that stay trimmed back by our rocky soil. Apps toes are getting a little long this winter so they may need a trim! The Guernsey that we plan on getting - I've seen pictures of several of their cows - at various ages - very nice hooves. Rocky east coast areas can keep cows hooves naturally trimmed back. Of course if one of our cows needed hoof trimming or went lame I'd find someone who would help them.
I leave the horns on for several reasons. One being overall health...do I think they might help with natural immunity and help in overall health - I do.
Worming - I've never wormed them. I bring in fecal samples for testing - always good reports!
Vacinnes - certain areas of the country things are more prevalent and so I can see for instance, if cows are dropping from things like black-leg where it would be a wise idea to get that vaccine. After our cows (App and Dazzy) got several vaccines (this would have been about two years ago) I saw how they reacted to it. They got rabies vac, resp. vac, and clostridial vac. To the best of my knowledge this is not a breed that's been heavily vaccinated and vetted in the past. They were in a dazed stupor. I spent days in the barn figuring they might die. They didn't have much appetite, no energy, eyes closed half way, just stood there with heads hung, dull eyes, slow breathing. They looked like they might drop over. Their quick responses where slow and strange. I'd call Apple and she would slowly lift her head and look in my general direction and feebly try to focus her eyes on me and then hang her head back down. She would be laying down in her stall and when I'd go by her she just laid her head on me and looked straight ahead with glossed over dull eyes. They both had the same response and it happened within an hour of vaccinating. It took them about a week to start acting somewhat normal again. Weeks before they were back to normal. Having never had cattle before I'm not sure if that was a normal response but it didn't seem right. Something was way wrong.
I remember the vet having a hard time getting the needle through to give them vaccines. He had his assistant come over and feel their hide. He'd never felt anything so thick on a cow before. He asked me about it, but having never felt a cow other than them I thought it was normal.
And my vet will not disinfect his Bangs tools. We've talked in detail about my disease concerns (he told me he tells stories about me and my cows - but leaves my name out). Even before I asked about disinfection he knew where I was going. He said "no" And I clarified and asked if he might clean it. There were no ifs, ands, or buts about it - It was a NO!
I freely admit that my "management" style might backfire someday...might be gored or have the whole herd go down from illness. I hope neither happen. But I look at things that I know, as I'm still rather new to cows...poultry. There are many breeders now days who vaccinate for things such as Mareks. They feel if they didn't their whole flock would go down because of exposure at shows. The health and vigor within certain breeds/lines is not what it used to be. They vaccinate all chicks even ones they sell. And then you have breeders like the man I got the Brahmas and a line of Welsummers from. My grandparents (they'd be over 100 if still alive) used to get chicks/other poultry from him, my parents got chicks from him and I've been getting chicks from him since I was a kid....he has some of the oldest and best quaility lines of some breeds in the country. The tough survive - there's no vaccines. He keeps small numbers - the best of the best and they are hardy. I've seen first hand some of their disease resistance. He used to show a lot so they've been exposed to lots of stuff.
And thats the direction I take with the cows (within reason). It's not neglect. Animals I feel when given meds or vaccines to try to cover their risk to a myriad of diseases/viruses I think can be a double edged sword. It can give protection but I wonder if it makes future generations weaker in some cases and more dependent on manmade/given protection. This is just an option and I may be on this very forum in the future saying what was I thinking!?! But, for the time being I'm comfortable, with some reservations, with this management style. If they need treatment I will not say no, if after logical thought I've determined it's in their best interest. Like when they came here as calves and got ill from transport - they were given Draxxin. No question it was the right thing to do. I want to give them rabies vac again but seeing their response last time, I'm very hesitant. When App got her SCC of over 800,000 in a quarter I did not medicate as a vet advised. I treated it with a concoction or essential oils in a coconut/beeswax balm. I stopped milking and just let Walter milk her out. But I was monitoring her several times a day. Spent 100's on DNA and repeat regular milk sample testing and was testing with three different at home tests. Went back to normal and has remained normal since.
No one is going to get it right a 100 percent of the time. And no one has a perfect management style. We can just try to do the best we can with our individual situations. So my choice to avoid certain veterinary work has other reasons becides wanting to limit BLV risk. And that's one of the things I love about this forum...there are so many different view points and management styles and we can all politely discuss our various thoughts and ideas on many different bovine related topics...BLV being just one of them!!