FE cows
In the dry herd: all cows with obvious FE were dried off with the second batch taken out of the milkers, if they hadn't already been dried in early February. Number 19's udder peeled and just before drying off she was treated for clinical mastitis. These images were taken 20 March. Previous images
Close up of udder, her front teats are badly scabbed.
Number Eighty appears to have made a straightforward recovery - she had mild skin damage and has never looked sick.
118 persistently licks that sore in the white area on her neck - every morning cut grass would be thrown up over her back as she swung her head up between mouthfuls. (which made her look very interesting when I put zinc cream over it). Her udder healed; she was treated for mastitis shortly after dry-off and eventually stopped losing weight.
Image taken 20 March above, 24 April below. So eventually she licked too far on the 'sore that wouldn't heal because she kept licking it' and turned up for drenching with a blood-matted muzzle and rivulets down her side. I taped on a dressing which she managed to remove during the night, and when I phoned the vet for advice was recommended to put a cover on her, and check the sore regularly.
She hates the cover. But the sore very quickly dried up and should heal - the dirty patch on the cover is where she continued trying to lick the area after the cover went on. I haven't seen her attempting to lick it for a few days. Her movement is restricted by the cover as her legs rub against the strap both front and back - seemed logical that the curved end fitted the neck and the long strap the rear, but maybe I put it on back to front or it's a size too big for her? At least now I know she's not going to lick herself into anaemia.
I checked the herd for mastitis this evening and her udder and teats have once again turned a deep purple colour.
138 doesn't have eczema. A blood test came up positive for Johne's disease and she has since been culled. She was well under cs3, with the bony ridge along her hip wings visible through the skin. Note the swelling under her jaw - it was more visible some days than others, and is caused by oedema; apparently typical in Johne's affected cows. All I know is that it's a very bad sign - usually once jaw oedema appears the vet is going to recommend culling (this is the second Johne's cow I've known with oedema, the only other cow I've seen with it was a heifer vet-diagnosed with a 'stuffed heart').
153 on 14 March. 153 was diagnosed with FE by blood test in late March, having been visibly 'sick' and losing condition for around a month. She never did show any skin damage. She was dried off with the first batch of cows as her milk was dropping to the point where she was about to dry herself off, and a couple of weeks later started looking a bit 'loopy' - staring, disconnected from reality, following me about if I went into the paddock. That first group of cows were on tight grazing owing to the drought, but should have been able to maintain condition on the feed they were being offered - they didn't, with cows like 153, 59, 138 pulling the group average down as the condition slowly melted off their bones.
153 started going 'down', and was taken out of the herd to graze in a flat paddock, firstly because she obviously wasn't fit to walk to the shed for drenching every day and secondly to avoid the other cows either aggresively or accidentally pushing her over. The first couple of times she stood up and started grazing again pretty quickly, then a spell of bad weather apparently weakened her and she decided she wasn't going to get up no more. This photo was taken on the 17 April. I had her shot a couple of days later.
posted by nellta holdings @ 1:19 AM
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