acidosis in a steer?

souNdguy · Jan 15, 2013

steer onthe other side of fence of my cow pens died.. vet said acidosis. both the owner and i were curious about the COD as we both have more cows. any ideas what might have caused acidosis?

JMOR · Jan 15, 2013

(quoted from post at 14:55:39 01/15/13) steer onthe other side of fence of my cow pens died.. vet said acidosis. both the owner and i were curious about the COD as we both have more cows. any ideas what might have caused acidosis?

oo much grain feed, grazing/eating johnson grass at wrong stage are a couple of many possibilities.

souNdguy · Jan 15, 2013

he's got a couple high schoolers that come feed his cows, morning and night.

i reckon they overfed or fed too close together then...

not much grass to speak of here now..

Dell (WA) · Jan 15, 2013

B U R P P p p p ..........(sorry, couldn't resist) Need to put out more SALT blocks. (with pepto-bismol? giggle) .........Dell

souNdguy · Jan 15, 2013

salt.. hmm.. does it play a role in this?

I have brown salt blocks out for my cattle right now. occasionally when they are out I use the yellow sulfur salt. but have brown out now.

i don't see any salt in the neighbors pasture.

I use cargil / neutrina feeds mostly. he's using a local feed.. seminole.. but it's marked cattle.. not sure if it has trace minerals or not. never seen a bag tag.. etc.

hurleyjd · Jan 15, 2013

Go to the link reference below
Untitled URL Link

Brian in MA · Jan 15, 2013

Are they getting any hay, or just grain? I've heard of it as a problem with grain feeding cattle to "finish" them for market.

Larharm · Jan 15, 2013

Never heard of acidosis, if your neighbor has his cows where alfalfa is growing and can freeze this will cause them to bloat. When i raised cows did loose a few that way

RodinNS · Jan 15, 2013

Acidosis? Just remember... paying 100 bucks an hour for an opinion doesn't always mean it's right.
I'm no expert on the subject either... but I'd always understood acidosis to be a more long term condition caused by continious overfeeding of grain. I can't say I've even seen something so acute that it kills them unless they really got into a pile of grain and bloated? Just keep in mind that some vets are like some MD's... even if they don't know what the hell is wrong they've got to have some fancy sounding answer. Was this a vet that deals primarly with cattle or something else?

Rod

souNdguy · Jan 15, 2013

hay available sometimes but not where they can always get it..and yes.. I'd say he was finishing that one.

souNdguy · Jan 15, 2013

way too hot and dry to grow alfalfa here n fl

souNdguy · Jan 15, 2013

i'm not familiar with the vet.. he's not one of the 3 most of use on our equines.

i have heard the same about acidosis. usualy not an acute issue.. and I know I have broke bags inthe pasture and had a cow or steer hop on then and probably eath 10# of grain at one pop with no issues.

I know horses can founder fast on that type of thing.. but then.. wasn't a horse.

Bob Jarvis · Jan 15, 2013

Any symptoms observed?

showcrop · Jan 15, 2013

We had a high school kid feeding the sheep for us once when we were on vacation. On the first day he saw how aggressive they were to get at the grain so he decided that he ought to double the amount that we told him to feed.

souNdguy · Jan 15, 2013

primary symptom observed..

dead steer.

I didn't see it die.

ate 'breakfast' was fine at dinner.. ate dinner, next morning was dead when breakfast was served. hay was still in it's hay crib.

ZANE · Jan 15, 2013

Around here in Talladega Al if a cow gets hungry enough for green and eats ivey it will kill them. Causes bloating.

Zane

Oaf · Jan 15, 2013

I thought you could smell a ketoacidotic steer by it"s breath when it was still kicking. Bloat is easy to spot but it doesn"t sound lush enough. If feeding hay, check for noxious weeds or old coyote bait stuck when the baler ran the field.

hurleyjd · Jan 15, 2013

Might have been blackleg. Rub under tyhe front legs and see if there are any air bubbles under the skin.

hurleyjd · Jan 15, 2013

Might have been blackleg. Rub under tyhe front legs and see if there are any air bubbles under the skin.

Jerry/MT · Jan 15, 2013

Did it get into a lot of grain?

L. B, · Jan 15, 2013

You want a blood test to confirm acidosis. If its the feed you best nip it in the bud,are these dairy cows? Did the vet come out? or what? Any blood around the mouth? humped-up backs? Could be metal in the hay, do ya have magnets in their stomachs? Id have a vet come look.

souNdguy · Jan 16, 2013

lets see.

beef cattle

a vet did come out.. but he uses a different vet than I do.. so I'm not familiar with the vet.

i don't kow if he had magnets in the stomache or not.. he has kids that hand feed hay out.. so maybee no metal.

I wasn't the one who saw it dead.. I was out feeding out some round bales and saw the commotion and walked over tot he fence to see what happened.. in case it was something infectious I needed to watch my cows for.

souNdguy · Jan 16, 2013

it's already gone so I can't look at it.

souNdguy · Jan 16, 2013

it's suposed to have kids coming over to care for it. but that's what I'm thinking.. maybee somone left a grain crib open.. or left a bag in the feedpen? it's the only time i've ever seen a cow have that bad a problem.. gross over grain.. etc.

so far none of his other cows have went down.. and mine either..

L. B, · Jan 16, 2013

Well good luck SG and hope you get the problem solved, Ya might consider magnets, cows are as good as dogs kids and horses when it comes to ingesting stuff.

souNdguy · Jan 16, 2013

mine do.. unsure of the neighbor. and yeah.. I know cows will eat just about anything.

acidosis in a steer?

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