As the title says I had a calf drop dead. Wondering if anyone has seen this. Not sure if it's a parasite, injury, infection from a tick, etc. Here's some info. Small, tame cow/calf herd. 11 days old. Michigan. Was fine yesterday, found dead today. As seen in pics there's a questionable spot on the belly. No signs of it being killed by a predator. Any help is appreciated
- Thread starter JDIH
- Start date
riveroadrat
Well-known Member
Try again, you have to upload, wait and hit continue after you see your pic.
520 pipefabricator
Member
Almost looks like a small caliber exit
wound
wound
Ranchingelec
Member
My guess is naval infection. It was laying there not
feeling good the the ravens came over and picked
it's eyes out. Hence the blood around the eyes. We
have had that happen to a couple calves when they
do not feel good enough to defend themselves.
Wildlife is cruel. But as one old timer said "you can
lose them if you don't have them".
Ranch
feeling good the the ravens came over and picked
it's eyes out. Hence the blood around the eyes. We
have had that happen to a couple calves when they
do not feel good enough to defend themselves.
Wildlife is cruel. But as one old timer said "you can
lose them if you don't have them".
Ranch
Bruce from Can.
Well-known Member
- Location
- Woodville, Ontario, Canada
This is going to sound off the wall, but did you check
to see if your calf had a exit hole under its tail? I
know , sounds kind of weird, but I have see calves ,
nice big healthy looking calves, that started to bloat
up and stop nursing. Brother had one a few years
back, had never seen anything like it, and called the
vet to come look at the calf. Vet was an older well
seasoned man, and told him straight away that his
calf was doomed. He cut the calf a exit, and there
was a surprising amount of pressure built up inside
the calf, and he emptied out quite a bit of manure.
The vet told us, not to get to optimistic about the
calves survival, as the incision would try to heal
shut, which it did. My brother gave the calf penstrep,
and tried to keep the calf clean , and it?s new exit
working, but after a week the poor little guy started
to fail, and my brother finally dispatched him, so he
would suffer no more. There are a lot of things that
can go wrong with biological creatures, and no one
can do a postmortem on a calf by just looking at a
picture of a bloated dead calf. Sorry for your lost.
You only have livestock, until you have dead stock.
to see if your calf had a exit hole under its tail? I
know , sounds kind of weird, but I have see calves ,
nice big healthy looking calves, that started to bloat
up and stop nursing. Brother had one a few years
back, had never seen anything like it, and called the
vet to come look at the calf. Vet was an older well
seasoned man, and told him straight away that his
calf was doomed. He cut the calf a exit, and there
was a surprising amount of pressure built up inside
the calf, and he emptied out quite a bit of manure.
The vet told us, not to get to optimistic about the
calves survival, as the incision would try to heal
shut, which it did. My brother gave the calf penstrep,
and tried to keep the calf clean , and it?s new exit
working, but after a week the poor little guy started
to fail, and my brother finally dispatched him, so he
would suffer no more. There are a lot of things that
can go wrong with biological creatures, and no one
can do a postmortem on a calf by just looking at a
picture of a bloated dead calf. Sorry for your lost.
You only have livestock, until you have dead stock.
Traditional Farmer
Well-known Member
- Location
- Virginia
That explains what I've heard called a rupture in the naval area have seen that a couple times and as you said its fatal.Also have seen calves that lived have a big knot there permanently.
Stephen Newell
Well-known Member
We had a cat get something like that. It was a botfly that burrowed right into the cat and started eating away. Had we not found it and got it removed it would have killed the cat. I don't know if they could take down an animal as large as a calf or not.
It happens as its all part of raising livestock even though you think your doing everything right. I assume your in Mi. You can always take a carcass of the animal to Michigan State and pay to have a autopsy done on it. I did once on a steer but the cost wasn't cheap. Its the animal husbandry building back off Farm Lane
BarnyardEngineering
Well-known Member
- Location
- Rochester, NY
Doesn't make sense to spend >$100 to find out why a $100 calf died. Doesn't make sense to spend >$0 either.
I'm inclined to think something pecked the naval out after it died. As muddy as it's been,I'd suspect E-coli from the cows udder. I use an oral nnalert to prevent it. I missed one a few weeks ago after it was born just after dark one night. I counted myself lucky to get a tag in it the next morning. That one died when we got the first wet muddy weather.
Al Baker(pumpman)
Member
The pics make it look to me like it has a pink look to its face. I have seen calves like this from high fever. Hair will start to fall off also. Did this calf have any runny snatty looking poop? When wet like its been here in my part of Mich. Crypto can take a good looking calf to a cold stiff one in just a few hours. Very nasty bacteria. Hard to stop. My cattle have just built an immunity to it. Look under its tail. With crypto you will see a puddle on the ground, liquid running out at almost a stream. After a few hours it becomes toxic and kills the calf. Al
Dead calf update: First off thank you to everyone who took the time to respond. All comments were appreciated! Why the calf died, I don't know. That's the way it goes sometimes. Hopefully it's an isolated incident. What threw me off was thinking the naval was some kind of injury. Nope, it was just the naval, but it was pulled a good ways up the side of the belly due to post mortem bloating so I thought it was something else. Again thanks to all.
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