cows dead
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Gargan
Well-known member
are u sure its not tetanus?
Gargan
Well-known member
im sorry, i meant grass tetany, idk why i said tetanus. where im from the grass has came on really strong and if no mag suppliments have been fed, grass tetany is a possibility. Ive seen them with a froathy slobber coming from their mouths before. I would say that the clover has caused froathy bloat in your case but was just throwing out another option for u. did u see the cow ill b4 she died or did u just find her dead?
CAB
Well-known member
There is risk of bloat while grazing any legumes & with all of them the risk is GREATLY increased if there is a frost overnight. Did it get cold the night before she died? I learned this in the early 80s. I lost 5 one cold morning mid April after a good early growing season. Had quite a few others high sided. My oldest daughter lost her first breeding heifer that day also.
JSchroeder
Well-known member
Similar situation, first time we ever had the problem and we lost seven to frothy bloat this year. I didn't even know the difference between it and regular bloat. We never lost more than three to any other causes combined in a single year before. It was extremely bad in this region while the burr clover was coming up, I heard of one ranch that lost 15 head. The overcast, damp mornings were by far and away the worst.
We tried bloat blocks, bloat mineral, chasing them around the field when it got bad, and excessive hay. While some of it may have worked to prevent it from being worse than it was, we lost five cows after all of those had been implemented.
Yes, it will kill one in an hour. We had it happen when we were moving the herd in to try and get one cow off of pasture and as we walked the herd in another started bloating. I watched her suffocate about 50-minutes later.
If you find a cow with it, a hose down the throat won't work for frothy bloat. The only solution we found for cows that were already bloating was a drench called Bloat Release or Therabloat. Bloat Release had them all back to normal within 20-minutes. The problem is catching it.
The only advice I have from the ordeal is to take your cows off of the pasture, feedlot them if you have to. The clover will still be there when you turn them back out but at least with burr clover, once it matures the dangers aren't nearly as bad. We haven't had any problems since it matured.
We tried bloat blocks, bloat mineral, chasing them around the field when it got bad, and excessive hay. While some of it may have worked to prevent it from being worse than it was, we lost five cows after all of those had been implemented.
Yes, it will kill one in an hour. We had it happen when we were moving the herd in to try and get one cow off of pasture and as we walked the herd in another started bloating. I watched her suffocate about 50-minutes later.
If you find a cow with it, a hose down the throat won't work for frothy bloat. The only solution we found for cows that were already bloating was a drench called Bloat Release or Therabloat. Bloat Release had them all back to normal within 20-minutes. The problem is catching it.
The only advice I have from the ordeal is to take your cows off of the pasture, feedlot them if you have to. The clover will still be there when you turn them back out but at least with burr clover, once it matures the dangers aren't nearly as bad. We haven't had any problems since it matured.
C
cornish
Guest
are you experiencing these problems on pastures that are a very high % in clovers? Or mixed grass pastures with clover in the mix?
Would it be preventable by having a small percentage of clover available to consume?
Would it be preventable by having a small percentage of clover available to consume?
braunranch
Member
- Joined
- Dec 12, 2010
- Messages
- 18
Here's a few options used in Canada for grazing alfalfa.
There's the rumensin bolus, probably the most reliable but there designed more for yearlings but do work in cows. Everything else relies on the cow consuming or drinking it.
A product called alfasure, mixes in the water works great the cattle water in troughs. This doesnt work if you have sloughs or standing water after heavy rains. It also works great to treat a bloat, we just drench with about 20cc usuallly down in 10 minutes, i've also been told as a last resort to inject right into the rumen with a 2 inch needle.
Silent herder a mineral and various other types of mineral. Regular tide detergent mixed with salt is used by many.
A straw bale helps some, you'll be suprised how much they eat, i think they need the fibre when on rich feed.
Personally i like the bolus, then the alfasure if you water with a trough it works great.
There's the rumensin bolus, probably the most reliable but there designed more for yearlings but do work in cows. Everything else relies on the cow consuming or drinking it.
A product called alfasure, mixes in the water works great the cattle water in troughs. This doesnt work if you have sloughs or standing water after heavy rains. It also works great to treat a bloat, we just drench with about 20cc usuallly down in 10 minutes, i've also been told as a last resort to inject right into the rumen with a 2 inch needle.
Silent herder a mineral and various other types of mineral. Regular tide detergent mixed with salt is used by many.
A straw bale helps some, you'll be suprised how much they eat, i think they need the fibre when on rich feed.
Personally i like the bolus, then the alfasure if you water with a trough it works great.
JSchroeder
Well-known member
210.380.7459
Let me throw this situation at you. Wednesday my wife and son came home from getting the bull checked for breeding soundness. They were gone about two hours. I was at work in town. They came home to find a cow down on her side, churning the air with all four legs, and her head arched up. They called me, I called the vet, he said it sounded like grass tetany. We haven't turned them out to pasture yet, they're still on round bales in a lot with no grass. The vet said give Banamine, we didn't have enough, and by the time the son drove 10 miles to the vet, she was gone. The vet said to search the internet for dry lot grass tetany and let him know what I find. Guess what, if harvested grass hay is low in magesium, cows can get grass tetany just like if they were on new spring grass. We hadn't changed hay, feed Right Now Mineral (Onyx right now), Mix 30 supplement, no changes of any kind. I had no idea they could get grass tetany on grass hay, but it makes sense if the hay is diffecient in Magnesium. Any ideas what I should do different? I suppose test the hay would be the first thing. What about mineral? Do you see something I should change? Been feeding Right Now for 6 - 8 years. She was a PB Simi with a decent Boardwalk steer about 6 weeks old. Pretty good milker. The website said cows in early lactation, milking good, are more likely to acquire winter/grass hay/feedlot tetany. The calves are started on creep and tonight saw the little guy stealing from another good milker.
pweaver said:
This is a good article http://oregonfeed.org/mehren_art_0206.htm
All your cows are at risk for "winter tetany" aka grass hay tetany - you need to get a high magnesium high calcium mineral for your cows asap - and don't forget to have white salt available as well - some believe that lack of regular sodium chloride plays a role in grass tetany - IMHO testing your hay now is not a good use of time or money - I would focus on getting the right minerals to the cows asap
colosteers
Well-known member
- Joined
- Sep 9, 2007
- Messages
- 93
Dont know any thing about clover, but we graze alfalfa in the spring and put the bloat blocks in the water tank and let them dissolve. Thinking of this is that every thing will get the active ingredient when getting a drink.
good luck and have a good one
good luck and have a good one
CAB
Well-known member
I had a Nutrition class @ Iowa State University with Dr. Jurgens. He stated that he would keep cows on hi Mag. mineral year around. His thoughts were that cows would benifit greatly from this practice. He had many reasons, but I can't remember them all and if I could this post would be long. The risk for grass tetanus is increased for higher producing cows B/C of the higher requirements for Calcium on their bodies. Emergency treatment for grass tetanus would be Cal. intravenously with good results if caught in time. It can make vets look like witch Doctors and miracle workers.pweaver said:
There is a form of bloat gard to put in with the water source if as stated above your pasture has no other water source that the cows can access. Another thing is that depending on your resources, the risk will become far less as the plants mature & the temperatures do not dip close to freezing in the mornings. There is a correlation between frost on the plants and higher risk of bloat. I would love to know specifically what species of legumes are present in this deadly concoction as my cousin and I have interseeded KopuII white clover into our grass pastures. Sorry for everyone's loss and troubles. It can drive a person crazy after trying so hard to be good herdsmen.
