Chapter 16
Diseases and Disorders
Most cows most of the time are perfectly healthy. There are only a few diseases or disorders that I have personally encountered during my many decades of experience. If you encounter any with your family cow, they will probably be the same ones: mastitis, milk fever, torn teat, and bloat. Even with the most conscientious management it is likely that you will meet them at least once.
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Observe Your Cow
Cattle are weather-hardy compared to goats or horses. Jerseys are considered the most weather-hardy of the short-haired breeds. Given reasonable shelter in high winds or icy rain, they are unlikely to catch cold. Respiratory problems are much more likely when your cow is confined in a humid atmosphere with little ventilation or must sleep where she cannot avoid drafts. Your cow will need a dry place to lie down and chew her cud. She will come to the gate and ask to come in when continuous cold rain spoils all the fun of being out, if she does not have free access to her shelter. She is not likely to become ill if left out but she will produce less milk, in part because she will use a lot of her energy to keep warm and in part because once she gets the idea of coming in stuck in her brain, she may not go back to grazing for some time.
A cow will communicate to you how she feels if you stop and look at her carefully every day. When you see bright eyes, a nose covered with dewdrops, a shining coat, and a reasonably full rumen, you know all is well. If any of these signs is absent and your cow appears not to care about anything, she is in trouble. Jerseys especially care about things intensely. Cows see to it that the proprieties are observed; if there are two cows, one must make it clear that she is boss over the other, no matter how much trouble it takes. If your cow quits caring about all this, she is ill.
You need not worry about your cow all the time. Just look at her carefully at least once each day. Pay extra attention around calving time. Watch carefully for mastitis when she is being dried off, when you no longer have clues from the milk filter to alert you. The most important part of cow health is feeding. Feed your cow well, on clean, high-quality hay and ample grazing. See that she has adequate minerals by using a supplement or a mixed dairy feed containing added minerals. In most climates extra vitamins in winter are valuable. And a reliable source of clean water is essential. These matters are discussed in chapter 9, “Feeding Your Cow.”
You will probably wish to get a veterinary manual for in-depth discussion of common cow diseases and disorders. Here is an outline of the most common problems in cow health. Since you will encounter disorders not by name but rather by symptoms, I will list them in that way.
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Lameness
The most common causes of lameness are overgrown hoofs and foot rot. Another possibility is a mechanical injury caused by the cow running into something, especially going around a tight corner, or catching her toe in a crack. This will usually right itself. A badly torn toe will profit from veterinary attention. The vet can glue on a lift, which takes the weight off the injured toe. For overgrown hoofs, have a veterinarian or farrier trim the hoofs. You can learn to trim hooves yourself, but if an overgrown hoof has gone unattended long enough to make your cow lame, it is best to have it done by an experienced person the first time. Even an experienced person will, in his or her zeal to get results, often trim too close and draw blood, which can prolong the lameness. For reasons not well understood, some cows’ hoofs grow very fast and need a lot of trimming, while others wear and grow at about the same rate and stay nice. Fast-growing hoofs are a nuisance, because cows are not as well adapted to cooperate with hoof work as horses are. Hoof trimming tends to be an adventure no matter how many times the cow is trimmed. Professional hoof trimmers with an amazing lift and tip contraption are available in many areas. The ground and pastureland, which naturally wears the cow’s hoofs as she walks will influence the frequency that is needed, but trimming will generally be needed at least once a year.
Foot rot is an infection of the foot, sometimes called foul of the foot, or other regional names. The most prevalent cause is the organism Fusiformis necrophorus, which, if your new cow should be infected, was undoubtedly brought with her from her former home. Wet, slushy, dirty conditions predispose to the disease, especially where the feet could also be wounded as on rough concrete (concrete is a problem either way—smooth concrete is dangerous because it is slippery). If your cow is lame, check her feet by lifting them and cleaning them out. A hose can be useful for getting them clean. Usually you can see evidence of foot rot in the form of a lesion or swelling, with a vile-smelling pus. Leave the foot clean and paint it over with an antiseptic. Even an old-fashioned household disinfectant will do. The infection usually responds dramatically to an injection of a sulfonamide or antibiotic. Although these are available without prescription, you probably will want to ask your veterinarian to come to treat this disease. When foot rot is a chronic problem, control is achieved by making a foot bath through which the cow must walk regularly. Solutions of copper sulfate or formalin at 2 to 5 percent are used in the bath.
An older cow can get arthritis. Make sure she has a comfortable bed free from drafts.
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Inability to Stand: The Downer Cow
At calving, the most likely cause is milk fever, which is discussed in chapter 15. Other possible causes are grass tetany (hypomagnesemia) and poisoning. Grass tetany occurs only when the cow is on lush pasture that is deficient in magnesium. The cow will first be seen acting strangely in the field, with convulsive movements and staggering. (The disease is sometimes called “staggers.”) The cow will go down, her temperature will rise, and she will die unless treated. The treatment is injection of a magnesium solution under the skin, as is done with a calcium solution for milk fever. The response in the case of hypomagnesemia treatment is not as quick as with milk fever and so, if left until too late, can fail to save the cow.
Sometimes a cow suffers nerve damage during calving or dislocates a hip by falling. There are various types of lifts that can be used to get a cow up with the aid of a front-end loader. Often the cow will eat and drink normally even while down. If it is impossible to get her up, you must roll her to her other side a couple of times a day or her weight will cut off her circulation. It can be a terrible situation. Yet I have known of beloved cows cared for for many weeks that finally stood up and survived.
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Poisoning
Poisoning can occur when certain weeds or tree foliages are eaten, especially when the cow is in a pasture where she has not been before. Generally, if there is adequate food, a cow will not eat poisonous weeds. There may be certain dangerous plants in your area that can be controlled. It would be a good idea to ask your extension agent and nearby livestock farmers about this. In some areas ergot is a danger on certain plants. Yew tree foliage is extremely dangerous.
A common source of poisoning is lead. It is most often found in old paint on surfaces your cow can chew or lick. Lead tends to have a sweet taste that attracts the cow, or she may go after it because of a mineral deficiency. Lead is a cumulative poison, but it doesn’t take much. My vet warns that only a few flakes may kill a cow. Among useful remedies is the calcium borogluconate used for milk fever.
Another possible poison source is chemicals put on plants to control bugs and weeds. A cow may be grazing in or near garden areas where a former resident has used these poisons. One of my readers suffered a tragedy with her cow because insecticide had been dumped on her field by a neighbor. It had occurred before she and her husband bought the place. The grass came up poisoned.
See also the discussion of poisonous plants in chapter 13, “Pasture Management.”
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Cough and Pneumonia
We’re speaking here not of the belching of methane after eating concentrate feeds, but of a persistent cough while the cow is resting or grazing. The most likely causes are pneumonia and hardware disease. Additional symptoms of pneumonia will be high temperature, labored breathing, nasal discharge, and a general state of depression. Watch the breathing. If it is quick and shallow with a jerk to it, there is certainly respiratory trouble, the most common cause being pneumonia. It is effectively treated with antibiotics. In the event of pneumonia, there must be an immediate change of the conditions that brought on the disease. Stuffy, humid quarters with damp bedding are the most likely culprits. A heat lamp is a good investment and, although usually used for calves, will be much appreciated in drying out and keeping warm the ill cow. Be sure there is plenty of ventilation (but not drafts). And of course be doubly sure the lamp is not in a position to ignite dry hay. Flunixin (trade name Banamine) will help her feel better and perhaps get her eating.
If treating pneumonia organically, supportive treatment as above along with close nursing care is called for. Warm molasses water with lots of vitamin C will help. If she will eat, fresh fruits and vegetables, and comfrey if you have it, will help your cow fight her illness.
Hardware disease (“ironmongery disease” is the British term for it) is caused by the cow inadvertently picking up a nail or some other metal object along with her feed. Such an object usually lodges at the front of the second stomach (reticulum) and then may move forward through the diaphragm and pierce the heart. Or it could just lie there and do nothing. One veterinary source tells of the removal of twenty-six nails, a piece of barbed wire, a schoolboy’s compass, and two pennies from one cow. In an examination of 4,400 carcasses at a meatpacking plant, residual lesions caused by foreign objects were found in 70 percent of the animals. Do not provide the opportunity for hardware disease to develop. Be absolutely fanatic about the care and use of objects such as nails, wire, and string in any area your cow will ever visit. Cows do not go about picking up these things on purpose, but they are unable to separate them from their feed, especially if they don’t see them. Have you ever looked for a nail in a haystack? When you are driving nails in the cow barn, don’t go about with a handful of them; pick them up one at a time. When pulling an old nail, hold it with the other hand. It can easily fly into the hay and be nearly impossible to find. And when you do lose a nail, hunt for it until you find it, using a magnet if necessary.
The symptoms of hardware disease vary, depending on where the object goes. If your cow coughs and you can’t figure out why, consider the possibility that she has swallowed a foreign object. A small, smooth magnet can be purchased at farm supply stores and put down your cow’s throat to collect and hold pieces of ferrous metal that are swallowed. The metal will stay on the magnet during the remainder of the cow’s lifespan, thus preventing it from perforating the rumen. I generally put a magnet in my cows by the time they are a year old, as a preventive measure. If you butcher on the farm, you can retrieve the magnet, if you are especially enthusiastic.
Plastic hay string is also a serious hazard. If you have to buy hay tied with plastic string rather than sisal (which eventually digests), be just as fussy with it as you are with nails. Plastic bags are a menace as well. They smell like food, and cows often eat them. Once inside the cow they fill with fluid and occupy the space for food or lodge between stomachs with fatal results. Teach everyone on the farm to pick up all plastic bags. Be serious about this.
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Eye Discharge
The three most likely causes of a continuous running from the eyes are pink eye, vitamin A deficiency, and a foreign object. Ophthalmia, or pink eye, is caused by an organism rapidly spread to all animals by flies. It is for the most part a warm-weather disease. Flies can carry the disease from one farm to another. A copious discharge starts about two days after the fly infects the eye. If treated without delay, pink eye is not a great problem. If left untreated, it can cause blindness. It is treated by applying ointment to the eye. While someone holds your cow’s head, you can lift an eyelid and squeeze in some ointment. There are quite a number of different products for this, but basically what you need is a corticosteroid and antibiotic in a small tube. Once the tube is opened, keep it clean, and discard it after the current trouble is cured.
Many people have reported success using some of the cow’s own milk in the infected eye.
A piece of straw or grass seed, such as from foxtail, lodged in an eye can cause a lot of misery. Sometimes it will not clear without help. In this case, get a helper to hold the cow’s head. Lift the eyelid by the lashes and wash out the object with a clean, dripping wet soft cloth or piece of cotton. If the eye still runs, the pink eye treatment may clear any infection.
Vitamin A deficiency is actually a possible factor in any infectious condition. If you use a commercial mixed dairy feed, you are unlikely to have this problem because vitamin A is usually included in the feed. Your cow will also get vitamin A from green hay in winter and plenty of it from the grass during the grazing season. If your winter feed is poor, brown hay, and you don’t have any other vitamin A source in your cow’s diet, a deficiency is probably the cause of runny eyes. You may also observe night blindness. If you can get cod liver oil in bulk, it is an excellent source of the vitamin. Green-colored, sun-dried hay is also excellent. Any chronic infection deplete the body’s stores of vitamin A.
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Eyes Sunken
This symptom accompanies any prolonged and debilitating illness in cows, just as it does in humans.
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Eyes Protruding
Some Jerseys seem to have somewhat “popping” eyes. My vet thinks it is a characteristic of occasional members of the breed and is not associated with any health problems. However, exophthalmic goiter occasionally occurs in cattle. It is due to chronic iodine deficiency.
Nasal Discharge or Slobbering
The most common causes, other than an object stuck in the throat, are hypomagnesemia, pneumonia, and hardware disease—all three mentioned earlier in listings of their symptoms.
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Scouring (Diarrhea)
Most of the probable causes of loose, runny manure have to do with diet, including:
• Lush green feed
• Nitrate poisoning
• Sudden change of feed
• Faulty ration
• Poisonous plants
This discussion applies to adult cows only; calf scouring is a somewhat different thing and is treated in chapter 7.
When cows go into a new field of lush spring grass, you can expect their hindquarters to be a mess. Counteract this by offering some hay (which your cow may not eat, because she is enjoying the grass too much). Cut back on the mixed dairy feed when your cow goes out to grass in the spring. And watch for bloat.
Heavy applications of commercial fertilizer that are not thoroughly dispersed can cause nitrate poisoning. Antidotes for this have been developed so that the fertilizer applications can continue, but the best thing to do is go organic and stay away from petroleum-derived fertilizer. Unfortunately in some farming areas the water supplies periodically reach toxic levels of nitrates. Yearly testing of wells is advised.
A faulty ration can have a few different problems. Moldy hay or silage, for example, will irritate the digestive system and cause gastroenteritis. Change your feed promptly. A ration heavy on finely ground wheat or barley will send the cow’s digestive system into a tailspin. If you make your own dairy feed ration, grind the grain coarsely or roll it. Rolled oats or rolled barley are very good as a base for a ration.
A sudden change in feed can also bring on scours; see here for further discussion.
When all of the above have been eliminated as the cause of scours, consider the possibility of poisoning.
As for all the symptoms discussed in this chapter, I list only the most likely causes. There are many more. If none of the ones listed appears to be the answer, seek the help of your veterinarian. Scouring (with wasting) is the key symptom of Johne’s disease (caused by Mycobacterium paratuberculosis). Your cow won’t spontaneously develop this disease. She has to get it from another cow. Unless she had it when you bought her or you introduced a new cow, you can dismiss Johne’s. It is not readily contagious.
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Loss of Appetite
Loss of appetite could be a symptom in many disorders, but one condition has it as its only initial symptom: ketosis, also known as acetonemia (see below).
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The name acetonemia refers to the smell of acetone—as in nail polish remover—on the cow’s breath. Some describe the breath as smelling of overripe pears. Ketosis refers to the breakdown products of fat metabolism (ketone bodies), which increase greatly in the bloodstream as a cow attempts to meet the high energy demands characteristic of the onset of lactation by mobilizing her fat reserves. Ketosis might also be thought of as hypoglycemia (low blood sugar), since this is in fact what is inducing the ketosis. Cows have relatively small stores of glycogen. Other tissues can get along briefly without glycogen, but the brain must be fed; the brain is able to fuel itself with ketones at least temporarily.
Treatment involves frequent feedings of tempting high-sugar foods. You may have to open the cow’s mouth and push it in if her appetite is really gone. Push some choice hay in, too, or the tidbits won’t digest properly. Another possible treatment is to give her a drench of molasses with equal parts of warm water or apple cider vinegar. One reader in desperation used maple syrup and reported good results. Raise her head up no higher than her shoulder to avoid getting the solution into her windpipe. Stop after the first mouthful to make sure it is going down properly. The object of drenching rather than merely encouraging the cow to drink from a bucket is to bypass the rumen and send the sugar where more of it will reach the gut intact and restore glycogen in the liver. But first drench with three tablespoons of bicarbonate of soda in six ounces of water. If possible, let this run down her throat in a more normal drinking position, as its purpose is to temporarily reduce rumen acidity so that any sugar entering it is more likely to reach the next stomach intact. A third common treatment is sodium propionate, also given as a drench.
Glucose can be given as an injection.
Try to keep the cow moving around, as exercise is essential to proper digestion and to combat the constipation that always accompanies acetonemia. Frequent feeding is necessary to help keep blood sugar raised. Devoted cow owners often spend hours each day hand-feeding cut-up apples, carrots, or pumpkin and handfuls of hay and clover until the cow finally recovers her appetite.
Prevention is what we should aim for, as this disorder causes poor milk production and sometimes becomes chronic or even fatal. Although most often associated with early lactation, ketosis can occur at any time that energy demand exceeds energy intake. Don’t let the cow get too fat during the dry period, as this induces fat burning. Don’t let her go very long without food in front of her during the calf’s rapid growth period at the end of pregnancy, and never let her be without food in early lactation. Be particular that she has fresh water. See that she gets some exercise, and don’t subject her to stresses that interfere with eating or digestion, such as shipping or taking away her companions.
Acetonemia (ketosis) can also occur as a side effect of infection with its attendant loss of appetite; mastitis or metritus from retained placenta could be behind it. While fresh, high producers are its most likely victims, it is not unknown in dry cows in late pregnancy and in heifers. With early detection and your attentive care, it is highly unlikely that it will become dangerously advanced.
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Fever
After you’ve become acquainted with your cow, you will be able to suspect high temperature, even without using a thermometer. Extra-warm ears and udder are indications. Taking a cow’s temperature is not especially difficult. A veterinary thermometer has the same markings as one intended for human use but has a ring on the end to attach a string. You can contrive one from an ordinary thermometer with adhesive tape and string if you like. You will need the string in order to retrieve it should it sink from sight. The normal rectal temperature is 101°F or slightly above. Just lift the tail, put the thermometer in slowly, and try to keep your cow from moving around for a couple of minutes. She may present you with a cow pat on the first try and you’ll have to start over. If the temperature is above 102°F, look for the trouble. Several diseases already mentioned can be the cause, including pneumonia, hardware disease, hypomagnesemia, and some kinds of poisoning, but the one to suspect first is mastitis.
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Mastitis
Mastitis usually affects only one quarter at a time. If your cow is in milk, you’ll be aware of mastitis right away because of hardness in one of her quarters that is still present after milking and a flakiness or stringiness in the milk. You can monitor for mastitis daily with virtually no trouble simply by looking at the milk filter after straining the milk. If there are little blobs or strings, your cow has a touch of mastitis. This is subclinical; there is little in the way of symptoms other than the little blobs on the milk filter. These aren’t significant unless there are a lot of them and they appear day after day. Subclinical mastitis will nonetheless sap your cow’s strength and damage her udder. Active mastitis usually results also in milk that moves sluggishly through the filter. If your warm milk is reluctant to strain, the cow has mastitis.
Another foolproof daily monitor for mastitis is to taste a little from each teat before you milk. It should be sweet and delicious. If it is flat or salty, a problem is brewing. There is no health risk to you in this practice. It has the advantage of alerting you immediately to trouble and enabling you to apply topical treatment before you leave the barn.
Mastitis is painful. Active mastitis in a lactating cow will cause her to kick during milking. It will be difficult to milk her out completely and you will get less from the affected quarter. The quarter will remain hard after milking.
Dry Cow Mastitis
If the cow is dry, you won’t have the milk to monitor. The times to keep a close check for dry cow mastitis are right after drying off and again as calving approaches. As a general principle it is unwise to take squirts of milk from a nonlactating cow, as this disturbs the antiseptic plug that has formed in the teat orifice. But if you suspect mastitis, break this rule. What comes out may be thick, but it should not be stringy and horrible. It may be somewhat translucent and not white like milk. This of itself is not abnormal.
Since it may be difficult to evaluate the implications of what you squeeze out just before calving, temper your judgment with what you can feel in the udder. If there is a hard spot (not just firm but hard, like a baseball) inside an otherwise fairly soft udder, it is mastitis. You had better milk out all you can from the affected quarter, and then, if the hardness is still definitely there, and if there is any fever, you or your veterinarian may want to inject a short-lasting antibiotic, such as penicillin-streptomycin in combination, in a muscle, to quickly knock back the infection, even though it is a shame to have the calf get a big dose of antibiotic with its colostrum.
Treatment
It is illegal to sell milk from a cow being treated with antibiotics. The preparation used will state the number of milkings for which the milk must be discarded. If you have pigs, you may feed the milk to them; milk also makes outstanding fertilizer. If I am not in a position to devote hours to curing mastitis with milking and massage (another useful thing is hot compresses), then I use antibiotics. I use them infused in the affected quarter of the udder and give an intramuscular injection as well, since the tubes squeezed up the teat canals (this is easier to do than it sounds) probably don’t reach all of the infected tissue.
Half a dose of antibiotic is no good. Since the body’s natural defenses are impaired by the infection, the dose must be adequate to knock it out until the body can take over. In a moderate case of mastitis, one good dose may be sufficient. In a more serious one, you had better figure on several days of treatment and on drinking a lot of water while you wait for your milk to be good again. I haven’t given exact doses, because they vary with the antibiotics used and also because I think it is best to get the aid of a veterinarian, at least until you have more experience. With hand-milking you are less likely to see mastitis. Don’t let these pages frighten you. If it is not far advanced, mastitis, although a nuisance for all, in most cases is easily treated.
See chapter 10, “Your Organic Cow,” for a discussion of alternative mastitis treatments.
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Vaginal Discharges
When your cow comes in heat, there is usually a discharge of clear mucus. This is a normal sign of heat and is helpful in letting you know the ideal time in the heat cycle for insemination. If the discharge is bloody, it is too late for insemination to be effective. A little clear mucus is seen from time to time and, provided the amount is small and not continuous, need not be of concern. If the discharge is whitish, this is evidence of vaginitis or metritis. The symptoms and the treatments are similar.
Vaginitis may be either viral or bacterial in origin. The visible symptom is the slimy discharge and a general discomfort you may be able to observe. It should be treated before breeding. Pessaries (large tablets inserted into the vagina) and various antibiotic injections are the common veterinary remedies.
Metritis (endometritis or septic metritis) is usually caused by staphylococcal infection and may be accompanied by a hormonal imbalance. The infection is centered in the uterus instead of the vagina. There is a whitish pus discharge similar to that of vaginitis. Metritis interferes with breeding and can interfere with the estrus cycle as well. Treatment is with pessaries inserted into the uterus (most easily done while the cow is in heat) or an iodine solution run into the uterus by catheter.
It is essential that prompt action be taken when a whitish discharge is observed. Do not wait to see if it will just go away. Advanced or chronic cases will result in sterility.
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Infertility
If your cow does not come into heat after calving or does not conceive after repeated inseminations, you will need to evaluate the possible causes and take some action; otherwise, your milk supply and the usefulness of your cow will be lost. Failure to come into heat is often caused by a nutritional problem. This is especially true of the cow that has the natural tendency to put a higher proportion of her feed into her milk. My cow Belle was that way. She tended to be as thin as two boards on feed that kept the other cows in good flesh. The more I fed her, the more milk she gave, even late in lactation (feeding for more milk six months after calving is usually unrewarding). Only in the lush summer pasture did she manage to gain some weight. Belle also didn’t come into heat for about five months after calving, which was a distinct nuisance. Her persistent production was something of an offset to this, however. When her nutritional level got up to where it needed to be, she put on a fine display of bulling and bred on the first insemination. But do not count on this situation. A mineral deficiency, a vitamin deficiency, or simply a poor ration will cause a cow to dispense with the reproductive cycle. This is especially a problem after winter calving. A high-yielding cow is hard put to eat enough to produce milk and restore her body condition, let alone get ready to grow another calf. Take extra trouble to feed a winter calver well and often. If appetite is a problem, try some apple cider vinegar on the dairy feed. If she doesn’t like the feed very much, try to find some crushed or steamed corn in a flaked form and top-dress her feed with a scoop of it. Cows usually find this irresistible. Anything green is a big help. I’ve been known to sprout a pan of sunflower seeds for my cow in winter. Molasses water sprinkled on her hay will encourage a cow to eat more of it.
Ovulation may be suppressed when a cow and a calf are running together. The frequent suckling by the calf may cause prolactin levels to remain so high that estrogen is suppressed, with the result that ovulation does not occur. Separating cow and calf even half of the time may permit the heat cycle to begin. If unsuccessful, try weaning the calf.
There are other causes for infertility. The metritis mentioned above is a common one. A persistent corpus luteum on an ovary is another. A third cause is the presence of an ovarian cyst. The corpus luteum forms on each ovary after conception and stops the heat cycle for the duration of the pregnancy. But if it remains, the heat cycle does not resume after calving. Or if the corpus luteum forms after insemination, even though there is no growing fetus, there is false pregnancy: no heat periods, but no calf. A veterinarian is able to feel the corpus luteum on the ovary by reaching into the anus with a gloved hand. If your cow does not come into heat within two months after calving and you are anxious to get her bred soon, have a veterinarian examine her. The veterinarian can tell if there is enlargement or infection, or possibly retained matter (in two months’ time this would have either caused illness or been resorbed, almost certainly). He can feel a cyst or a corpus luteum and “pop” them from the ovary involved. He may give a hormone injection to induce the reproductive cycle to start quickly. Your cow should then come into heat in a few days. Skip that heat and have her inseminated on the next heat.
It is important to keep a record of what you have done. If you ask a veterinarian to do an examination of your cow soon after she has been inseminated, you risk loss of the fetus. Although there must not be a corpus luteum in order for heat to occur, once pregnancy begins the corpus luteum must be left there to stop the heat cycle. If your cow came into heat normally and missed two or three heat periods after breeding, the probabilities are excellent that she “settled” (is in calf).
An ovarian cyst, in contrast to a corpus luteum, can be the result of infection, not something natural gone out of timing. The veterinarian can crush the cyst and give a hormone injection. Cysts tend to recur, causing sterility.
Failure to conceive, in cows as in all species, is due to nutritional inadequacy or imbalance more often than anything else.
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Abortion
The loss of the calf before pregnancy has reached full term can be caused by an injury, by an illness such as pneumonia, by severe stress, or by brucellosis. Since you will surely have either purchased your cow from a brucellosis-free herd or had her tested, it is unlikely that this will be the cause should your cow abort. In cattle there are several other abortion-causing diseases that are familiar to dairymen and veterinarians but that do not affect humans. Nearly all these diseases are either treatable or self-limiting. Call your veterinarian and ask if you should save the fetus for tests. Then bury the remains where they cannot be found by pigs, dogs, or rodents, as one disease, leptospirosis, can be spread by these animals. A vaccination against lepto is available; you may wish to avail yourself of it if the disease is prevalent in your area.
If your cow aborts, you may start milking her. It may take some days for the milk to come in.
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Bloat
It is completely normal for your cow to develop gas during fermentation of her food in the rumen (the first stomach). This gas is normally belched or passed through the digestive tract. Typically, as soon as your cow finishes eating a pan of dairy feed she will appear to lick her chops and belch, usually about three times with a loud “Haa” sound. But should this gas become trapped in foam or froth, the cow cannot belch it up. This can happen when a cow eats lush, wet green feed, especially early in the morning when the grass is heavy with dew and the air is cold or especially if there was a bit of frost. Lush plus wet plus cold—these three factors spell trouble! The resulting bloat rapidly endangers the life of a cow; the abdominal pressure stops circulation and body functions and forces toxic products into the system.
So that you can recognize the first symptom of bloat, look at the triangular area of the left flank just in front of the hip bone. Look now, while she is healthy. When your cow is hungry, this area will be depressed. After several hours of normal grazing it may be filled up to the level of the rib cage or barrel. But in bloat, this area will be inflated so much that it rises up above the level of the hip bone. The rumen is literally blown up like a balloon. Normal belching is stopped because of the frothy nature of the rumen contents. It is possible that the nerve mechanism that triggers belching is somehow bypassed. But even if the cow tries to belch, the air is trapped in minute bubbles in the froth and cannot escape. A cow in the condition described is in mortal danger. Call the vet if you are not equipped to deal with bloat, but he or she will not have a lot to offer beyond what you can do yourself. Keeping the cow standing up and walking is important. Horse people will note the parallel with colic. If you go out in the field and find your cow in this condition, try to walk her back to the house with you rather than running back alone for the treatment equipment (see below). If there is another person to help, one of you should keep leading the cow around. Try not to allow her lie down, but if she does, do everything in your power to make her get up again, including frightening her if necessary. Shout, strike her, yell.
Prepare for this emergency by having on hand a product containing poloxalene. It is available from farm supply stores and online vendors under various brand names including Therabloat and Bloat Guard. Its purpose is to reduce the froth and foam in the rumen and induce belching of gas. It is administered as a drench. If you don’t have a drenching tube, the mixture can be given via a longneck beer bottle. To administer, hold your cow’s nose by the nostrils. A firm grip here will immobilize the cow. Lift her head to her shoulder height but no higher or the drench may enter her lungs. Push the bottle in on the side of her mouth between the molars and cheek. Let the drench slip down her throat nice and easy. Hold her head until she has swallowed all the mixture. Unless the bloat medicine says it isn’t necessary, follow up with ¼ cup of baking soda dissolved in a pint of water. This will help control acidosis, a dangerous condition. Then go back to the walking. A sound of belching will be music to your ears. You should see the rumen becoming smaller.
If belching does not quickly ensue, here is an old-fashioned trick that helps: tie a heavy rope around her head to form a halter and put it through her mouth like a bit. A USDA pamphlet from 1916 advises using a stick daubed with tar for the bit, but who has tar? The rope or stick makes the cow chomp and writhe her tongue around and, hopefully, do a lot of belching. Another excellent approach is to put a four-foot length of well-oiled or greased garden hose down her throat. Make sure it ends up in her rumen. Listen at your end for breathing. Oops, that’s her lungs. When properly positioned in the rumen, the hose should emit a gush of vile-smelling rumen gas and perhaps even some foam. With the use of a funnel the hose can be used to give more drench.
In earlier editions I advised drenching with a mixture of one tablespoon turpentine in a cup of milk, but I find that nowadays few people even know what turpentine is, let alone have it handy. You can use vegetable oil instead.
If your cow lies down and refuses to get up for treatment, or if the treatment does no good, more serious measures are required, and quickly. If the vet isn’t there, you’ll have to decide whether to take matters in your own hands. A good investment is a device called a trocar and cannula. It is used to make a hole in the rumen and hold it open. The device has two parts, one fitting inside the other. The inner trocar punches the hole and then is withdrawn, leaving the cannula holding the hole open. You must visualize the center of the triangular area in front of the hip bone (now so distended that you must use your imagination), and stab the trocar in there. Don’t be timid. If you don’t have a trocar and cannula, or if the bloat is too dense and frothy to emerge through the small hole made by the trocar, you can make a hole with a knife. Use a long, narrow, strong blade such as a boning knife. Don’t fool around carving away at layers with your knife. Zero in on the right place and stab. Cut a hole big enough to let the trouble escape. It will be a great mass of froth. Reach into the rumen and pull out the mess. If the vet still is not on the scene, somebody should call him, because he will be needed for the repair work. If it is a knife job, there will be contamination of the peritoneal cavity. The rumen will need to be stitched, and then the abdominal wall, and antibiotics given to control infection. But for all this, a cow saved from bloat in this manner usually heals quickly. Better patched than dead.
Bloat is mysterious. I lost a wonderful Jersey to bloat one morning when the herd was grazing in a pasture of alfalfa (always problematic eaten fresh) where they had grazed for more than a week without trouble. I was even feeding an expensive product that was guaranteed to prevent bloat. The only thing that was different about this morning, I realized when I stopped to think about it, was the breeze, which made the air perhaps ten degrees cooler. Clover and alfalfa (legumes) are always more dangerous in terms of bloat, and red clover more than white clover. When the grass is tender and rapidly grown, when it is wet or dewy, when the air is cold, and especially when the rumen is empty, you should anticipate the possibility of bloat. While you may lose some of the growth, I think it is best to get on the spring pasture early, before it can grow to dangerous length. It is grass so tender and sweet that your cow gobbles mouthful after mouthful, which can cause trouble. Mature long grass isn’t dangerous. If you feed hay before letting the cow out in the morning, she will not be able to eat a lot of wet grass before stopping to chew her cud. By the time she’s done, the grass should be dry and the edge should be off her morning appetite.
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Overeating Disease or Enterotoxemia
Overeating of grain or other high-density feed, or feed that has been too finely ground, may lead to another form of bloat, known as overeating disease or enterotoxemia. It results when a cow overconsumes a high-carbohydrate, rapidly fermentable feed, such as milled grain. Veterinary advice directed at commercial settings usually starts out by saying “consider immediate slaughter.” In other words, the prognosis is poor and the treatment uncertain, so act now while you still have something to salvage. This advice is unlikely to appeal to family cow owners. If overeating occurs with a family cow, she will most likely have gotten into the grain and gorged on sweet feed or, worse, chicken feed. It is hard to predict her odds. A large cow accustomed to generous grain feeding may survive eating forty pounds, while another cow less adapted to grain may not survive twenty pounds.
The damage follows from an overgrowth of lactobacilli, which results in acidification of the rumen. Other rumen microorganisms do not thrive in an acid environment, and the lactobacilli quickly disrupt normal digestion. Inward osmotic water flow from the blood and organs results in dangerous dehydration of body tissues. Rumen pressure increases, which inhibits gut motility; contractions slow or cease, so the grain mass stays in the rumen and provides an opportunity for a secondary Clostridium perfringens bacterial outgrowth, which may in turn produce a neurotoxin that further inhibits gut motility.
If you catch it early, treatment is possible. Most authorities emphasize withholding water for twelve to twenty-four hours, although one authority (The Merck Veterinary Manual) adds that this has not been proven. If there is evidence of bloat, put a four-foot greased hose down the cow’s esophagus (the method described above) to permit evacuation of gas. The hose can also be used to administer a drench of poloxalene (again, see above) to reduce foam. Alternatively, or in addition to poloxalene, give magnesium hydroxide, also known as milk of magnesia (500 grams per 450 kilograms of body weight), in water or sodium bicarbonate (¼ cup in a pint of water). These alkaline substances will counter acidosis. Rumen pH must not fall below 5 nor alkalinity rise above 8 or permanent damage will ensue. There is the possibility of an overgrowth of clostridium species with resulting toxins; give activated charcoal prophylactically.
Most veterinarians give mineral oil or other oil both to reduce foaming and to encourage passage of rumen contents. Use the trocar only as a last resort; this form of bloat should respond to the suggested treatments. However, opening of the rumen and removal of its contents is sometimes done.
It is essential that after the cow is eating again (long-stemmed grass hay only, no grain) that rumen microorganisms be repopulated. The old-fashioned way, and it works, is to steal a cud from another animal. Failing that, probiotics should be given daily until you are sure that digestion is normal, judging from the cow patties. Relapse after days or even weeks is not unusual due to rumen or liver abscesses.
You Think It Can’t Happen to You
If you feed grain, establish a security plan that cows can’t breach. Try to have two doors between animals and their feed storage. Consider automatic door-closing devices. Don’t settle for flimsy doors. Keep grain in locking containers. Be inventive. An old chest freezer is good for grain storage. Be sure all family members are aware of the gravity of your grain-room rules. Follow visitors around, and be a bore about repeating admonitions.
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Worms
Intestinal worms are not generally much of a problem in adult cows. If your cow has a “wasting” appearance, it is possible that she has a worm infestation. You can buy an inexpensive device called a balling gun to put deworming pills down her throat. Always aim for the top of the throat, as the gullet lies above the windpipe. Mature cattle seem to develop a natural immunity after a year or so on their own pasture. This is not the case with calves, so if they must be closely confined on pasture that has been intensively used, consider worming them.
Apple cider vinegar has many advocates for both prevention and treatment of parasites. Veterinarian William G. Winter, writing for the Stockman Grass Farmer (April 2012), uses one gallon of cider vinegar in a hundred-gallon stock tank on an ongoing basis and reports good control of stomach worms, coccidia, and possibly even “barberpole” worms (Haemonchus spp.). I remain concerned about the use of cider vinegar in a galvanized tank because of the risk of leaching zinc. I would use an old porcelain bathtub or stick with plastic.
To help prevent infestations, avoid using a rotating or flail mower on pasture, as this puts manure all over the place. Undisturbed, a lush ring of grass grows around each cowpat, and this will be avoided by cattle for a year or longer, breaking the cycle of reinfestation. (See chapter 13 for more on pasture management.) Note also that composting the manure destroys most parasites.
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Lice
Lice sometimes infect cattle when they are tied up a lot or conditions are damp. Lice prefer the area around the tail, head, and ears and in the folds above the udder. I have had good success in treating cattle lice using diatomaceous earth. This is sold with garden supplies and is a nontoxic powder similar to ground limestone. Just shake it on and rub it in. Sprinkle it all along the spine and get it up into the folds.
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Sore or Cut Teats
Cuts, scratches, and abrasions on teats are most commonly inflicted by fences or junk left spread about. This can be prevented by keeping the fences firm and the areas where your cow lives and grazes clear of rubbish. A cow sometimes steps on her own teat while arising and inflicts a severe cut. Minor injuries can be treated effectively in the same way you would treat them in humans. The self-adhesive bandage called vet wrap works well. There is nothing better (for man or beast) than vitamin E for promoting rapid scar-free healing of a wound. Coat the wound with wheat germ oil, or prick vitamin E capsules and squeeze the oil directly on the injury.
The various udder creams sold in feed and farm stores are useful when teats become dry or chapped, as often happens in winter or when they are left wet.
If your cow should receive a serious teat or udder wound, call for veterinary aid quickly. I have seen some remarkable repairs accomplished successfully when the work was done right away. Apply the vitamin E while awaiting the vet.
A lactating cow with an injured teat must still be milked. A severely cut teat or one that has been sutured cannot be grasped for milking without the risk of breaking open the wound. In this case you can insert a small disposable plastic cannula into the teat orifice at milking time. The milk will then drain out during letdown. After milking, pull out and discard the drain. The disposable cannulas are sold in bubble packs by the hundred, or you can get them from your vet.
If the cut was not serious enough to require suturing, you may be able to milk without the use of a cannula. Once letdown is taking place just grasp the teat firmly and begin milking. After initial flinching a cow often seems not to be much bothered.
Sometimes a cow will have sore teats for no apparent reason and the problem will continue and often get worse despite continued applications of udder cream. The problem may be udder impetigo or cowpox. Impetigo is a staph infection. Look for small yellowish pimples at the center of the sore spot, which is usually at the base of the teat. These typically enlarge and scab over, then burst and ooze blood and a clear fluid. The infection is rapidly spread by your hands when milking. Udder creams are totally useless against it. Before I found the effective treatment, I tried every kind of udder ointment on the market with no success. Instead, treat impetigo with a triple-dye solution, such as Dr. Naylor’s “Blu-Kote.” The trouble will be gone in a few days. Iodine is also somewhat effective.
Cowpox is less common than impetigo. The pimples are red rather than yellow, and there is more fluid when they break, leaving a ring-shaped sore. Fortunately, you don’t need to be certain which it is, cowpox or impetigo, because the treatment is the same for both.
• • • •
Bovine Spongiform Encephalitis or Mad Cow Disease
Bovine spongiform encephalitis (BSE) is one of a family of brain diseases that are slow to develop, debilitating, and invariably fatal. Scientists continue to disagree as to the nature of the disease agent. Extremely small rod-shaped structures called prions are found in diseased brains, but it is not known whether they cause the disease or are an artifact. Some researchers believe a virus is involved, though they have yet to find one. The mode of transmission is by no means fully understood, but it is well agreed that in cattle most cases result from the practice of augmenting their feed with recycled slaughterhouse waste, dried and granulated. This waste includes the remains of many species besides cattle.
Transmissible spongiform encephalitis (TSE) is the term used for the entire family of these diseases, which include kuru, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), scrapie, transmissible mink encephalopathy (TME), and BSE. The similarities among these diseases are greater than the differences; all result in the characteristic spongy-looking brain found at autopsy.
Kuru was identified among New Guinea highlanders who followed a ritual cannibalistic practice of eating the brains of the dead. The etiology of kuru was first recognized by Carleton Gajdusek following many years of study. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for his work in 1976.
CJD appears to be idiopathic; it arises spontaneously in all parts of the world, causing about one in a million deaths.
Scrapie has been known for centuries. It is found in sheep and goats and probably some other ruminants such as deer. The mode of transmission is not known. In Britain, where it is endemic, it is generally believed not to infect humans despite having been transmitted experimentally to monkeys.
Mink encephalopathy (TME) has killed many mink in the United States but so far has not been shown to migrate to other species. This may be due only to good luck, since experimental infection of cattle with TME has been fully successful.
The work by Gajdusek on kuru and later on CJD combined with work by British researchers on scrapie has formed the basis for our understanding of BSE, even though our knowledge of these diseases remains incomplete. BSE was first identified in Britain in 1985. Studies of the disease were uncoordinated, and management by the British government emphasized soothing pronouncements and protection of investment over prevention. BSE has now been found in several European countries. British beef quickly became suspected of causing the outbreak, although it is not clear that BSE is transmitted via ordinary beef or dairy products. It is unquestionably transmitted by brain and other neural tissue. These tissues were banned by the British government from inclusion in meat waste intended for use in feed. However, compensation to those financially injured by loss of markets (farmers, slaughterhouse owners, and exporters) was slow, erratic, or nonexistent, and consequently compliance was slow, erratic, or nonexistent. Even where compliance is attempted, slaughterhouse practices are often very messy. It would be difficult to be sure that no brain tissue contaminated beef carcasses, let alone that it was not included in offal destined for recycling into bovine, swine, chicken, or pet food.
Diseased brain tissue remains capable of causing infection even after sterilization at very high temperatures and long soaking in formaldehyde, and it survives irradiation. Although BSE (the bovine form of the disease) has not been reported in the United States, one woman in Florida was infected with CJD (Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, the human form) after receiving a corneal transplant from a victim of that form of TSE.
Importation of British beef to the United States is now restricted, as is importation of all live ruminants including zoo animals. As an initial step in protecting the public from the largely hypothetical spread of BSE in U.S. beef, the FDA has restricted recycling of ruminant remains (cattle, sheep, and goats). However, laboratory transmission has been accomplished between many nonruminant species, including primates and all the usual rodents. Direct injection of brain tissue into living brain results in disease in most recipients. Infection from feeding brain tissue is inconsistent but clearly occurs.
Some calves in Britain have been found to be infected, but it is not known whether infection was acquired from their mothers or from ingesting a protein supplement that is sometimes fed to calves. It appears that infection with BSE can occur both horizontally (to herdmates) and vertically (intragenerationally) to offspring. Pursuing the truth about BSE transmission in cattle is slow work because the disease develops slowly in its victims, often not appearing for seven or more years in humans. It appears to take nearly as long to develop in cattle unless injected directly into the brain. This is why it has been seen in dairy cattle rather than beef cattle; many dairy cattle stay in the herd until they are ten years old. Beef cattle are killed at sixteen months to two years.
Brain tissue of laboratory animals deliberately infected with BSE is capable of causing disease in others long before florid symptoms occur in the host. If this is also true of cattle, swine, and sheep, then opportunity for the spread of BSE through the recycling of apparently nondiseased animals and animal parts clearly exists. The disease exists in every country that follows the practice of augmenting the diet of farm animals with animal protein, which is to say every country with a meat industry. Currently, this animal protein product includes dead animals euthanized at animal shelters. Cats are known to develop TSE. Pet food contains animal by-products as a protein source. Poultry feed contains a great deal of animal protein supplement. Although birds appear not to contract the disease, it is thought to pass through their gut unaltered; then chicken manure is spread on row crops. Chicken manure is also dried and included in various animal feeds, including dairy feed and pet food, under the euphemism “poultry digest.”
With this information in hand, Carleton Gajdusek began to advise against the use of bonemeal in gardens. It is extremely dusty. What goes into your nose goes straight to the brain via the olfactory nerve.
Gajdusek and a number of other researchers came to believe that the disease agent in TSE is chemical in nature, which would account for its immunity from the usual sanitizing agents and autoclaving. But how does a chemical agent, a mere group of lifeless molecules, grow and increase, as the disease agent for TSE clearly does? Researchers suspect it does so by inducing a cascade of molecular reactions not unlike that described in Kurt Vonnegut’s possibly prescient 1963 novel Cat’s Cradle, in which water is seeded with a variant crystal called ice-nine, thus raising the freezing point with deadly effect. A variant form of an ordinarily molecule may cause a dramatic change in an otherwise stable solution. Something very similar occurs in a common high-school lab experiment through a process called seeding; a supersaturated solution of sodium thiosulphate (photographic hypo) remains stable until “reminded” of how to crystallize by the addition of a few pure crystals. The entire solution then immediately crystallizes. Gajdusek showed that the amyloidal plaque characteristic of several brain diseases, including TSE and Alzheimer’s, is a crystalline protein. Many vital normal physiological components also have a crystalline structure, including cholesterol.
For the foregoing review of current knowledge of TSEs, including BSE, I have relied principally on Deadly Feasts by Richard Rhodes (Simon & Schuster, 1997) and “Pathological Science,” an essay in New Yorker magazine, December 1, 1997, by the same author. Rhodes provides balanced reporting based on the facts he has assembled, and he digs hard. He identifies his sources. Knowledge of BSE remains incomplete and will continue to be politically charged due if nothing else to the money and careers impacted by this insidious disease.
Food Safety
To protect us against food-borne illness, government agencies in the United States have relied primarily on instructing consumers to wash their hands, cook chicken and meats to a high internal temperature, and refrigerate food; in other words, make it our job to avoid getting sick from contaminated food. Little has been done to force changes in food processing. The dairy industry is something of an exception to this rule. Due to its structure, within which independent unorganized dairy farmers operate from a position of weakness, the public has had the benefit of many decades of mandated culling of cows with the old-fashioned diseases, besides the added safety of pasteurization. In the case of BSE, now for the first time only profound changes in the food industry itself are capable of ensuring public safety.
Nothing you or I can do in the way of cooking or washing will protect us from BSE. Going vegetarian is a short-sighted response; eliminating proper food and then relying on the latest supplement to make up the deficit is inefficient, costly, and ultimately not effective protection against either transmissible diseases such as the flu or degenerative diseases such as cancer. This is clearly understood in animal nutrition. Indeed, the whole point about feeding animal-derived protein supplement is that animal protein, whatever its source, works better than anything else to support the goals of growth, reproduction, proper development, and resistance to all types of disease.
Compelling farmers to augment feed with soy instead of meat protein is an option that has been suggested, although there are drawbacks. Soy is more expensive than a meat-based supplement and is only about half as potent a protein source. It has limitations as a support for growth and reproduction. For example, in rearing baby calves, where growth is critically important and outcomes readily apparent, soy milk emerges as a less effective “baby formula” compared to replacers made with real milk, though the soy replacers are cheaper than milk-based replacers. Meat-based replacers are also available, and they are said to be the equal of milk and less costly than milk.
What You Can Do
Here is what you can do. Buy a cow from a herd that is not using animal protein supplements. If you have the space, buy some beef critters too. By buying your calves from a grass-fed or certified organic herd, you can be sure neither they nor their mothers have had access to meat supplements. You will then be in a position to supply completely safe meat to your own family and perhaps a group of grateful friends.
In my view, only the reestablishment of local animal husbandry and local abattoirs can provide us again with safe, affordable food.