Chapter 11

"Common Ailments and Remedies"

from Natural Cattle Care
by Pat Coleby

The purpose of this chapter is to help farmers be responsible for the health of their cattle. With experience and knowledge of cattle ailments and remedies, one should need to seek veterinary treatment only for really serious conditions. In the event of serious illness, it is always good to be doing something to help the beast while the vet is on the way. Additionally, illness always seem to strike at inconvenient times, such as weekends and holidays, when the vet is unavailable. But often, with a bit of knowledge, you can care for your own animals.

Prevention is always better than cure and knowing your animals and their behavior will go a long way toward warding off illness. The alert farmer realizes when animals are off color before they show definite signs. The cow that kicks unusually when the cups are being put on should always be regarded with suspicion; her udder is likely causing her trouble. Similarly, the beast that lies away from the others and is slow to go out or come in should be watched. It is no good to wait until they are down with their legs in the air and then expect a hard-worked vet to pick up the pieces. The vets with whom I worked in the early days used to complain that I spotted an incipiently ill animal so early that it was cured before they found out what was the matter — surely a desirable way to go.

When an animal is sick, sensible care and attention — keeping it sheltered, quiet, well fed and watered — is all important. Good nursing has helped many an animal survive that had no apparent hope of living. The more you are able to diagnose and care for your animals early on, the less illness and trauma they will suffer overall.

Abscess (Cheesy Gland, Grass Seed Abscess, Caseus Lymphadenitis)

Strictly speaking, all these are not caused by the same thing, but where there is an infective agent the causative germ is usually corynebacteria. It is virtually impossible to stop one of these abscesses from coming up. Drugs do not help and, indeed, if the abscess is lanced before it is "ripe", the resulting sore mess will make the operator remember not to do it again. If lanced too early, it will form another abscess and the process goes on for weeks.

The best approach is to catch the boil just as it is ready to burst. Wear rubber gloves and wipe out the pus, burning everything used for this process afterwards. Once the abscess is clear, syringe it out well with a mixture of two tablespoons of copper sulphate, one tablespoon of vinegar and a pint of water. Put a good antiseptic cream well into the hole, healing will be effected in a day or two and the abscess will not get fly blown. Flint’s Oils is also very effective. This is an old country remedy that was known in the United Kingdom as green oils; I do not know if it is available in the United States.

An injection of five to eight grams of vitamin C for a small cow may be given when the abscess is forming as this sometimes will hurry the process along. In cases where the abscess is on the side of the throat and is very big, occasionally it will burst through to the gullet. When this happens the poison goes into the system. Injections of vitamin C as above and an oral dose of tablespoon a day of vitamin C powder, should be given for several days to stop the risk of further infection internally.

Caseus lymphadenitis (CLA) is the name given to a condition where the boils become endemic. They do not limit themselves to one abscess, which is often caused by a grass seed, but continue down the line of the lymph system. If the animal is really healthy, its immune system can sort it out, otherwise the boils often end up forming inside the animal, generally with fatal results.

CLA has been classified in the United Kingdom as a zoonose (meaning it can be caught by a human). Use hygienic processes when dealing with any boils.

Acetonemia (Ketosis)

This is a problem in dairy herds, especially those run intensively for high milk production. Signs can be a preference for hay and coarse feed, a sweet smell on the breath and milk, and excessive licking and chewing. This condition does not occur in cattle who are fed a diet where the carbohydrates and protein are in the right balance. They must, of course, receive their correct amount of minerals (see Chapter 8). Work done in the United States suggests that the copper in the lick is all important in preventing ketosis.

Years ago a dairy farmer asked me if I had any bright ideas on how to deal with acetonemia and I suggested he add a tablespoon of dolomite per head per feed. The next time we met he was delighted to tell me that it had worked and that there had not been any new cases since he started using it. Again, the lick would be a preventative, as would lowering the protein in the diet.

Anemia

This is a big problem in Australia. Signs are ill thrift, wasting and pale membranes, particularly on the inside of the bottom eyelid. If the cows have been receiving the lick, the worms mentioned here should not be a problem.

In Australia anemia is not generally caused by a lack of iron, there is usually too much of it. But iron cannot be used without copper and a lack of that mineral is generally the cause of iron anaemia. Indirectly this can be the reason for infestations of blood sucking worms such as Barber’s Pole worm (Haemonchus contortus) and Brown Stomach worm (Ostertagia).

Lack of cobalt can be another cause of anemia. Get a soil audit done and see if colbalt is the problem. If it is, immediately add some cobalt sulfate, about half a pound, to the standard lick. If the anemia is due to a lack of cobalt, in which case the membranes may be quite a good color, injected vitamin B12 and cobalt supplementation will be needed. Signs of cobalt anaemia are sub-normal temperature and cold extremities. Scouring eventually ensues, as will death if something is not done.

The reason for the anemia must be removed; worms must be killed and the red blood count built up again. Raising the amount of the lick in the diet should achieve both objects. Iron tonics must not be used for more than a week because they depress vitamin E. Daily vitamin B12 injections and VAM orally will be a great help. Both of these should be given in a daily 10 cc dose for a period of one week for a cow.

Anesthetics

Cattle, and most animals, have a higher pain threshold than humans and can stand more than we can, so do not equate the pain of marking a calf with yourself. They recover remarkably quickly and do not do any better if anesthetized — in fact they do worse. Anesthetics are very hard on animals (and people). Nonetheless, people can bear pain better than animals because they know what it is; animals in pain go down very quickly if appropriate measures are not taken to relieve them.

As mentioned above, anesthetics are very hard on an animal. If at all possible a local anesthesia is always preferable to general anesthetics. However, if a general anesthesia has to performed on a valuable animal, see that it is given an intravenous shot of at least 30 grams of vitamin C before the anesthetic. This ensures that the beast does not struggle when it wakes up. It merely comes around as though it had been asleep. In large animals, the struggles that almost invariably follow general anesthesia usually cause more damage than the reason for the anesthetic in the first place. I helped a vet with an operation when he first used the method of giving a large dose of vitamin C prior to anesthesia. He was most impressed by the post-operative difference and how quickly the animal recovered.

Arthritis

Systemic arthritis is caused by malabsorption or lack of calcium, magnesium, copper and boron. Consult the sections on calcium and magnesium and the requirements for absorption. An animal receiving the lick and ad lib seaweed meal would be at little risk as long as it was not being fed a diet too high in phosphates or protein.

In some districts where boron is totally missing from the soil, a little extra should be given to an arthritis sufferer. A small teaspoon of Borax per day for a cow for the first two weeks of treatment, after that twice a week in its feed, is usually sufficient. There is natural boron in seaweed, but that may not be enough for stock if the soil is lacking. The soil analysis would have showed this; hence the importance of having it done. Knowing your soils is one of the best things you can do to prevent shortfalls of nutritional elements.

Cider vinegar added to the diet also helps with arthritis. The feed should be confined to good grass hay, chaff and bran with a minimum of grain. As above, adjust the high protein foods in the diet until the cow is recovered.

Arthritis, Infectious (Navel Ill)

This very often starts from an organism contracted via the navel cord. It can also be caused venereally if the male animal has served a female with an infection in the uterus. The organism can then be passed to the next female he serves, or the male may contract arthritis himself. There is also the unlikely event of it being contracted from a wound.

The only way to prevent navel arthritis is to disinfect the navel cord with alcohol when the calf is born, especially if birthing occurs in an old yard or shed. Methylated spirits or iodine will also do as disinfectants. Making sure that the cows drop their young in clean, uncontaminated paddocks will go a long way toward preventing navel ill. Old sheep yards, etc., are not good since many pathogens live happily there waiting to infect the next beast that comes along.

If the male is a stud animal, refuse services to females with doubtful breeding history or who are not completely healthy, unless a vet’s certificate showing a clean vaginal swab is produced. Females can only be swabbed when in season.

Infective arthritis (which is generally corynebacteria) is a very difficult organism to treat since its presence often is not discovered until the animal is very ill. This is quite a while after the actual infection takes place, which by then will have gained a good hold. The signs are similar to ordinary arthritis. The joints are hot and swollen, but this kind is usually accompanied by a high temperature and misery.

Large doses of vitamin C, preferably intravenous, could be tried along with supportive measures such as vitamin B12 injections and VAM. A calf can be given 15 grams of vitamin C intravenously for the first dose, 10 grams thereafter daily until improvement takes place. When the animal is improved, the vitamin C injections can be changed to oral administration of about 10 grams daily. I have used this method successfully with horses; a vet and I did the work. However, it did not repair the damage to the joints. As this organism causes irreversible damage to the inside of joints, treatment with conventional drugs is rarely successful. In fact, if the infection is severe, nothing seems to work very well, so if the illness has been of any duration, it is kinder to put the animal down.

Artificial Colostrum

This can be made with cod liver oil and straight liquid seaweed (containing no extra chelated minerals or urea) added to milk. A tablespoon of cod liver oil and two tablespoons of the seaweed should be given in a liter of milk. While this, of course, does not contain the antibodies which only the actual mother of the calf can give, it does provide a laxative effect so the meconium (beastings) is voided. It also gives the calf some extra vitamins A and D in a natural form. The seaweed provides a broad spectrum of needed trace minerals. An injection of vitamin B12 (10 cc) should be given intramuscularly if the calf shows signs of weakness or shock; it is an excellent booster, as is oral VAM. It is always worth giving 10 cc of vitamin C by intramuscular injection (in the same syringe as the B12) as this helps in shock and should forestall any infections until the calf is on its feet.

Avitaminosis

This condition literally means that the cow/calf has run out of essential minerals rather suddenly. Unusual lethargy, unwillingness to move, eat or drink are the first signs of this ailment. Examine the membranes of the mouth, they will either be streaked with scarlet lines or be a bright pillar box red all over according to the severity of the condition. Give the affected beast ad lib stock lick, extra vitamin C, 100 ml of liquid seaweed and/or give it unlimited access to seaweed meal as well. Usually this is enough, but in a severe case, the treatment may be repeated eight hours later. I have seen this condition in goats and horses. One goat I had ate nearly four pounds of a mineral supplement without stopping and recovered almost instantaneously.

Note: Seaweed liquid should not contain added molasses as this encourages biting insects.

Blackleg

This a Clostridial disease and is reported in Hungerford’s Diseases of Livestock to be incurable. It is not incurable, but large amounts of injectable vitamin C are needed. The disease is caused by Clostridium Feseri, Bacillus Chauvoei and B. Anthracis Symptomatis.

It has two stages. First a leg, usually a back one, swells to such large proportions that it sticks into the air when the cow is lying down. If no action is taken, the swelling will spread and the animal will die very soon from the enormous pressure of the swollen parts which rupture and turn black, giving the disease its name. The disease is caused by the organism gaining entry from a wound. The administration of five-in-one vaccine is supposed to control the disease, but several cases have been known in vaccinated stock following an untreated wound.

This is one illness where the whole body is super sensitive and an injection of 50 grams (100 cc) of vitamin C should be given immediately directly into the affected leg. Try to find a spot where the leg does not seem to hurt. Repeat it in 20 minutes. By this time the swelling should be starting to resolve. Once the leg can be rested on the ground, continue the rapid injections for another hour and then, hopefully, vitamin C in food can be offered.

Be prepared for the treatment to take ten days, but it could take less. Vitamin C seems to be particularly effective in clostridial diseases and there would be no harm in giving extra. Good nursing should bring the animal through; if the site of the wound can be seen, disinfect with the copper wash previously mentioned (two tablespoons copper sulfate, one tablespoon vinegar and one pint of water).

Bloat

Bloat is sign of a sick farm, the cause being an imbalance of potassium, magnesium and sulfur or it can follow a top-dressing with artificial fertilizers. If the land has been farmed organically and remineralized it will not occur. The stands of solid clover that so often cause bloat only grow on unbalanced over-fertilized (using artificials) and under- mineralized soil.

If an animal is only mildly bloated, a drench of about a liter of cooking oil (not liquid paraffin) will help lubricate the insides so some of the wind can be dissipated from one end or the other. The oil drench should be followed by enforced exercise. Then another drench should be given consisting of a tablespoon of dolomite and the same of seaweed in about half a liter of cider vinegar (do not try to put that mixture through a drenching gun, shake it up in a bottle and pour it in).

If the bloat is acute and the animal is down, it will be necessary to release the gas. If this is not done, the pressure will build up to the point where the beast suffocates and/or the organs cannot function. The gas is released with a pointed knife or a trocar; the latter is a sharp, hollow instrument that allows the gas to escape. The gut should be pierced on the left side about a hands-width behind the last rib, halfway down the side. If using a sharp knife, insert it and twist slightly, the gas will come out very fast. Only put the knife or instrument in just as far as is needed to release the pressure. Be sure to disinfect the opening before and afterwards. Another drench of seaweed meal and cider vinegar will help the animal recover. An injection of vitamin C would also be a good safeguard (about 20 cc).

Blood in the Milk

This is usually caused by a blood vessel breaking in the udder, often at the start of a lactation due to the cow’s milk coming down very fast. It can also be caused by a blow from a horn, in which case there may be a mark, or it may be the precursor to mastitis. Ease off on the grain and give the cow a tablespoon of vitamin C in the feed and the same of dolomite as well as its normal amount of the lick for a couple of days. It usually clears up very quickly. Vitamin C strengthens blood vessels and helps recovery from injuries.

Bovine Ephemeral Fever, see Three Day Sickness

Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE, Mad Cow Disease

This is the bovine version of scrapie, the sheep disease. It is caused by a prion organism, which contains protein and can reproduce, but has no DNA or RNA. There is known cure at the time of writing. Scrapie has been known in sheep and goats since it was first documented 250 years ago and, up to recent times it has, as far as is known, stayed within those species.

It is believed that the disease is passed to cows through the feeding of meat meal, thereby forcing the herbivore to become a cannibal. In the early 1970s, the low heat (and cheaper) method of making meat meal was adopted, apparently worldwide. It certainly was in Australia which managed somehow to escape the contamination. A few years later, the first cases of BSE and its human counterpart became evident and the rest is history. Now there is even more concern because it has crossed into other species in various forms. There are also two similar illnesses that have affected humans (which do not concern this book). In animals it causes, besides mad cow disease, a chronic wasting disease in deer, transmissable mink encephalopathy in mink and PSE, Mad Cat disease. All forms are fatal.

In the United Kingdom some people were affected after eating meat from diseased cows before the presence of BSE was realized. This fact has nearly wrecked the British beef industry. According to press reports in the Australian of March 21, 1994, when it was first discovered it was dubbed "Bovine AIDS" because it often takes years to develop the "mad cow" symptoms. It was assumed it would go away. It did not. It was identified on 20,000 British farms and 130,000-160,000 affected cattle have been slaughtered. Brought up as I was in the middle of the last century, the idea of turning herbivores into cannibals was unthinkable. The old people would have said: "You’ll pay." We did.

All cases of the disease were caused by feeding the remains of diseased animals in the form of meat meal. Scrapie is probably endemic in species in Europe, which is why sheep and goats are not permitted to be imported to any other countries without very stringent quarantine requirements. The meat meal that caused the transmission to the animals concerned contained the affected brains. Prions are very difficult to denature, their biological activity can only be killed by prolonged boiling in very powerful chemical detergents and it is thought that extremely high doses of radiation may do the same.

There is really no excuse for taking chances on this one. Meat meal and animal waste, whatever the source, must not be fed to stock. In 1990, 5,000 feedlot cattle died of botulism on two separate Queensland feedlots as a result of being fed processed chicken manure. The only reason for feeding meat meal and similar materials in the feed is to raise the protein levels. Due to the degradation of much of our cropping land, proteins in grain are now extremely low. They used to be from 15 to 20 percent thirty or more years ago; I heard of only five and six percent in one crop in the late 1990s. However, properly fed lupins as an additive are a reasonable form of extra protein if required. Of course, barley and other grains grown on remineralized and organically farmed soils contain good sources of protein.

(Prusiner’s original thesis on the scourge appeared in the October of 1984 issue of Scientific American.)

Brucellosis (Bang’s Disease, Undulant Fever)

The latest research from the United States links this disease with diets deficient in iodine, cobalt, copper and manganese. All four of these together have been helpful in reversing the condition. Again prevention is better than cure. There is not as much brucellosis about as there used to be, but it is by no means eradicated.

Buffel Head (Nutritional Secondary Hyperthyroidism)

This condition, which is caused by high oxalate content in African-type grasses, is thought to only affect horses. This it does by depleting calcium, magnesium and iodine to the point where they die. Their heads and other joints swell up and they go down fairly quickly.

Recently, however, I have been rung about a stud buck goat and a stud bull who were affected. In both cases, the animals had been grazing heavily on African grasses (the bull on Guinea grass). Supplementary dolomite and extra seaweed meal completely averted the condition in horses thus fed, and reversed the condition in the animals mentioned above.

Bulldog Syndrome

This condition usually occurs in young cattle. The animal has no strength in its front leg and shoulder joints. I have only had this condition described to me, but I feel certain that it must be due to a diet lacking in the essential bone minerals. Treatment that includes a dessertspoon of dolomite twice daily, the same of vitamin C, seaweed products (either six ml of concentrate or a dessertspoon of seaweed meal twice daily), and a half teaspoon of boron (this for three days) could be beneficial. It also would be worth giving the animal the basic lick. Prevention, if it can be found, is always better than cure.

Cancer

In stock this is nearly always due to a diet too high in phosphate-rich food from paddocks that have been over fertilized with superphosphate and therefore lack copper, magnesium, calcium and potassium. Lack of iodine and vitamin A can also be causative factors.

If the animal is very valuable, megadoses of vitamin C, accompanied by extra vitamin A, will help. Use 100,000 units of vitamin A per day per cow for two or three weeks and 50 grams of vitamin C by injection daily for a week, with an additional two to four tablespoons by mouth. Make sure the animal has organically grown food and no grain. Avoiding all legumes as much as possible will also help.

André Voisin claimed that cancer is mainly due to a lack of copper in the food chain. Remineralized pastures and the basic lick should prevent it. Care also must be taken that the cows are not in contact with poison sprays of any kind.

Coast Disease

This is the name that was given to a wasting condition that usually affected calves in coastal areas of Australia and it could occur in cobalt-deficient areas of the United States. The wasting is caused by a lack of cobalt in the soil that is possibly endemic or perhaps caused by leaching and/or chemical fertilizers. The remedy in the short-term is to give 10 cc of vitamin B12 in the highest potency obtainable by intramuscular injection. The long-term and the most satisfactory remedy is to incorporate cobalt sulfate into the licks; one pound would be a starting point. Cobalt, like many trace minerals, is highly toxic in excess and fatal in deficiency. Remineralizing and restoring the health of the paddocks to a pH between 6.5 and 6.8 usually means that the cobalt becomes available again. If not, at that pH it can be put on with top-dressing.

Coccidiosis, see Worms

Corkscrew Penis (PSDP, Premature Spiral Deviation of the Penis)

This is as the name implies and researchers at Murdoch University in Western Australia are considering that it is possibly a hereditary condition. In large herds, the loss of fertility from this cause is very expensive because it may not be discovered in time. It is caused by weak dorsal ligament in the penis.

There is, however, a possibility that it is another condition which has arisen due to a calcium/magnesium deficiency. Certainly weak ligaments in horses can be due to this cause. Putting out the mineral licks for the bulls would possibly be an inexpensive way of solving the problem. Many conditions are labeled hereditary, but a great many often turn out to be environmental.

Cowpox

This generally affects animals in their first lactation and is very contagious among animals at risk. It is caused by a herpes-linked organism and, if nothing is done, is difficult to stop before it runs its cycle (three weeks). This condition only strikes when the cow is deficient in copper and an exterior copper/cider vinegar wash, as used for scabby mouth or ringworm, helps the scabs to dry up and drop off.

In very deficient animals cowpox can spread over the whole body and care must be taken to see the sores do not become infected. Vitamin C injections should be given before that occurs and the stock lick should be freely available or mixed in the feed at a rate of 30-plus grams per day. See that the cows are receiving their vitamins A and D, as in cod liver oil, regularly as well.

Depraved Appetite, see Hardware Disease

Dermatitis, Pustular

This is similar in appearance to cowpox and the same wash will give relief, but extra vitamin A and the lick should be given internally as well. Seaweed meal might be all that is needed. Some of the very high powered cures available these days are so severe they can make the condition worse.

Diarrhea

This is caused by an imbalance in the gut due to poor feed, lack of minerals, or interior parasites, all of which can place the cow at risk. However, Hungerford, the basic veterinary authority in Australia, suggests that diarrhea is nearly always due to a shortfall in copper. Give the lick by mouth — just put the powder straight in. Care must be taken that the patient does not dehydrate. Drench in liquids if necessary.

Sometimes a tablespoon of vitamin C and the same of dolomite works well; half this amount is very good in calf scours which is usually caused by a lack of magnesium in the diet. However, as Hungerford states in his Diseases of Livestock that a lack of copper is often the cause in weaners and adults; it is also often the cause of worm infestations as well.

A beef cattle farmer I knew had 80 head that were in a bad way. He rang me because one was down and he had tried every drench in the book without success. He brought the ill one into the cattle yards with the tractor. I suggested that he give it two tablespoons of the lick and the same of vitamin C morning and night for two days. I said that by then it should be well on the way to recovery. He told me that it jumped out of pen the day after that. He then ran the remaining cattle through the race and gave each their two tablespoons of the lick. I asked him if it was difficult. He said he opened their mouths with his left hand and with a scoop that held the exact amount of the dose, he threw it into each beast’s mouth. The job took him just over half an hour and the herd recovered completely. Obviously the soil health had to be attended to and the lick made available ad lib at all times. The lick must be kept dry or the copper is lost by chemical action in half an hour.

Dystokia

This is the clinical name for difficult births. They are due to a potassium deficiency which causes constriction of the blood vessels to the cervix and uterus. Organically grown pastures are a safeguard; potassium should be readily obtainable in them. As a short-term preventative, add cider vinegar to the cows’ rations for a month or two coming up to calving. It can be added to feed at the rate of about a quarter of a pint three times a week or watered onto hay. This is far less trouble than pulling calves. The difference to the calving process when it is used is very marked.

Eczema

This condition is usually shown by scabby and suppurating areas. It is not infectious, like mange, which it resembles slightly. The eczema may occur on several animals at once, but that is because they are all similarly affected by the deficiency of zinc.

Eczema is not so common in farm animals as it appears to be in pets, which are often fed grossly inappropriate diets. A teaspoon of zinc sulfate a day should be given to a cow that has eczema (not dermatitis, that is caused by a copper deficiency). If this becomes a frequent occurrence, check on the soil analysis and add one pound of zinc sulfate to the lick mixture.

Enterotoxemia (Pulpy Kidney)

Enterotoxemia is caused by Clostridium Welchii* or in rare cases, Clostridium Perfringens D. Both organisms normally can be found in the gut of any ruminant. If the diet becomes unbalanced due to worms, inadequate minerals, lack of iodine, and/or minerally unbalanced paddocks, the bacteria starts to proliferate and as they proliferate they produce a deadly toxin. Death is usually rapid.

Unfortunately, the vaccinations which are often considered to be infallible do not work if conditions and husbandry are bad enough. The vaccinations for this ailment are usually included with those for tetanus or in other combinations (two-in-one, five-in-one, etc.). Normally animals have boosters each year although it is the young who are most at risk.

Many vets have told me that they are beginning to feel that the dangers of enterotoxemia are often overrated, and that if husbandry and land management particularly are good, it is not the scourge we have been led to believe. Personally, I have never vaccinated my herd of milking goats (though I’ve endured some scorn because of it) and found it was not necessary. Enterotoxemia is an infection which strikes animals when they are below optimum health from some other cause.

Massive doses of vitamin C by injection every few hours, at least 30 cc for a cow, and drenches of dolomite and vitamin C powder could possibly work. The antitoxin is fairly effective, but I have seen a spate of birth defects after using it, which never occurred before or since. Vaccinations are not the answer in many illnesses — good management is.

Flag

Flag is a condition which occurs when a cow first comes into milk. The udder is hard and the milk does not let down. Flag is usually worse around the sides of the quarters. Removing all legumes from the feed will go a long way to helping it clear up and even clover should be avoided. Feed the lick and yellow feed, i.e., chaff, bran, grass hay, etc. The condition improves very quickly if this done.

Flag definitely seems to run in families. I have noticed that it is usually the highest milkers that are affected. Once the condition clears up after a few days the udder is quite unaffected.

Foot and Mouth Disease

This is a notifiable disease. Symptoms are the appearance of small runny vesicles around the tongue, lips and between the toes of ruminants. It is spread by birds, infected feedstuffs and direct contact. Cattle do not eat and become very lame.

An authenticated story from Holland told how two out of three farms on the same neck of land had foot and mouth. The cows on the middle farm, which had contact with the other two, were organically farmed and fed seaweed meal ad lib. They never did contract it.

Holland, unlike England and Australia, did not have the total eradication policy, so the above situation could not arise elsewhere. Under a total eradication policy, all cows on the three farms would have been destroyed regardless of their genetic or commercial potential.

There are other conditions that look like foot and mouth disease so always check with a vet if there is any doubt. It has been recorded in Australia several times since the first outbreak in 1870, though it has never spread as it does in cold, wet countries. All recent scares in this country have been unfounded.

Foot Rot

This is another highly contagious disease in animals at risk through copper deficiency. The organism lives in most pastures and copper deficient animals will very soon pick it up. The winter and spring of 1992, which was incredibly wet, produced an amazing number of calls from people with foot rot afflicted stock, and an equal number of thankful ones who, when supplementing with the stock licks, had cleared it up very quickly. One lady who milked two very fine house cows that became very lame with bad cases of foot rot, found that a tablespoon of copper sulfate in the evening bail feed cured it overnight. The cows were, of course, getting dolomite in their feed.

The disease causes smelly, suppurating and very sore feet, sometimes with large proud flesh growths forming in between the toes. If confronted with that condition, a sprinkling of straight copper sulfate on the growth after dipping the feet in the copper wash will help the proud flesh to disintegrate. The wash should be made up of twp pounds of copper sulfate to two gallons of water and two pints of vinegar. The vinegar acts as a water softener to make the mixture soak into the lesions. Raising copper levels in the food, or giving the licks and maintaining the cattle at the correct level, is the quickest cure (and the best prevention), and there will be no recurrence even on the same land. However, if the farm has had artificial fertilizers used on it, the problem will be ongoing until the imbalances can be corrected.

Keratin, which depends on adequate sulfur and copper in the diet, is the component that gives skin and hair its strength. When foot rot (foot scald) starts, a thin, red line will be seen between the toes of the cow. This happens when the skin has inadequate keratin and is breaking down allowing the entry of the causative organism.

Foot Scald, see Foot Rot

Grass Tetany

This condition is caused by a deficiency of magnesium in the paddock, so it is not really a disease. Professor Ivan Caple, of the University of Melbourne, stated that "In dairy breeds, the risk of grass tetany is increased when potassium and nitrogen fertilizers are applied in autumn and early spring to promote pasture growth in late winter and spring." Organic methods of improving the pasture are far safer and more reliable in the long term.

Cattle will show signs much like lactation tetany which usually appears in spring with the rapid growth of grass, especially on paddocks that have had superphosphate applied and are, therefore, short of magnesium (and copper). The cattle will go down and die struggling, except in extreme cases where they die as if asleep. On that occasion, the vets called it superphosphate poisoning — not grass tetany.

The treatment is injections of magnesium and calcium which are available from the vet or fodder stores. The injections should be given as soon as the first signs are seen. If they’re given in four places, each side of the neck and each side of the rump, they will act faster. On farms where bore water is used for drinking, the cattle on the bores do not seem to succumb, while those in a next door paddock on dam water will go down very rapidly. This is likely because most bores are high in magnesium.

This condition only strikes when the animals are on magnesium deficient paddocks. A soil analysis of the farm is a fairly reliable guide to paddocks at risk for grass tetany. Once again, a good soil analysis can alert the farmer to many potential health problems on the farm.

Hardware Disease

This is the somewhat misleading name given to cattle with a depraved appetite which leads them to eat all kinds of inedible things including stones, bones and metal objects. If the object happens to be a piece of wire, it may pierce the gut and the cow dies. That is called "hardware disease" and the result is fatal.

Of course, the condition is caused by the deficient animal taking the law into its own hands and trying to meet its needs by eating anything that could contain the minerals that it is missing. If any of my goats lost their copper bells I would always find them in the dung of my landlord’s cattle, having been eaten and passed through.

Impaction (Constipation)

The manure becomes very hard, dry and difficult to pass. A drench of cooking oil should lubricate the works. Use at least a quart for a large cow.

Animals look hunched up and uncomfortable and should be drafted into a yard for observation and possibly rectal examination. Impaction can occur on very dry food if the water supply is not good, or is extremely unpalatable, but it is a rare condition. Do not use liquid paraffin as it demineralizes the animal. Use an oil suitable for cooking, but do not recycle used cooking oil into the cows. Once oil has been heated, it is destabilized and can cause health problems in man and animals.

Infertility

The cause needs to be determined. If the cows do not come in season fully, the most likely cause is lack of copper. See that the cows have access to the lick in feed or ad lib or amend the diet if what they currently receive is insufficient. Cows that fail to hold to service (always assuming that the male is fertile) are, unless non-breeders, suffering from a lack of vitamin A. An injection of vitamins A and D, or A, D and E before the next heat will usually mean the failure will not occur again. Otherwise, supplementation with some sort of vitamin A coming up to service, or feeding the stock on a well-grown green crop, would ensure they hold.

This sort of infertility is apt to occur after or during a long drought (which is probably how the native fauna are regulated). Particular care should be taken of the bulls in that case as vitamin A related infertility is usually irreversible in males.

A lack of selenium is another reason for poor or complete infertility in bulls. The sperm will be weak and few in quantity, and those that are there will tend to drop their tails. Luckily seaweed contains selenium in an organic form and making sure that stud animals receive their ration of the lick regularly will go a long way to ensuring sperm quality and quantity.

Injuries

For any injury where the skin is broken, tetanus must always be considered as a possibility. Tetanus usually takes 10 days to incubate, occasionally longer. Cleaning and disinfecting the wound really well helps to avoid the problem. Use either a copper wash, diluted peroxide or iodine. Giving either one tetanus antitoxin injection, or better still, daily injections of vitamin C for a two weeks or until the wound heals should prevent tetanus. Use 15 grams of vitamin C the first day and 10 grams thereafter. This can be administered intramuscularly or daily in the feed. See the section on tetanus in this chapter.

Body injuries

Cracked hips, shoulders, etc., are not necessarily the end of the road, especially if the animal will lie or stand quietly and rest the affected area. The sheer weight of big animals is the snag, and often the farmer has to be quite ingenious when getting a big cow back on its feet.

A very large Friesian cow belonging to a neighbor slipped into a drain and badly sprained or cracked her hip. The cow had a calf which fed easier when she was up so I helped him to lift it each day. We used the bucket on a big tractor and two girths that we made out of belting and leather. One sling I slid behind her front legs, attached the sling to the bucket and got him to lift her a few inches. Then I slid the other sling through just in front of the udder, let her down again, leveled up the two slings and then slowly got her to her feet. This was not as easy as it sounds, but we got better at it. This performance was regarded as sheer madness by all the other farmers in the district, but she was a valuable old cow and we thought it worth a try. Every day we got her up; she stayed up a bit longer each time with the calf happily having its meal. Finally she stayed up for several hours and then, about three weeks after the process started, she achieved it on her own. That cow was a particularly good foster mother, and the effort was well rewarded. The farmer will have to assess whether it is worth taking the trouble, I have always felt it was.

Occasionally after calving, a cow will not get up for a few days. Make her comfortable by propping her up with a few bales of straw or whatever. Give her good feed with all her minerals in it and water. Very often after a couple of days rest she will be back on her feet of her own volition. If the animal does not show any improvement within three weeks, it has probably sustained nerve damage from the calf being born, or when it was in utero, in which case the problem is irreversible.

Broken bones

The repair of broken bones will depend on the weight of the animal and the location of the break. A clean break through the front leg of a cow would usually be a shooting job. If repairable, healing should take place in a 10-14 days provided the animal was not too old.

The cow will have to be immobilized and the weight taken off the affected limb (often the most difficult part). Bandage it into the correct position with a firm, but not too tight, bandage. Apply the splints, either flat pieces of wood or the metal type which looks like a ladder (obtainable from the vet), whichever works best and secure them with a good strong bandage. This last bandage is best sewn into place, so the she cannot pull it off or catch it on snags. This should be left on until she goes sound and can put weight on the limb properly.

In the case of a compound fracture when the bone is sticking through the skin, thorough disinfecting of the wound is very important, followed by stitching, bandaging and splinting as before, but this is strictly a job for the vet. Unless the animal is very valuable from a stud point of view, it is really more humane to put it down at once.

Skin wounds

For bad skin wounds, 10 grams of vitamin C for a few days will help healing along with about 10,000 units of vitamin E. The vets I worked with years ago in the United Kingdom taught me to disinfect thoroughly the first time. They said that disinfectants inhibited healing and should not be used more than once. Flint’s Oils, if obtainable, discourages flies, but any good herbal ointment will help. Comfrey is excellent and so is calendula. If bandaging is necessary, try to make sure it does not stick; this is where the above-mentioned oils are so good.

When wounds are bandaged they quite often smell bad, but this is rarely a problem. Just clean them up and replace the dressing.

If there is a possibility of stitching a wound, it must be done straight away. It is no good calling a vet in next day and expecting a good job because once the skin dries, stitching cannot be done properly. Straight wounds can be very well stitched by the farmer. Use a strong curved upholstery needle (or have the vet leave you a supply of surgical needles for emergencies) and linen or similar thread. The thread, needle and wound must be disinfected. Sew the edges of the skin together with separate stitches and knot each one, leaving ends of at least one inch — any shorter and you may have difficulty locating the stitches when they need removing. It is really better to leave stitches exposed, as they tend to slough away if covered by a bandage. If flies are a problem, a little Flint’s Oils smeared over the affected area daily should keep them away. After 10 days the stitches can be removed; swab the area with disinfectant, hold the stitch by one of the ends, and cut behind the knot. Pull out the stitch, wipe the area with Flint’s oils and leave it.

Tendon damage

A heifer with a seven-eighths severed tendon after it had walked through a mess of telephone wire on a road verge, was brought to me by a neighbor. The wound was on the hind leg. Stitching was out of the question as the tear was too deep and wide. I disinfected it thoroughly, then filled the wound with comfrey ointment — any antiseptic would have done, but comfrey is a great healer. I then covered the whole thing with a thick pad soaked in Flint’s Oils and bandaged it up. The bandage was sewn on; I ran a flat splint down the front of the leg to take the pressure off the remains of the tendon by keeping the foot in position, and bandaged and sewed it on. We removed it one week later to see all was well, and then left it on until the bandage dropped off. The leg healed perfectly and the heifer never went lame. Often the wound did smell pretty terrible, but not gangrenous. Smelly wounds do not seem to matter with stock, keeping the bandage soaked with Flint’s Oils will keep the wound supple and clean.

Johne’s Disease (Mycobacterium Paratuberculosis)

This is a bacterial condition where the lining of the intestines become thickened and calloused and so the cow is unable to absorb nutrients from the feed for transfer into the blood stream as it should. The cattle die of slow starvation. There is also an enlargement in the lymph nodes noted at postmortem, however this does not invariably mean Johne’s disease; it can show up in several different conditions.

In my experience, there are two ways of contracting Johne’s disease. The first is from the mother, where the disease lies dormant until the stress of calving brings it out. The other is from rank bad management. In both cases, the onset is made more rapid by mineral deficiency. The first method of transmission was long believed to be the only one.

I first read of Johne’s disease in a book called Goat Husbandry written by a Scotsman, David Mackenzie. It is one of the few really good books available on goats. He dismissed all diseases with the observation that well looked after animals did not contract them. His goats had a huge spread of moorland and about three miles of coastline as well as being dairy fed, so its not surprising that they enjoyed good health.

Mackenzie claimed that Johne’s disease was a deficiency disease so I never really worried about it. A few years later, the top government vet arrived on my doorstep to test my herd for Johne’s disease. I was not worried as I knew their feed was balanced. He was sure he would find positives because two goats I had sold to an aspiring goat keeper had gone down with the disease. As had the pairs of the other dairy breeds also bought from reputable studs. None of them had any sign of it either. That was when it first dawned on the veterinary profession here that Johne’s disease could be contracted if farm conditions were bad enough, which they had been on the farm that had bought my goats.

Newman Turner, in his 1951 book Fertility Farming, describes how he bought a pedigree Jersey bull at a killer sale because it had Johne’s disease and was condemned. The picture shows the bull as it arrived, a wreck, at four years of age. He grazed it on top-quality pasture with up to 65 different species of plants for a few months. The second photograph shows the bull at ten years, at which time it was winning prizes in the shows and had been doing its job for the last six years.

Acres U.S.A. reported a year or two back that animals getting the right amount of copper, cobalt, iodine and manganese do not get brucellosis and go into remission if they have it. This probably applies to most diseases, including Johne’s disease, if we did but know.

My own experience with Johne’s disease was some 12 years ago when I was milking goats in north central Victoria (I did not read Turner’s work until 1996). I milked a herd of 35, half of them on lease. Unknown to me, a herd I took on had a high incidence of Johne’s disease, which I did not find out until two years later. I sent home three unthrifty goats and continued to milk the remainder successfully. The Johne’s disease positives had run with mine in one of the wettest winters on record.

Elaine, one of the leased milkers that remained, suddenly dropped in condition with frightening speed. It was a classic case of Johne’s disease as I then found out when I got the vet to her. I never admit a disease is unbeatable until I’ve tried everything. In this case I gave her massive amounts of vitamin C injections (which is what doctors who know use for Crohn’s disease). She was already getting her minerals. She recovered completely. But I later found out that she came from a long line of goats all of whom had developed Johne’s disease and died in their turn. When the lease ran out, I asked for Elaine to have a full post mortem when she died. The post mortem showed absolutely no signs of the disease. She was the only member of her line not to die of it.

When the drought finally broke, hundreds of animals died right across northern Victoria as a result of sub-lethal nitrate poisoning due to capeweed (calendula artotheca), a South African importation. I lost 14 animals before I discovered the reason. The department of agriculture ran a post mortem on the lot and kept informing me, in slightly bemused tones, that they did not have Johne’s disease, which I knew. They were so busy looking for Johne’s disease that they missed the real cause, nitrate poisoning, and it cost me my dairy herd.

I sold a six-month-old kid many years ago who was from a tough old milker (12 years) who had neither CAE nor Johnes disease (they were all tested then). I bought her back six years later and saw why the owners were willing to sell. They lived in the mountains and had the naive idea that a good milking animal needs no supplementary feeding or minerals which is not possible, at least not in Australia at any rate. Her tests showed Johne’s disease, and my vet remarked I’d better do something about it as I’d cured Elaine years ago.

I segregated her, dosed her with two ml of VAM, two ml each of vitamins B1, B12, B15 and 17 ml of vitamin C (8.5 grams) all in a 25 ml syringe. I injected this dose daily for nine days. In four days she was back on the basic diet which, of course, included copper with ad lib seaweed, hay and her grazing. After that she never looked back. She was retested and came up clear. In her next lactation she got her milk qualifications having produced a very healthy pair of kids. It took ten months exactly before her manure was perfectly normally formed. I reckon the scarring took that time to heal and the intestines needed time to normalize which, interestingly enough, is the time that Newman Turner mentioned in his book. Certainly not an economic exercise unless it was, as in this case, a blood line that had no other representatives.

Johne’s disease is certainly not economical to cure on a large scale, but it is perfectly economical to prevent. The two animals I saved were both very valuable bloodlines and high milking stock, as was Newman Turner’s bull. The current protocol appears to be total eradication, as it is for foot and mouth, another disease that reportedly only strikes animals whose trace minerals are out of kilter.

It is definitely a problem in dairy cattle, especially intensively and conventionally farmed cattle. They will be low to nonexistent in their copper levels and Johne’s disease likes a host low in that mineral. It is not spread by the pasture as believed; this could only happen if the cattle were too low in their copper. This is yet another important reason for knowing the mineral status of the paddocks.

Johne’s disease is rare in beef cattle. I knew of one case where Angus (black) cattle were badly afflicted so the farmer changed to Herefords who managed to hold their own. This would point to the fact that a copper and iodine deficiency were the most likely minerals implicated in this disease as well as those mentioned below.

There seems little doubt that Johne’s disease, like many other conditions, is related to bad husbandry and/or lack of the correct minerals. The organism is probably present in the soil of far more farms than is realized. Signs of the disease are wasting, diarrhea and recurring ill thrift — have the vet take a blood test. However, the only really sure diagnosis is on post mortem since Johne’s disease can show a false positive on a blood test.

Lactation Tetany

All tetany illnesses are basically due to a deficiency of magnesium. In lactation tetany, it is thought that calcium is also implicated. Although Hungerford said in 1951 that the old treatment of calcium alone works much better if magnesium is included as well, it is only recently that this seems to have been realized. Stock that has been receiving supplementary magnesium and calcium in the form of licks and are on chemical-free pastures should not succumb to lactation tetany.

The signs of lactation tetany are cows that appear uncoordinated, followed very quickly by collapse and then, if nothing is done, death. This tetany can occur any time after calving, usually fairly early on in the lactation. Cattle usually struggle in a circle while they are down until, after much struggling, the cow dies.

Basically, the milk production of the animal has used up all of its available calcium and magnesium, and there is not enough left to sustain life. The condition only occurs when the animals and/or the paddocks are deficient. Supplementation and paddocks that have been improved and top-dressed with the required minerals are the answer.

Treat the animal promptly with a calcium and magnesium injection (available form any fodder store) used according to instructions and the animal will soon be back on its feet. The vet who originally taught me how to treat this complaint pointed out that the remedy was far more efficacious if it was given in four doses, one in each side of the neck and one in each side of the rump as suggested for grass tetany.

LDA (Left-Displaced Abomasum)

According to a report in the Weekly Times (September 28, 1994) this is a rapidly increasing complaint among heavily grain-fed cows after calving. It is caused by overfeeding grain without the bulk feed to match. As pointed out in Chapter 6, carbohydrates in the form of chaff and hay, as well as the grazing, are all important for ruminants. LDA means that not long after calving the abomasum drops beneath the rumen due to the weight of grain. The gas in the rumen is then trapped and can only be released surgically, rather similar to bloat. Signs are poor appetite, decreased production with the flanks hollowing. Untreated cows die from a malady which is totally preventable.

Leptospirosis

This is a disease which strikes cattle whose mineral levels are not correct. In 30 years of keeping dairy goats who are, apparently, very susceptible to it according to the vets, I never immunized them nor did they once contract it; this in spite of dire warnings in years when it was particularly bad. Far more serious are the agitated calls I get from dairy farmers who have just completed their annual "lepto" immunizations with a death toll of three to four percent and an abortion rate in a similar ratio. This is on farms where leptospirosis had not occured.

There are two possible causes for these results, one is anaphylactic shock due to the cattle being already sensitized to the vaccine or, as in other immunizations, a sudden withdrawal of vitamin C from the tissues that is triggered by the vaccine. This is a well known phenomenon. Standing by with the adrenalin might stop the former and heavy doses of vitamin C in advance, two tablespoons by mouth or 30 cc intramuscularly, might prevent the latter.

Lice and Exterior Parasites

Bad infestations of exterior parasites are caused by malnutrition. This does not necessarily mean that the animal is starving, but that the diet is unbalanced. Animals will be seen scratching and rubbing themselves against fences, trees and so on, and often the ears go bald. Lice are not very contagious in spite of what people may think. A healthy animal may have a few but they do not proliferate unless the beast is deficient, particularly in sulfur.

According to CSIRO Rural Research Bulletin No. 22, modern chemical farming practices have made sulfur unavailable in farm produce, so all our feed is lacking in that necessary mineral. In 90 percent of the farm analyses that I see, sulfur levels are far too low (Neal Kinsey notes the same thing in the United States and worldwide). Feeding of sulfur in the licks will help to keep animals free of lice and other exterior parasites. As long as the sulphur does not exceed two percent of the diet it is quite safe. This means that a cow could be given a heaped tablespoon a day if she had an infestation; the lice would gradually leave her over a period of five or six days.

When cattle become heated for any reason the presence of lice usually shows up, as they leave the skin and crawl out on the hair. Exterior dressings of sulfur are fairly effective, just rubbing in two or three handfuls of sulfur along the spine is enough. As pointed out in the section on sulfur, a lack of this mineral means that cattle do not absorb and digest their feed as well as they should. Bringing up the sulfur levels in the soil by top-dressing with gypsum (after an analysis) is the long-term remedy.

Liver Fluke, see Worms

Mastitis

Mastitis is quite easily controlled by ensuring that all the animals get the right amount of minerals in their either their hand-fed or on-demand licks. Bail-fed milkers will need a three tablespoon (30 grams) per head per feed minimum. Generally feed is grown with artificial fertilizers and is low in the necessary lime minerals and copper. The protein levels in Chapter 6 should be adhered to since too much protein in the food is a potent cause of mastitis and overly rich diets should be adjusted.

If the pH of the ration is correct and the lactating animal is receiving its lick ration, the type of the mastitis organism seems to be immaterial. Even a torn udder will not produce instant mastitis. Naturally, in this case, the farmer will treat the tear and give the animal extra vitamin C and dolomite to prevent any infection.

An infected cow should be given an extra tablespoon of dolomite and the same of vitamin C night and morning until the infection clears — usually three to five days. In the United Kingdom a teaspoon (five grams) of copper sulfate has to be added to that mixture as the basic pasture is higher in protein than in Australia.

We now have a new or ancient modality according to how one looks at it. Hydrogen peroxide; 10 ml squirted straight into the affected quarter has cured black mastitis in hours. We used to take ten days curing it with massive amounts of vitamin C.

Additional vitamin C could be given by mouth for a day or two as well. The advantage of all the above methods is that the quarters are not lost as is so often the case when ordinary drugs are used.

Metritis

The signs are usually an evil smelling discharge from the vulva following calving, often after the calf has been born dead or taken away in pieces. If a vet is attending, he will insert a pessary, otherwise give a washout of a teaspoon of salt to liter of water to remove the worst of the infective material. If an animal sheds the afterbirth cleanly, this should not be necessary.

Metritis and other conditions affecting the uterus are mainly caused by a lack of vitamin A. In a bad year with much dry weather there are often quite a few affected animals, as they will not have had enough green grass to obtain the necessary vitamin A. There will be a predisposition to metritis in stock on chemically manured paddocks as the chemicals interfere with the synthesis of vitamin A, and the cattle do not receive as much as they should.

Any animal with metritis should be put on a course of vitamin A in some form or other. Vitamin A, D and E injections are suitable as prescribed on the bottle, or an A and D (cod liver oil) drench, 20 ml twice a week if possible, will work. Cattle usually take the oral dose quite well on feed. Vitamin C will also help clear up the infection; use either 7.5 to 10 grams by injection every other day for a cow or 12 grams orally every day in the feed for a week.

Milk Fever

Milk fever occurs when the cow’s calcium reserves are too low for it to sustain life. This occurs shortly after calving. As with lactation tetany, the animal has put all it has into the milk and left too few minerals for herself. The signs are exactly like snake bite, curiously enough, lethargy, slow movements and the pupil of the eye appears much dilated as the eye muscle relaxes. Death will follow if treatment is not started immediately (in either case). The magnesium/calcium injection for the relief of milk fever is obtainable from any feed store and the amounts are given on the bottle. For best results, put the injection in each side of the shoulder and rump, four places in all. This way it is dissipated as fast as possible.

Stock that has been fed on properly balanced paddocks and/or been receiving the basic lick, will not be prone to milk fever. I have found that even confirmed milk fever sufferers will not have a recurrence as long the necessary minerals have been provided. (Often if a cow has had milk fever once, she seems to be more likely to contract it again.)

Bearing in mind that snake bite and milk fever present exactly similar signs, this alternative should always be considered. It sounds unlikely, but if there is any doubt treat as for snakebite as well; it will do no harm. (In the middle of a cold winter I was once confronted by a horse in an unlikely advanced state of pneumonia and suffering from snakebite, luckily the same treatment worked for both.)

Navel Ill (Polyarthritis), see Arthritis, Infective

Nasal Bots

This is a small insect that looks like a beetle larva without wings. It is about half an inch in length when fully grown. Sometimes one will hear cattle sneezing and if they happen to be on concrete, one may find a bot that has been sneezed out on the ground. The egg is laid by the adult fly in the nostrils and animals can be heard snorting when the flies are around. If the stock can be handled, putting Vicks or K7 on the nose will often discourage the flies or make the beast sneeze hard enough to dislodge the larva as it crawls up into the nasal passages.

This can be serious if the cattle are very young, as the nasal passages may not be large enough to accommodate the larva, so it migrates into the brain or elsewhere in the head. Fortunately, in full-grown cattle there is enough room in the nasal passages for the bot to cause nothing more than discomfort. But in the brain it can cause signs similar to circling disease in sheep, due to brain damage, in which case it is generally fatal.

Pink Eye (Conjunctivitis, Ophthalmia, Sandy Blight)

Runny eyes are often the first sign of this illness, then they cloud over and look opaque. If treatment is not started promptly the eyeballs swell, ulcerate and burst — very painful and apt to cause permanent blindness.

Pink eye is caused by an organism that only operates if the host is deficient in vitamin A. It is highly contagious, but will only be caught by other animals deficient in that vitamin. In Australia, where huge areas are dry and without green feed for long periods, this can be a problem. It is made worse by the use of artificial fertilizers which inhibit all vitamins to a degree. Vitamin A is stored in the liver and there should be, in theory, enough from the wet season to see a beast through the dry, but prolonged drought and poor land may cause problems.

Geoff Wallace, the inventor of the Wallace Soil Conditioner, had a mob of Texas Longhorn bullocks that contracted pink eye on a poor paddock. Half of his farm was already converted to organic methods, so he moved the bullocks onto a healthy paddock and the pink eye cleared up in a few days. Easier than manhandling the beasts.

To treat pink eye the sufferers must be yarded as soon as possible. The affected eyes can be treated by pulling up 20 ml of cod liver oil and squirting three ml into each eye and the rest (14 ml) down the throat. This may be repeated for a few days if necessary. I am indebted to my local vet, Alan Clark, for that remedy and it certainly works.

Plant Poisoning

It will always be possible to find plants that are potentially poisonous in any pasture. The nightshade family is particularly widespread, but unless animals are starving, they will only nibble at undesirable plants and take no harm thereby.

Some plants and trees can be tolerated at times and appear to be quite dangerous at others, again the amount eaten must have some bearing. In the old days in the United Kingdom goats had a reputation for preventing "contagious" abortion in cattle, so a wether was kept with the herd. This was not strictly true, because the abortion was caused by a poisonous weed not an organism. Goats happened to like the weed and ate it; it did not affect them and so they stopped the cattle from becoming ill.

In my experience, the following plants can poison animals occasionally.

Boobyalla trees

My goats and occasionally horses and cattle ate from them freely with no ill effects at all. Other people told me their stock had found them very dangerous.

Bracken

This plant was never considered a problem in the United Kingdom; in fact, its herbal qualities are considered valuable there. Here in Australia it is a cumulative poison and causes bone marrow damage. I suspect that poisoning arises because animals are shut in paddocks with nothing but bracken to eat. If this happens several years in succession, inevitably the poison builds up to dangerous levels. When there is good feed available, stock hardly touch bracken. Bracken only grows on poor, potassium-deficient pastures and top-dressing with animal manures, soil aeration and improving the health of the paddock very soon discourages it.

Capeweed (Calendula artotheka)

This scourge, which came from South Africa, is sometimes the only source of feed, particularly after drought where there are no competing species. It also takes over on very poor land after excessive wet, when the paddocks are badly pugged and again there is no competition from grasses. It likes a low pH and a compacted, anaerobic soil.

Capeweed can be excellent fodder and animals milk well on it, provided the farmer remembers two things. It causes a very bad depletion of magnesium and supplementary dolomite will have to be fed while capeweed is the chief source of food. If the stock are already on dolomite, they will probably need to have their ration doubled. Animals on capeweed soon start to scour and the normal remedies do not stop it until extra dolomite is given. As soon as the capeweed ceases to be the main source of food, the extra dolomite should be stopped as too much may inhibit copper uptake.

Secondly, capeweed depletes iodine to a fatal degree. This is more insidious as often the cattle do not start to die until after the capeweed has died back. The better the cattle look, the quicker they seem to die. Both these effects are caused by the high nitrates in the capeweed. However, if the extra dolomite and iodine are fed, cattle seem to be able to tolerate the extra nitrates. The iodine could be fed as liquid seaweed in the water, seaweed meal, or as Lugol’s solution, obtainable from a vet, who will advise on the dosage.

Capeweed hay does not appear to have the same effect as when it is fresh; it is difficult to dry, but good feed when it is harvested successfully. Capeweed is at its most dangerous in extreme drought or very wet conditions where there is little sunlight. Sun- light triggers an enzyme called nitrate reductase which reduces the nitrates to amino acids and proteins which are digestible. When this does not happen, the nitrates turn to nitrites in the rumen and poisoning ensues. In this type of poisoning, the blood shows up almost black due to lack of oxygen.

Professor Selwyn Everist, whose work, Poison Plants in Australia, covers nitrate poisoning, states that it is unwise to use MCP or 2, 4, 5-T type sprays to kill capeweed. This practice enhances the dangerous effects and makes the plant even more palatable to stock.

This advice applies to any broad-leaved species wherever they are. When I lost my herd of milkers from this ailment, I was not feeding the stock lick as such; had I been, I think the outcome would have been different.

Eucalyptus

Only the very young fresh shoots cause trouble as a rule. Consult the prussic acid paragraph in the next section on poisons.

Heliotrope

A small, silvery-colored, grey-green plant with clusters of pale mauve flowers. It is very high in copper (150 ppm) and causes the "yellows" in stock, in other words, jaundice from liver damage. Adequate dolomite in the diet stops this effect and it should be available in licks or bail feed. As a rule, the jaundice does not occur until the heliotrope has died off and the cattle start to graze green grass again, so it is very important to keep the dolomite up after the heliotrope has died off as well.

Top-dressing with the required minerals and adjusting the pH discourages this weed almost completely.

Lantana

This is a shrub with widely differing reports. One says the red one is poison and the yellow is not, another says it is a good source of feed, and yet another says it is lethal. Perhaps best avoided.

Lilac

This can be poisonous to calves. In grown cows it is tolerated, but can and does poison the milk. In the drinker, the symptoms are vomiting, diarrhea and discomfort. Children suffer more severely from the above conditions, which cease when the source of the trouble is removed.

Lobelia

This is described in Mrs Grieve’s A Modern Herbal as containing an alkaloid that is a strong poison. It is known to affect and kill cattle and sheep on occasion. Dolomite and vitamin C orally, a tablespoon of each every half hour, as well as injections of vitamin C intramuscularly could possibly work.

Patterson’s Curse (Salvation Jane)

This is a bright purple flowering plant with big leaves which, in the spring, carpets whole areas of deficient land with a low pH. It is similar to heliotrope and St. John’s Wort in it’s action. It is a relatively deep-rooted plant and does, therefore, grow on land which is deficient in copper on the surface. Treat the land as for heliotrope.

Peach and plum trees

These are safe when fresh, but cyanide forms in the leaves when wilted. Dolomite and vitamin C could be tried if there is enough time. Keep cattle away from them.

Privet

Same as lilac.

Rhubarb

The leaves of this plant contain oxalic acid. Oxalate depresses calcium and iodine. My goats used to make a beeline for rhubarb leaves whenever they got in the garden, with absolutely no ill effects. Perhaps the dolomite in their diets protected them. Certainly dolomite or ground limestone can be used as an antidote.

St. John’s Wort (Hypericum)

This is a plant which grows about a foot or so high, with thin leaves and yellow flowers. It is another plant about which there are conflicting reports. Basically it is very high in copper, high enough to cause trouble in white animals, but black ones tolerate it and indeed seem to thrive on it. Dolomite could be tried as an antidote as it does neutralize copper in an overdose. Like Paterson’s Curse it can, and often does, grow on land that has a surface deficient in copper and, like Paterson’s Curse and Heliotrope, it does not like well-balanced, healthy soils.

Following are plant poisons that are very dangerous: Azaleas The antidote to these is oral vitamin C, and for a cow two tablespoons (40 grams) made into a drench should be enough to effect recovery. Stock collapse and become moribund very quickly from this poison.

Black Nightshade (Solanum Nigrum)

This is a plant of the nightshade family. It does not appear to be very poisonous unless starved animals are limited to eating it alone. In my experience animals leave it alone anyway.

Deadly Nightshade

Belladonna is the really poisonous type and is found in Europe and possibly the United States. Try vitamin C to regain health.

Oleander

This plant is deadly. Possibly vitamin C would work, but has not been tried. I once saw a goat happily eating an oleander on a nature strip, and judging by what was left of the other bushes, she had been doing it for quite a while, but I would not recommend trying it. Even a scratch from the wood is deemed very poisonous.

Potatoes

These are poisonous when green or as potato haulm. These contain solanin, a highly dangerous cumulative poison. There is probably no antidote. Vitamin C could be tried at a dosage of two tablespoons (40 grams) for a cow.

Yew tree

Deadly at certain times of the year, and the trouble is no one knows which ones. I did not know this years ago as I waited for a horse to die after I found it had got into the garden and was eating yew. It lived. I would regard most garden shrubs as suspect and refrain from feeding them; many blue flowered species are poisonous. There are plenty of good fodder trees, coprosma (mirror bush), apple, pear, and nut trees, most acacias, kurrajongs, lucerne (tagasaste), casuarinas and paulowna to name a few. All are safe to feed if necessary.

The following plants are sometimes safe.

Linseed (rape, flax)

This contains prussic acid and should be used as a strip grazing crop. Allow stock on it for an hour or two each day; more than this could cause problems. Linseed grain, if heated, must be boiled for four hours to destroy the prussic acid effectively. In this form, it is an excellent feed additive for putting on condition and milk.

Phalaris

This grass (and rye grass) when grown on artificially fertilized soil, especially soils that are sick, will cause trouble — usually staggers. It is quite difficult to treat, but vitamin B1 could be tried. Both grasses, grown on remineralized fields, are excellent, high-quality feed, either fresh or as hay. Of course, the more diversity that there is in a grass ley, the healthier the animals will be. I find that one of the joys of getting the lime minerals in balance is that many varieties of beneficial plants reappear.

Rye grass

Same as for Phalaris above. It is an excellent fodder on healthy paddocks.

Sorghum and sudex

Both contain prussic acid when young, and should not be grazed until they are over one foot high.

Pneumonia

Signs of pneumonia are labored and rapid breathing. If the ear is laid to the chest, it sounds rather like an express train in a tunnel. A high temperature, misery and occasionally coughing will also be noticed. Ordinary pneumonia can occur in any animal that is below par and subject to temperature stress allied to, in nearly all cases, poor nutrition in which the calcium and possibly magnesium are too low. Bad housing with too little air is also a frequent cause of pneumonia in young animals, it is not a good idea to keep calves confined. If they have to be kept in sheds, they should be airy, but not drafty.

This kind of pneumonia is generally bacterial and will respond to good nursing, massive doses of vitamin C and vitamins A and E especially. Twenty grams of vitamin C by intramuscular injection every two hours, with 10 cc of vitamin B12 daily (given with one of the vitamin C injections) and vitamins A, D and E either orally or by injectionshould help. Some firms market injectable vitamin E. White E is a powder that can be used orally in food (the dosage is on the container). Vitamin E is invaluable for the convalescing pneumonia patient because it helps heal lung damage. The extent of lung damge can be gauged by checking the breathing rate and the vitamin E may be given for a week or two until the breathing rate improves.

Pleuro pneumonia

The dreaded "Pleuro" (mycoplasma pneumonia) is another problem altogether. Although it can affect all species, in most people’s minds it is the dread disease that decimated the cattle numbers in the early days in Australia (respiratory problems are always worst where calcium and magnesium are low). It is highly contagious and for this reason, any case of pneumonia should be checked out by a vet.

Mycoplasma pneumonia has had a habit of recurring once the animal has contracted it and it seemed impossible to effect a permanent cure. However, that was before some of the drugs we have today were obtainable. Erythromycin, in particular, is highly effective against mycoplasma infections. The treatment, as above, for ordinary pneumonia should be given at the same time as any drugs are given. Needless to say, any animal with pneumonia should be segregated from the healthy ones immediately, pending the arrival of the vet.

Poisons

General

Poisoning due to chemicals is extremely difficult to cure, if not impossible in some cases. Large quantities of vitamins A, B, E, C and zinc are suggested for humans suffering from inorganic sprays or similar type poisonings. These could be tried if the animal showed some hope of living, and they have occasionally been successful.

Sometimes removing the cause is effective. Three goats from three different localities developed leukemia that showed up as edema from the chin to the top of the forelegs. All of them had been in contact with pesticide sprays in various forms. Taking the animals from the source of contamination and feeding them good, healthy grazing on an organic pasture, resulted in a complete remission in a couple of weeks.

In all cases of suspect poisoning (except 1080, see below), it is always worth trying doses of vitamin C in fairly large quantities, both orally and by injection. Vitamin E is the other really useful vitamin for poisons because its healing action is very helpful, particularly when used in conjunction with vitamin C.

Arsenic

Arsenic poisoning produces a rather sweet smell in the mouth, extreme distress, vomiting (even in a ruminant) and a deathly chill. I have been told that ruminants die if they vomit, but I have managed to bring an animal through by using large doses of vitamin C, both by injection and orally, along with vitamins E and B12. Sadly, the exercise is not very productive as excess arsenic causes hormone and bone marrow damage and the animal I saved was never very good again.

Lead

Lead poisoning is often caused by an animal licking paint or old paint cans and results in anemia, muscle weakness and diarrhea. Drenching with Epsom Salts helps clear the system, and the usual supportive measures should be followed. In the past, this was quite a common form of poisoning in young calves. When they are missing nutrients, like their parents with hardware disease, they will try anything in an often vain attempt to correct the deficiency.

Mercury

Hopefully, mercury poisoning is becoming a thing of the past now that it is banned as a silo fumigant. In its severe form, it causes shredding of intestinal mucosa and diarrhea. In the sub-acute form, often caused by mercury based latex paints, digestive disturbances, loose teeth and salivation can be the warning signs. In either case, call a vet immediately and remove, if possible, the source of contamination. As in other cases of poisoning, supportive treatment with vitamins C and E, will be of help.

Nitrate

This poisoning is mostly covered in the section on capeweed above. Nitrates are stored in broad-leaved plants, even clover on occasion, and, in certain cases, turn to deadly nitrites in the gut. Normally nitrates are processed to proteins and amino acids in the plants by an enzyme called nitrate reductase. This process needs sunlight. In conditions of extreme drought, when there is a lot of cloud cover, the nitrates build up to dangerous levels turning to nitrites which deplete the oxygen in the blood of the animal that eats it, and the animal dies. On post mortem examination the blood appears completely black. At first, the obvious symptoms are almost identical to tetanus. In fact, my vet and I took 24 hours to realize that it was not tetanus when we saw our first case. According to Everist, in Poisonous Plants in Australia, huge doses of Vitamin C are the only hope, but we did not find it worked. Sweet smelling dung is one symptom of nitrate poisoning.

Phosphorus

After eating phosphorus-based rat baits, the animal has a craving to drink and must not be allowed water in any form, as this causes the phosphorus to react with the liquid and burn the intestines. If a phosphorus-poisoned animal has had a drink, it is kinder to put it out of its misery.

Egg white, glucose and possibly a very little milk may be given at hourly intervals until the beast shows signs of recovery. This worked with a dog I cared for and it took 36 hours. It would be very difficult to do with a much larger animal. In this type of poisoning the breath of the animal also has a sickly sweet smell, quite unmistakable, and the sufferer is obviously feeling heat in its gut.

Prussic Acid

Poisoning from prussic acid usually comes from young sugar gum leaves or other young eucalyptus. The animal will foam at the mouth and go down. Drenching straight away with pharmaceutical chalk or fine dolomite will effect an immediate recovery by neutralizing the poison. Give at least four tablespoons of chalk or dolomite to a half liter of water for full-grown cattle.

Spirodesmin

This is also called facial eczema and is found in the pithomycetes spore. It causes fatal toxicity. It has caused death in alpacas and could affect cattle. High doses of vitamin B1 as recommended for thiaminase poisoning, vitamin K and supplementary zinc in the form of zinc sulfate could be effective. Consult your vet. This toxin only seems to occur on sick, acid paddocks with a low pH and poor mineral levels. It would not happen in paddocks that have been tested and top-dressed with the appropriate lime minerals, i. e., gypsum, lime or dolomite. Hot, humid weather will show up these kinds of organisms after cutting very long grass in warm weather, when the mold spores start to grow. Slashing should be done frequently so there will not be heavy, wet grass lying on the paddock which will encourage this condition.

Thiaminase

This poison works by destroying thiamin or vitamin B1. It is present in molds and is one of several poisons that is fungal in origin. See the section on vitamin B1.

Urea

Urea poisoning can be a problem whenever urea is fed to cattle and the farmer should try to keep them under reasonable observation. Signs are stomach pain; uncoordinated gait; muscle tremors; deep, slow, labored breathing; weakness and collapse; bloating; frothing at the mouth; vomiting and violent struggling at death.

The only treatment I have heard experts recommend is four to eight liters of equal parts water and vinegar. I would suggest adding a two tablespoons of vitamin C powder to that mixture. Cattlemen have reported that when feeding the basic lick to beasts being fed trash and low quality feeds, urea poisoning is not a problem. Perhaps the sulfur in the lick helps.

1080

This is also called fluoroacetate or 23 ppm fluoride. Glycerol monoacetate is the antidote, which is not normally carried by the veterinary profession. If 1080 poison is known to have been taken by an animal, the antidote must be given within 20 minutes. It will take about four hours for the beast to die after that, in great pain, and nothing can reverse it. Shooting is the only humane answer unless the antidote can be given in time. I am told by someone who worked in the Lands Department that 1080 does not cause pain. The vet to whom I took a neighbor’s dog dying from it will testify that it certainly does in dogs.

Pregnancy Toxemia

This is a fancy name (so is twin lamb disease) for a condition that occurs when the fetus has taken all the necessary minerals and the mother is left without enough to sustain life. It should not arise in well-kept stock, even with multiples in utero, which is very rare in cattle.

The signs are increasing lethargy. The pregnant animal makes a lot of fuss about moving or rising after rest and finally refuses to do so at all. Exercise undoubtedly helps, as it dissipates the minerals that are available around the system and keeps the gut working, but the time inevitably arrives when the minerals run out. Then mother and young will soon die unless swift action is taken.

The quickest and most effective measure is to give a large drench, 50 ml, of seaweed extract to which a dessertspoon (for a cow) of the basic lick has been added. This usually gets them on their feet very quickly. The dose should be repeated every six hours until the cow is up and then half the dose may be given daily for a few days. A system of feeding should be started at once giving her all the minerals she needs right up to calving, and do not forget the cider vinegar. Many farmers often do not bother to give extra feed until a cow is actually lactating.

Supportive injections of vitamin C, with some added vitamin B12, will also help if the patient is very low. In the old days glycerine was used for this condition and it did keep the cattle alive, but in no way relieved the problem and animals seemed to hate the taste of it.

Prolapse

Prolapse usually occurs before calving and part of the placenta will obtrude from the vulva; this is generally more noticeable if the animal is lying down. Prolapse is due to lack of muscle tone and can be cured by giving the cow calcium fluoride tablets over a period of two or three days. (Calcium fluoride is nothing to do with the sodium fluoride in the water supply.) The tablets are obtainable at any health shop in the homeopathic tissue salts area. The dosage for a cow would be 50 tablets crushed up and given by drench or in the feed once a day. They are quite palatable. It usually takes something less than 48 hours to bring about a cure.

Do not on any account cut the prolapse, unless you want a dead calf and cow. It should be pushed back gently, but will generally not stay in while the muscle tone is too weak to hold it there.

The device usually suggested to hold in a prolapse has a very poor running record. It often punctures the placenta before birth, resulting in the loss of the amniotic fluid (needed for lubrication as well as protection), and a dry birth usually means the loss of calf and cow. Try the calcium fluoride, it has worked several times with afflicted stock. This complaint does not occur on remineralized fields or in stock that is getting the basic lick.

Prolapse after birth

The old folk practice used very successfully in the James Herriot books was putting the tissue back with a couple of kilograms (about five pounds) of sugar. This was used for a cow when no other remedy was successful. The calcium fluoride would also be of help. But I have found that so many of these odd ailments are no longer a problem when animals are correctly fed. Basically the animal is deficient and if the trouble is confined to one beast, unless she is very old, one has to assume she is not thrifty and cull her.

Redwater Disease (Tick Fever)

Vitamin C could be tried for affected cattle, it detoxifies tick and other bites quite effectively. Thirty ml (15 grams) of vitamin C by injection every two hours is the recommended dose. However, prevention is much better than cure in this case as in others. Raise the sulfur levels in the animals by putting out the basic lick. If the soil is out of balance and the outbreak continues, the sulfur could be raised to 10 pounds for a while. It is unwise to let cattle have molasses in any form as it encourages biting insects.

Retained Afterbirth

This should not occur in an cows unless they are low in potassium, selenium and possibly vitamin A. That said, the septic effects can be offset by injections of large doses of vitamin C. I had a goat that failed to pass an afterbirth due to trying unsuccessfully to produce two kids simultaneously in the middle of the night. By the time I extracted the dead kids, there was no chance of getting out the afterbirth without being very rough or resorting to drugs. I gave her 10 grams of vitamin C by injection in the muscle three times during the day and again next day. About a week later she was slightly off color so I repeated the treatment for two days, after which there was no trouble and she produced quite normally next time around. Other people have reported the same results to me. A cow would need three times that dose at least (30 grams). The afterbirth is obviously reabsorbed in utero in such cases.

As in dystokia, giving cider vinegar coming up to calving, along with seaweed products to supply the selenium, would be preventative measures worth taking. Vitamins A and D should always be given, especially in dry years.

Rickets

This is a disease that can affect young animals that are not getting the right amounts of calcium and magnesium in their diet. Occasionally it can be due to the fact that the calcium and magnesium levels are good, but there is a lack of vitamins A and D and/or boron, without which the calcium and magnesium cannot be used correctly.

A sign of Rickets is generally legs which bend under the weight of the body. Children from the slums in the last century often developed rickets to the point where they had to wear leg braces, mostly occasioned by the lack of sunlight and no milk in their diets.

Very occasionally, diets too high in phosphates can have the same effect by upsetting the phosphate to calcium/ magnesium ratio. Adjusting the diet accordingly will bring about an improvement. Make sure the calves get some of the lick as soon as they can take it in their feed. Do not over feed milk.

Ringworm

A skin disease caused by a fungus, not a worm. The name originated because the fungus works in concentric rings and looks like a coiled worm. A wash of copper sulfate, two tablespoons in a pint of cider vinegar, rubbed well into the lesion usually effects a cure straight away. If not, repeat the application until it does. Ringworm is not contagious except when animals are deficient in copper. Cider vinegar rubbed in well will also effect a cure and might be used if the ringworm is too near an eye to use the copper.

Making sure that the cattle’s copper requirements were met would mean they did not catch ringworm.

Ross River Fever

This is a debilitating disease carried by biting flies. The beast is ill and the joints are swollen and sore — just like afflicted humans, in fact. The sulfur in the lick should stop the flies. Do not feed molasses on any account as it makes the flies bite worse. Large doses of vitamin C will bring it under control along with the right minerals. The addition of a dessertspoon of powdered ginger daily for a few days, then twice a week, should finish the cure. The latter is an old Chinese remedy.

Scabby Mouth (Orf)

A herpes-based infection, it is a particularly fast spreading and debilitating disease where the affected cattle become too sore to eat. It starts as a small scab by the mouth and quickly spreads all over the lower part of the face and it is not foot and mouth disease. The same wash as for ringworm works very quickly. Dip the affected animal’s face in the mixture if possible, otherwise one or two applications of the mixture rubbed well in will cause the scabs to clear up. The disease does not have to run the mandatory three weeks. It is highly contagious if animals are copper deficient. Amend their diet straightaway.

Scouring, see Diarrhea

Snakebite

In some districts snakebite is the cause of significant losses among cattle, especially calves, who are more curious than adults and wander more. Large animals do not, as a rule, appear to take any notice of snakes one way or another. In Australia, Tiger snakes seem to be the worst offenders, being rather resentful of intrusion. Although highly venomous, their biting mechanism is poor; however, they seem to attack stock more often than other varieties (they are similar to English vipers or adders). Brown and black snakes tend to get out of the way.

Snakebite either kills immediately or it takes an hour or more according to the locality of the bite (and possibly the mobility of the patient). Signs of snakebite are an uncoordinated beast, collapse and very enlarged pupils. In some cases, if the bite is near the eye, one or both will cloud over too. Generally the bite cannot be seen. It becomes apparent about three days later, when the hair dies away around it and if squeezing out the venom, take care.

We are indebted to Dr. Klenner in the United States for discovering that Vitamin C was a complete snakebite cure. The type of snake is quite immaterial because the ascorbate detoxifies the venom, whatever the type. Antivenin, apart from being expensive and that you need to know the type of snakebite, can also cause anaphylactic shock. I’m told this is rare, but I have seen it twice after antivenin was used. Then, if no adrenalin is handy, it may become a case of the shock killing the cow and not the snake.

In snake areas the farmer should keep two or three bottles of injectable vitamin C (100 ml bottles — two ml to a gram) in the fridge or cool room. Cattle need 25 cc (12.5 grams) in each side of the neck. A stout needle will be needed, size 18 or larger. This should be followed up in a hour or so by the same amount again. The vitamin C can be given orally by drench, in which case the equivalent of at least 30 grams (six teaspoons of powder) should be given to a cow. There is no danger of an overdose; it merely wastes money. Calves would need at least 10 cc by injection. Continue to give the vitamin C to the patient until it looks really well again; this usually takes one day.

One area where snakebite does not respond to the above suggestions is the udder. The cow will not die if treated, but the udder will be ruined. One method I have not tried could be to find, if possible, where the bite is and inject a large amount of vitamin C (100 ml) straight into the udder (through the wall). It would be worth trying since nothing else works.

Running a herd of commercial milking goats in a very bad tiger snake district, I resorted to putting bells on them. This cut the snake bites to nil. I know snakes are not supposed to hear, but they must have picked up the vibrations. Cow bells were used in the early days and are still obtainable.

Spider Bites

Spider bites are usually not so serious as snakes and ticks. Southern spiders (red backs, etc.) seem to cause swelling at the site of the bite and vitamin C helps these clear up. The swelling usually takes two or three days to go down. The swelling is only serious if it is in the throat area and quick administration of ascorbate usually stops it becoming any worse. Otherwise treat spider bites exactly like snake bites.

Note: in all poison bites, if the site of the bite can be found, rub sodium ascorbate well into it after treatment with the injections, etc., as it stops the pain.

Tapeworm, see Worms

Tetanus

The old name for tetanus was lockjaw because, shortly after the onset of the illness, the jaw is locked. Animals appear to stagger and seem disoriented. If hit smartly under the chin, the eyes will roll backwards.

Tetanus is caused by Clostridium tetanae, a clostridial bacteria that proliferates in deep airless wounds that have not been disinfected properly (often because they are not even visible). Shotgun pellets are very prone to setting up tetanus. It takes about 10 days after the wound before it appears. Piercing wounds that the farmer often does not see and those from rusty nails are particularly dangerous.

The tetanus organism is generally present in soil where stock of any kind have been running. It used to be associated with horses, but it can occur with any animal, so if seen, all wounds should be thoroughly disinfected — iodine, alcohol or disinfectant may be used. Vitamin C must be given after tetanus prone wounds until all danger is passed, at least 14 days, unless the vet has given a tetanus injection.

Tetanus is a horrible disease which takes several weeks to run it’s course. The animal is in a nervous and painful state with a high fever and the slightest noise causes it to go into convulsions — very difficult in a large heavy cow. Top class nursing was the only hope prior to the use of vitamin C. Fortunately it works very quickly with tetanus; generally three hours or less and the patient is usually well on the way to recovery.

Vitamin C should be given by injection and, if the jaw is locked, it is difficult to do anything else. For a large animal a whole bottle, 100 cc (50 grams) should be given initially, and 30 cc every hour thereafter until the signs cease. When the symptoms do subside, the battle is won. It is not good waiting several days and then expecting the vitamin C to work; the quicker the treatment is started the better.

After improvement, the animal must be kept very quiet and the vitamin C injections cut back to twice a day for a couple of days. Once the beast is up and about, just keep an eye on it. Light, nourishing food and its minerals should complete the cure.

However, if the cause of the tetanus has not been determined, examine the animal very carefully, because when the actual tetanus is obvious, the wound will be very infected. In the case of a bullet wound, or some other imbedded metal, it may be necessary to extract the object. I saw this once in a horse that had been hit in the leg by shot gun slugs.

Tick Bite

Vitamin C works well for tick bite, even in cases where the animal is already in a coma. The vitamin should be given as for snake bite. If the beast is in a coma, take care if giving it orally that it does not go down the windpipe. Find the tick(s) and remove them carefully. Cattle on the lick should not get attacked by ticks; these are only a nuisance on low grade, out of balance fields.

Tick Fever, see Redwater Disease

Three Day Sickness (Bovine Ephemeral Fever)

This is an illness carried by mosquitos. It causes a high fever that reputedly lasts three days. Farmers tell me it can last three weeks or more. Megadoses of vitamin C could be tried, 20 cc every few hours for a large animal, continued until it improves. However, prevention is the best approach and adding sulfur to the feed, as in licks, is the answer. When I suggested this to a farmer who rang, he suddenly realized his cattle had not contracted it the year he gave them a sulfur lick. The sulfur in the standard lick may have to be doubled if the outbreak is bad. Those that recover should be immune to further attacks.

Toxoplasmosis

This illness causes cattle to abort or bear dead calves. It is carried by cats, and really quite impossible to stop because cats cannot be controlled. Like the above ailment, lifetime immunity usually results from an infection. It is always wise to have a vet check out a dead calf to see if toxoplasmosis is the cause. The disease is a zoonose, and particularly can affect pregnant women who should be extremely careful about handling dead or aborted calves. They should also use caution when handling cats and should not handle litter boxes under any circumstances.

Tuberculosis

When we first came to Australia in the late 1950s, I was somewhat startled to find that tuberculosis was still a fairly common ailment here. Even these days there are sporadic outbreaks periodically. The same minerals that, when absent, allow brucellosis to develop are apparently implicated in tuberculosis infections: iodine, copper, cobalt and manganese, and, of course, the correct amounts of calcium and magnesium. This is a notifiable disease and prevention is definitely better than cure.

Urinary Calculi

Urinary calculi (also stones in the ureter, etc.) will be prevented by seeing that the stock are on the correct minerals. If stones should arise, usually cider vinegar will help them to dissolve, as will large doses of oral vitamin C (sodium ascorbate) on occasion.

These can be a real problem in areas where the water supply is from highly mineralized bore water and bulls are especially susceptible. However, if some way can be found of including a little cider vinegar in the food, the stones do not occur. The amount needed is surprisingly small, in the case of a bull, a dessertspoon every few days would be enough.

Affected animals show signs of pain when trying to pass water and, in some cases, the pain can be so great that the beast will become very ill. Definitely a case of prevention being much easier than cure. A calcium to magnesium imbalance can also contribute to the problem.

Warts

Warts can occur anywhere on an animal, but they are more usually found around eyelids, lips, sheaths, udders, in fact, any hairless area. While not fatal, they can be a nuisance and perhaps cause debility. They are caused by a virus which apparently is only interested in a magnesium deficient host and extra dolomite in some form or other is enough to halt their progress. Once the cow is started on a daily mineral lick, the warts usually take nine or 10 days to drop off. Magnesium orotate could be used, about 4,000 mg a day (the tablets for humans usually come in 400 mg doses).

This does not work for people because they do not make their own vitamin C as cattle do (about 30 grams a day) and it seems to be needed to complete the cure. So if an animal was very poor, some vitamin C drenched in with the magnesium would help.

Woody Tongue

This is exactly what it says, the tongue goes hard and the animal cannot eat. The sovereign remedy in the old days was to get the poor wretch into market before it starved in order to save something out of the wreck. Occasionally the hardness can be seen around the back of the tongue and the side of the head as well, accompanied by swelling.

It is caused by an organism called actinomycosis which likes iodine-deficient hosts. Stock that have been having their licks do not seem to succumb and I have not seen it for many years now.

The old treatment was to fetch the vet and have sodium iodide injected straight into the vein. I have seen equally quick results from a brew of four tablespoons seaweed meal, mixed with a liter of cider vinegar shaken up well in a bottle (it is a slightly explosive mixture and the lid should be left loose), 250 ml of which is drenched into the sufferer every few hours. In the case I cured, the cow recovered by the time the bottle was finished. This was before the days of liquid seaweed which could certainly be given instead.

Worms and Liver Fluke

Drench resistance strikes fear into everyone these days, but it seems to be a fact of life. The worms adapt to drenches faster than we can make new ones. Even the Ivermectin group, which was supposed to be proof against drench resistance, has now succumbed. Each new drench has a limited life as long as it is of a chemical composition.

The answer to worms lies in good husbandry which has been outlined in earlier chapters. We shall never be able to beat the worms, so we must use an organic system of farming that lets the dung beetles, earth worms and soil fauna do it for us. This must be allied to a diet high enough in the necessary minerals to stop the worms from becoming a scourge. Dr. William A. Albrecht says in his works that animals who have the right amount of copper in their systems do not have worm problems. Farmers who have fully remineralized their land and have it in good heart have, in many cases, given up drenching on a regular basis. Most of them also see that their cattle have licks available when they want them.

Given that Dr. Albrecht found worm infestations (of any kind) only occurred in copper deficient animals, the section below on different kinds of worms is academic. It has been noticeable with all stock that fluke, tape worm and coccidia are the first and easiest to prevent with even quite small amounts of copper. Those farmers with cattle on the lick described in Chapter 8 will find that drenching becomes a thing of the past.

A worm count of 200 or below is not a concern in properly supplemented and fed animals; in fact, a "wormless" beast usually is not very well since worms do not live in unhealthy animals. Not only actual worms, but all protozoa-type infections also appear to be caused by a lack of copper in the diet. It took me and other farmers a few years to realize that many of the conditions, such as coccidia and possibly toxoplasmosis, just were not occurring once the ration was in order.

As the copper in the lick prevents the worms from staying in the gut of the cattle, they will surely die out fairly soon as they have to live inside a beast to complete their life cycle. It is interesting that worm counts done soon after beasts arrive often show a quite high count of eggs, but no adults either mature or immature. Another week or two on the lick is probably enough to see that the animal is fully clear. When hatched worms just do not stay in an animal whose copper reserves are correct.

Copper and worms

I have not used any proprietary drenches for just on 30 years now. Copper sulfate, with various additions, was used for many years prior to the advent of artificial chemical drenches in the late 1950s. The copper was mixed with either carbon tetrachloride (a very poisonous cleaning fluid), lead arsenate (another dangerous poison) or nicotine sulphate, which was possibly the safest of the three. I very much doubt if the reported deaths were often due to copper poisoning.

Copper toxicity causes liver damage which, if not treated, is fatal. We found out that when copper is administered with dolomite, there is little risk unless the cattle have been grazing heliotrope or some other weed high in copper like Patterson’s curse or St. John’s wort; however, if they had, the chance of a worm burden would be virtually nil, because of the high copper content of all three.

According to the Department of Primary Industry in Queensland, the blood serum levels of copper in a bovine should be between 500 and 1,100 milliliters per liter, at which levels worm infestations would be unlikely. In all cases of suspected worm infestation, a count should be taken either by the vet, or as many farmers the world over these days do, examining the manure with a microscope (a school quality microscope will do).

Long standing copper overload can apparently be corrected by giving the affected cow dolomite on a permanent basis. This can be given with an injection of vitamin B15 (10 cc), Pangamic acid (10 cc) and vitamin C (20 cc) in the same syringe once a week. This has been tried in the field on farms where too much copper has been spread on the land. For immediate copper poisoning, give the beast a tablespoon of dolomite and vitamin C powder by mouth every few hours, and 10 cc of vitamin B15 with 30 cc of sodium ascorbate (vitamin C) in the same syringe by injection. This can be given every few hours, although a calf that I first did this work on recovered fully in an hour and a half and further doses were not necessary. Signs of copper poisoning are misery and a hunched up appearance — in effect, acute belly ache due to liver pain.

According to Justine Glass, black animals need about six times as more copper than white ones. Consult the section on copper for deficiency signs.

Initially several friends who ran cattle, horses, sheep or goats experimented using copper instead of proprietary drenches, with very satisfactory results. The only controlled experiment was performed with goats and the Depart ment of Agriculture did the tests. Half were given the latest state-of-the-art drench (not Ivermectin), and half were given the copper sulfate/dolomite/vitamin C dose. The results were equal — 100 percent clear in both cases.

When I first started using copper sulfate instead of proprietary drenches, I could not find any guidelines and Dr. Albrecht, whose works show that copper prevents worm infestations, does not mention dosage quantities. A retired vet lent me a copy of the British Veterinary Codex (1952) and I was able to work out amounts from that source. I had reckoned that monogastrics need about half the amount on body weight that ruminants require; however, work done by the University of Minnesota on ponies and copper requirements suggests that equines actually top the list as far as copper requirement or tolerance goes.

I have discussed running copper through the diet with various vets and at least one did not have apoplexy, but was genuinely impressed and interested because to use his exact words, "We have come to the end of the line with proprietary drenches." That was 18 years ago and the situation has not improved with the years.

Modern strategy

I found that telling people to drench their animals with copper and dolomite, etc., was not a success, but what does work is prevention as underlined many times in this book.

Working with various farmers we evolved the lick mentioned in Chapter 8 (50 pounds of dolomite, 8 pounds of copper sulfate, 8 pounds of sulfur, 8 pounds of urea-free seaweed meal). It has been eminently successful and it is no longer necessary to think about the old strategic drenching. It takes a full year to build up the copper reserves in an animal and only then does the coat stay a good strong color the whole year through. The cattle’s continuing good health on the regime seems to be the only consequence.

Past strategy

What follows is purely academic and a relic of the drenching days. That said, there are a few things farmers should know about the types of worms that used to lie in wait for their stock.

Barber’s Pole Worm (Haemonchus Contortus)

Without a doubt the most insidious and dangerous worm on the list. This is a blood-sucking worm that can be picked up and carried in encapsulated form until the time is right for it to emerge in the animal’s gut and wreak havoc. It is particularly deadly in calves and kills by totally robbing its host of red blood cells. It is not active when the weather is cold, but waits for a really hot spell to emerge, when it causes almost total anaemia very quickly. Drenching when it is in the encapsulated form does not work, so it is necessary to drench the moment a young animal’s lower eyelids become pale; by the time they are white, it is usually too late. Another case where prevention in the form of good farming practice is the best strategy.

Brown Stomach Worm (Ostertagia)

Another blood-sucking worm, but this can be hit whenever the animal is drenched. Quite often two drenches are needed on successive days, as the worm burrows into the stomach walls, and does not come out until those at large have been destroyed by the first drench. One very badly infested animal that I leased needed drenching for four days in succession before he was clear.

Lung Worm (Meullerius Capillaris and Dirofilaria Immitis)

These are two distinct sorts of lung worm that used to need two different drenches. It was also thought that they did not cover more than one sort of livestock, but this does not appear to be correct.

Signs are coughing and ill thrift. A worm count will be needed to determine which kind of lung worm is causing the trouble, unless using the Ivermectin group of treatment. Lung worm, if not dealt with, causes lasting damage. Quite often really healthy looking animals with a slight cough do not have lung worm, but have scarring from a previous infestation. Doses of vitamin E, as for pneumonia scarring, could possibly help.

If calves are badly infected with lung worm, using a severe drench can be fatal because all the worms in the lungs will be killed at once. This will mean there will not be enough room left for the animal to gain the oxygen it needs, so it is virtually dies of mechanical pneumonia. Better in this case to use a mild drench that deals with the worms in the intestines (part of the lung worm cycle is spent there), and then a day or two later use something that will kill those left in the lungs, some of which will have migrated by then.

Liver Fluke

Fluke has a six-week life cycle from a small conical snail whose larvae infect the stock. These can infest very wet land or dams and, once they have been ingested, grow into a full-grown (about a centimeter wide) fluke in the host’s liver.

Signs of liver fluke are anaemia, ill thrift, occasionally a swelling under the jaw and a capricious appetite. Liver fluke drenches are very expensive, and rather severe. Raising the copper in the ration until the eyelids become a deep pink usually gets rid of fluke. This could mean a flat dessertspoon per cow for a few days, after that make sure the copper levels are correct and the fluke will not re-infest the animals. If they do, the beasts are not getting enough copper.

The drenches for fluke are very expensive and often difficult to get. However, it is the easiest to prevent; a fairly small amount of copper run through the ration is enough to prevent it. I did not realize this when I first went onto an irrigation farm (the fluke come in with the water), but wondered why I was the only person on the system that was not losing animals with fluke. The animals were on a small maintenance ration of copper in those days. Farmers have since told me that they put a thick canvas bag of copper sulfate by the water outlet onto the farm so that small amount is washed into the water at all times. That was their way of preventing fluke. Treating dams for fluke with copper sulfate is not always the answer, because the snails can and do migrate across damp paddocks. It is not necessary to have a dam to have problems with liver fluke infestations.

Pin worms (Nematodes)

These are not often a problem in cattle, but occasionally they can infest a calf that would pick them up from licking the ground. Examining the calf around the anus will reveal them squirming. A Piperizane drench will be needed to get rid of them, the normal drenches (barring the Ivermectin group) do not usually touch them. Piperizane powder is used for chooks and the dosage can be determined from the container. I found that pea hay was a potent source of pin worm infestation, the eggs must have been scraped off the ground with the pea straw. Again the lick is the answer.

Tapeworm (Monezia Expanza)

There is some controversy on tape worms. Some authorities say they are species specific, in other words, cattle could not pick up tapeworms from a dog, but others say this is rubbish. Tapeworms in stock are not very common, so perhaps they really do not cross between species. The white segments sometimes can be seen in manure. If tape worms are present, often the animal is very potbellied. A special drench is needed, on which the vet will advise. Apparently they are not killed by the Ivermectin group. One sheep farmer who had been regularly dosing them with this group decided to try a copper drench. He gave each of them two grams of copper sulphate per head in a large teaspoon of dolomite. To his amazement, many of them passed quite long tapeworms. He was unaware that they had them and had thought that the drench he used would have kept them worm-free. Copper is regarded as being a very old specific against tapeworms.

Pat Coleby's "Natural Cures for Top-10 Cattle Ailments"

Chapter 11, "Common Ailments and Remedies"

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