We have never had to treat one for hardware...what are the symptoms? Haven't been able to check the cows for a good week with all the rain and mud and yesterday noticed one cow had lost a lot of weight in a short amount of time. She is going on 11 years old but has been fine all summer. Looked her over good and didn't see anything wrong. She looks alert and travelling fine, staying with the herd, etc. The weather has been awful and we haven't gotten protein out yet but I don't think either of those would cause such a fast weight loss. Any suggestions?
signs of hardware disease?
- Thread starter braunvieh
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afhm
Well-known member
Did you check her teeth?
kfacres
Well-known member
weight loss... hunched up... have had some bloody stools too! if you suspect it Shove a magnet down her- their cheap and easy
might try some antibodics.. but the magnet is the only way to rid it...
hardware is caused by swallowing something hard, typically metallic.. . nail, screw, bale wire, bolt, etc... often times it will poke the inside of stomach walls if it doesn't tear something up on the way down... won't get expelled... magnet will attach to it, and settle to the bottom without harm..
might try some antibodics.. but the magnet is the only way to rid it...
hardware is caused by swallowing something hard, typically metallic.. . nail, screw, bale wire, bolt, etc... often times it will poke the inside of stomach walls if it doesn't tear something up on the way down... won't get expelled... magnet will attach to it, and settle to the bottom without harm..
Bulldaddy
Well-known member
Had a cow come down with hardware disease a while back. I treated her like it was a respiratory infections. She was off her feed and loosing weght. When she didn't get better, I took her to the vet and he diagnosed it as hardware disease, put a magnet in her and sent us home. The cow never got better and eventually died. In hindsight I think I should have put the magnet it at first sign of illness but I have never had the problem again.
Simmgirl03
Well-known member
Magnets are great but won't get rid of aluminum. I lost a heifer two years ago from a pop can tab. I treated her multiple times with antibiotics and put a magnet down her but lost her fairly quickly. We posted her and found the pop tab - still have it as a reminder to keep the garbage picked up. Sometimes easier said then when renting pasture.
Doc
Well-known member
shortdawg said:
They're about the size of a Sustain III bolus, maybe a tad smaller.
justintime
Well-known member
Magnets will only do so much. If the metal causing the problem has started an abcess on the rumen or created a hole big enough for rumen contents to seep out, the magnet may pull the steel object back into the rumen, but the cow will continue to go down hill, because of the peritinitis created. I have been told that every mature cow will have approximately two handfuls of metal in her rumen. It is hard to imagine some of the stuff that has been found in a cow's rumen. I remember my dad losing a herd bull suddenly when I was young and when the vet did a post mortem, he had a 6 inch rail spike that had gone through his stomach wall and into his heart.
I have mentioned this before on SP, but when I was in college, a study was done over a period of years comparing milk production in dairy cows between two groups ... one that had magnets and another that had none. There was a 5-8 % increase in milk production in the group that had magnets. I have often wondered if the same was true in beef cattle, and I expect there is some benefit to putting magnets in your replacement heifers. Several years ago, I was telling a manager of a livestock supply company about this, and he told me he had a friend that had access to magnets that were taken out of cows that had gone to slaughter. He said that they were cleaned and excellent quality. I told him to send me some... which he did... I received a shipment of 25 dozen magnets- 300 magnets. He sent an invoice for $100 for them, which is a fraction of what they are worth new. Most of them look new, and for several years I put one in each heifer I was planning to retain in my herd. I still have a few left.
There are also several other things that could be casing your cow to quickly lose weight. A good test for hardware, is to put your cow in a chute and take a small fence post or some other pry instrument, and pry under her stomach area. If she grunts and has distress, it usually is a sign of a hardware issue. You could be dealing with something completely different though. I would suggest that if she has lost weight this quickly, the chances of a magnet solving your problem with her, are fairly low. Get her checked out by a vet.
I have mentioned this before on SP, but when I was in college, a study was done over a period of years comparing milk production in dairy cows between two groups ... one that had magnets and another that had none. There was a 5-8 % increase in milk production in the group that had magnets. I have often wondered if the same was true in beef cattle, and I expect there is some benefit to putting magnets in your replacement heifers. Several years ago, I was telling a manager of a livestock supply company about this, and he told me he had a friend that had access to magnets that were taken out of cows that had gone to slaughter. He said that they were cleaned and excellent quality. I told him to send me some... which he did... I received a shipment of 25 dozen magnets- 300 magnets. He sent an invoice for $100 for them, which is a fraction of what they are worth new. Most of them look new, and for several years I put one in each heifer I was planning to retain in my herd. I still have a few left.
There are also several other things that could be casing your cow to quickly lose weight. A good test for hardware, is to put your cow in a chute and take a small fence post or some other pry instrument, and pry under her stomach area. If she grunts and has distress, it usually is a sign of a hardware issue. You could be dealing with something completely different though. I would suggest that if she has lost weight this quickly, the chances of a magnet solving your problem with her, are fairly low. Get her checked out by a vet.
