bull down

[zak]

Our herd bull has recently been getting really skinny. In the last couple of days i have noticed that if the rest of the herd moves he wont go with them, he will just lay there and not move. That is not like him to go with the herd. He was only with 15 cows and he had plenty of grass to eat. So today i moved the cows to a different Field and gave the bull some grain. When i brought it down to him he wouldn't even get up. I went to go check on him a little bit later and he was standing up and nibbling  at the grass. I called our vet today and asked her to come and check him out. Does anybody know what it might be? At first i thought he was getting skinny because it was at the end of breeding season, but when i saw he wasn't with the herd i knew something was wrong.

Zak

 

[mark tenenbaum]

have him tested for jjonnes sorry cant remember how to spell it

 

[JoeBnTN]

You might consider hardware disease. We lost a bull like that once - he did almost exactly what your bull is doing.  When the vet examined him he found a small piece of barb wire fence that he'd eaten and it ripped a hole in the rumen.

 

[LN]

There's no telling. Bulls are always getting themselves into trouble. It's awful to watch an animal suffer.

Keep us updated though.

 

[shorthorn boy]

You might consider hardware disease. We lost a bull like that once - he did almost exactly what your bull is doing.  When the vet examined him he found a small piece of barb wire fence that he'd eaten and it ripped a hole in the rumen.

I agree, I lost a show bull this past spring because of hardware disease and we really didn't figure out what it was until it was too late. My bull stopped eating grain and would only eat grass but he would just nibble on it and if he would lay down it was very hard to get him to stand up again he would always be at the farthest end of his lot too all by himself. If your bull bloats then it is most likely hardware disease. I would keep a close eye on him because with my bull he didn't bloat right away it was about a week or week and a half after he stopped eating and he was actually bloated for about a week. Your vet may be able to tell you what is wrong with him.

 

[jnm]

A few years ago I had a bull laying around, not moving with the herd, and moving very gingerly when he did move. After week or so he started moving ok so figured whatever had been wrong was cured. A few weeks later I noticed him trying to breed and realized his "tool" was pointing sideways. Not sure but always figured when he was laying around was when he broke it (would think that would be pretty good reason to lay around)

 

[zak]

Just had the vet out today and she told use that he has hardware disease. She gave him a magnet down his throat and a shot of something else. She thinks he will live and gain back his weight but she suggested that we get rid of him because when he starts mounting cows again it could start moving, And possibly puncture his heart or other organs.


Zak

 

[justintime]

If it is hardware, I would agree with your vet. A herd bull is of major importance in any herd, and you cannot afford to have them get injured or sick during a breeding season. You may get him over it, but it is possible that you may just find him dead some day as  well. We had this exact scenerio a few years ago. Treated a bull for hardware, and he responded well. We thought he was completely over it, however, we found him dead in a pasture. It looked like he had been walking to the water and just toppled over dead ( which is probably exactly what happened. We he was posted, the vet said he had an abscess on the side of his rumen that had ruptured. He said the bull would have been lucky to live 10 seconds after this infection hit his blood stream. The abscess was formed at an old hardware location, and it is one of the ways the animal's body encapsules the injury  and protects itself from further infection. While it was encapsuled, the animal functioned normally. When this ruptured, it was almost instant death. This is not something that happens in every hardware case, but when it is your herd bull, don't take any chances. If he is a herd sire of major magnitude in your herd, you can maybe afford to gamble with him, but if he is a bull you need just to get the next calf crop, you are best to get him healthy, send him to market, and replace him with a healthy bull.