Cows, calves and veterinary

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I have a number of photos to post to the entry on spring eczema (briefly, 150 is looking healthy, her udder has almost healed and part of both ears scabbed over and fell off. She has internal damage, which seems to be a feature with eczema - she returned to service a few days ago and I did AI so could tell. I'm not certain if Spring Eczema cows do successfully get in calf when they're so badly affected) and links, but given the apparent speed of my connection there's no chance of adding them now.

This one is from RD1 on Facial Eczema - similar appearance, different cause

Google Spring Eczema Apparently I've mislaid the useful links I found, and need to go hunting for them again. The fact is, there's not much known about the disease - even what causes it is a mystery. This makes it very frustrating dealing with animals with symptoms - there's little can be done to help them and almost nothing to prevent it. Even diagnosis is a bit of a conundrum, unless there is obvious skin damage - and then, it's often time of year that dictates whether it's diagnosed as Spring Eczema or as Facial Eczema.
There must be a blood test for it, because I had a case confirmed by blood test a couple of years back - the vet didn't know from the cow's symptoms what her problem was, but I realised later and asked them to check the sample for it, not even knowing if they could - apparently they could.

Prior to skin damage, the symptoms suggest to me a generalised poisoning. It can be hard to tell if a fractious cow is suffering from stomach-ache or the pre-visible sensation of severe sunburn - but either way, her behaviour and demeanor may be consistent with that of any random poison: nervous symptoms, possibly hollow gut, pained, awkward stance, weakness. Maybe milk fever? I've suspected Spring Eczema in a cow that was rolling around on the ground but didn't respond to calcium and decided the behaviour was purely due to pain, but another vet has since suggested that cows affected by Spring Eczema are also at increased risk of milk fever.

posted by nellta holdings @ 3:43 AM