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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
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