White muscle disease?

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Shady Lane

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Mar 30, 2009
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Saskatchewan Canada
White muscle disease is typically caused by a selenium defficiency, results in calves that are weak and often unable to stand.

It can be caused by many things but often forage quality is a factor.

Using minerals that are high in selenium fed to your pregnant cows prior to calving is a good idea, as well as administering selenium to newborn calves via an injection.

Contact your vet for advice, conditions tend to be different area to area.
 

hamburgman

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Feb 9, 2010
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They recover quite quickly if you treat them before they are down.  This is also caused by lack of Vitamin E, both these compounds are free radical scavengers and without them muscles that are extremely active (heart) become damaged and necrotic.
 

AndersenClubCalves

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Feb 28, 2011
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American Falls, ID
hamburgman said:
They recover quite quickly if you treat them before they are down.  This is also caused by lack of Vitamin E, both these compounds are free radical scavengers and without them muscles that are extremely active (heart) become damaged and necrotic.

She was born with it and we have gave her the max dose of vitamin E we can. So we will see how she reacts.
 

JAGUR01

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Feb 26, 2010
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AndersenClubCalves said:
hamburgman said:
They recover quite quickly if you treat them before they are down.  This is also caused by lack of Vitamin E, both these compounds are free radical scavengers and without them muscles that are extremely active (heart) become damaged and necrotic.

She was born with it and we have gave her the max dose of vitamin E we can. So we will see how she reacts.

Give the calf 3cc of BoSe and every other calf born.
 

justintime

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The only time I have ever experienced this was during a drought year when I purchased almost all my hay from a hay supplier about 300 miles away. We are in an area that has good selenium levels in our soils, but I never even considered that the hay we purchased was from a Se deficient area. As others have said, we injected every calf at birth with Selenium/ Vit E , once we figured out why we were having weak unthrifty calves. It is a very cheap insurance to treat every calf if you are in a marginal Se area.
 

AndersenClubCalves

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American Falls, ID
justintime said:
The only time I have ever experienced this was during a drought year when I purchased almost all my hay from a hay supplier about 300 miles away. We are in an area that has good selenium levels in our soils, but I never even considered that the hay we purchased was from a Se deficient area. As others have said, we injected every calf at birth with Selenium/ Vit E , once we figured out why we were having weak unthrifty calves. It is a very cheap insurance to treat every calf if you are in a marginal Se area.

Yeah that is what our Vet recommended. This calf hasnt been able to stand correctly since birth and we didnt treat with the Vitamin E until she was about 5 days old. Any ideas on how long its goin to take for the medicine to take affect and will she ever be able to walk normaly?
 
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