Brisket Disease (High Mountain Disease)

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Mueller Show Cattle

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I did not know anything about this till I looked it up. One of our local 4-H girls bought 2 really nice show steers from Kansas this past fall and brought them back to Wyoming, with in 3 weeks both of the steers were dead. She was out $5000 for the 2 steers. She said one day she went outside and the 2 steers were bloated all the way around there belly, neck and around there sides. Before a vet got out there, they both were dead and vet said he would not been able to save them even if they still were alive. Bad deal for such a nice local 4-H girl. Food for thought for you guys that buy cattle from lower elevation and bring them to high elevation states. I have bought cows from low elevation states and brought them to Wyoming, luckily I have not had any problem so far but now it has me on edge after seeing this girl loose 2 steers. She told me that the vet told her that the steers died from brisket disease and I just got done looking it up.

http://www.westerncowman.com/december2011/brisket_disease.html
 

GoWyo

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Big M -- it more of a problem over 5000' and especially when get to 6000' and up.  My place is at 6300 feet and I always get a little nervous bringing in low elevation cattle.  A kid lost one to brisket at 7200' last year and I think it was a Wyoming steer.  Also, there was an article not long ago about finding similar symptoms in western Nebraska feedlot cattle at quite a bit less than 5000'.  Nasty thing when it happens.  Have to recognize it early and get them into lower elevation.
 

GoWyo

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DL - I remember now the lower elevation feedlot symptoms were a little different than regular brisket disease.  It seems the symptoms were all similar in various degrees to congestive heart failure.
 

Mueller Show Cattle

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GoWyo said:
Big M -- it more of a problem over 5000' and especially when get to 6000' and up.  My place is at 6300 feet and I always get a little nervous bringing in low elevation cattle.  A kid lost one to brisket at 7200' last year and I think it was a Wyoming steer.  Also, there was an article not long ago about finding similar symptoms in western Nebraska feedlot cattle at quite a bit less than 5000'.  Nasty thing when it happens.  Have to recognize it early and get them into lower elevation.
I know most articles I read said 6000ft and above but were I live is at 5,300ft and the 2 steers that died was up in the mountains outside of Casper with an  elevation of 5,900ft the girl said the elevation of their ranch. One article I read said steers under the age of 1 year had the best chance of brisket disease. I have only bought bred cows to this point in sea level states. Either way, it is one more thing for me to be concerned about and watching if I buy more cattle from states with a much lower elevation. I feel bad for that girl because she did not have her steers insured, she is out $5,000, bum deal.
 

ALTSIMMY 79

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I've also heard of this type of thing happening but at around 7000 ft in the cases I know of. I really wouldn't be too concerned unless I was moving flat land cattle to around that mark or higher I guess. 5300 and some mature age animals I think its pretty safe to say its A Okay ! I've moved plenty your way and never had a problem ! 
 

KSanburg

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It is absolutely genetic, and seemingly more prominent in Angus than other breeds but we also see it in Herefords. I personally have not heard a lot about it Shorthorn mainly due to the lack of them being used here in my area. I have heard of some of the continental breed having some problems but again the commercial guys don't use a lot of them in the extrem high elevations. Pneumonia will bring it out in cattle very quickly and anyone purchasing cattle from lower elevations should visit with the breeder to see if the cattle were ever sick with any bronchial infection. I sale bulls to several commercial ranches that run their cows as high as 13,000 feet during the summer and they will not even look at cattle unless they have a PAP test (pulmonary arterial pressure). I know of several ranchers have a contract written when the go to purchase bulls that they present to breeders to look at and sign before they will purchase animals form them. I have been lucky enough to have very little trouble with it in my herd and when an animal shows up with it they go down the road.

Now as for the girl in Wyoming, what the poster describes does not sound exactly right for Big Brisket, most of the time the disease will take several days, weeks or as long as a month or two to develop and terminate the animal. To my knowledge and experience I have never seen one die over night from big brisket.

So I would suggest that anyone purchasing an animal from lower elevations to visit in depth with the breeder about the health of the prospect from birth, of course no one can know the genetic make up of some of these animals in regards to the likelyhood of the disease. I do know that both ABS and Select Sires have information as to bulls status for big brisket, I have not asked some of the other semen distributors if they provide information but as much of a potential problem as it can be I am sure that they do. They recommend for the PAP test to be accurate the animal needs to be tested at an elevation over 6000 feet. You can get more information about big brisket at Dr. Tim Holt's web site and I am sure Tim would be happy to visit with anyone about the issue if they would like to call him.

I would recommend that the girl in Wyoming call the people that she purchased her steers from and talk to them about the issue, for the money that she spent I would think they would want to help in some way if they can, but at least they will know next time they get a call from Wyoming and make the potential buyer aware that their cattle have had problems in the past.
 

Mueller Show Cattle

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The girl said she had the steers for 3 weeks in Wyoming before they died. They were club calf genetics, so I suspect high percentage Maine with some Chi and Angus. The little girl said about a little over a week before they died that their brisket did look big but just thought that the steers were growing quick, but the swelling around the belly and sides she said literally happened over a day and then they died shortly after noticing them. She said when the vet got out there, he looked at the dead steers and said it was brisket disease.
 

KSanburg

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Big M Show Cattle said:
The girl said she had the steers for 3 weeks in Wyoming before they died. They were club calf genetics, so I suspect high percentage Maine with some Chi and Angus. The little girl said about a little over a week before they died that their brisket did look big but just thought that the steers were growing quick, but the swelling around the belly and sides she said literally happened over a day and then they died shortly after noticing them. She said when the vet got out there, he looked at the dead steers and said it was brisket disease.

That sound about right, usually the brisket gets big as the hart labors to function properly and then the fluid starts to build enough that it is viable along the stomach and up on the ribs. A very ugly death, basically just fluid building up until the hart cannot function at all.
 

Mueller Show Cattle

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GoWyo said:
Once you've seen it, you won't miss the diagnosis the second time.
I guess my question is if you see is there anything you can do except take them to lower elevation? Doing that could be a challenge to some in Wyoming, I don't know if she has a lower elevation place she could have taken the steers or not. For me, my closest place is central Missouri (My dad's place) being a 16 hour drive, with work it would be challenging for me to just up and leave, I guess it is either that or dead cattle. I know taken them to lower elevation helps but I wish they could figure something else out in case we see it besides putting them on oxygen which could be fun and unlikely. I see it says that it raises there blood pressure basically, can't they give them a drug like humans to lower their blood pressure? With all the drugs out I would think that they should be able to figure something out for them to keep them from dieing without taking them to lower elevation or oxygen.  ???
 

LostFarmer

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Get them to a lower elevation.  Some Lasiks will help take the fluid off.  If I see one that looks like it is having trouble I ship them to my brother at a 1000 feet lower elevation.  Sorry to hear about the girl.  Tough loss. 
 

KSanburg

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I know in Gunnison , CO they have a chamber (I forget the name of it) that you can put them in and pressurize them to a lower elevation, but in the end it cost (not sure how much) and the kids are tight enough on their projects that it would wreck the project, and then as soon as you bring them out of it you are faced with the same problem. I do not know how common those chambers are, so you might do some calling and see if there is one in your area.


Possibly it is a Hyper Baric Chamber.
 
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