Cows, calves and veterinary

Facial Eczema update

Late April post

Since April, a small number of skinny cows were 'free-grazing' (unrestricted food offered) to maximise their weight gain before calving. Several of these were light because they had been affected by eczema, though one or two cows in the group seemed presdisposed to low condition scores regardless of feed or illness issues. There was some roll-over - cows gained weight, were returned to the main herd and others that had been failing to gain weight/losing weight were added. From eight cows at the beginning of June, the group reduced to four sick cows by the start of calving. Three of these had been noticeably losing weight back in February and March, one didn't show up until after the herd were dried off and she lost/failed to gain weight.
When nine calved she joined the group, and gradually it morphed into a colostrum mob, break-fed and offered molasses at the shed. Usually my cows are on 24-hour breaks all year round, but through the wet spell at the start of calving both the colostrum and milking herds were given twelve hour breaks, to reduce trampling. They are now back on 24-hour grazing.

Between today and yesterday, two of the eczema cows have calved. This is 41 and her calf. She calved 12 days over her due date, calf is a heifer.

59's calf, a bull, born yesterday 16 days past her due date.

59. She's not looking too flash this morning - a bit more lethargic than usual. There's an unusual swelling (oedema-like) visible at the front of her udder - she also proved to have mastitis in that quarter when she was checked before milking. The other side of her udder looks perfectly normal - she started springing a week or so before her due date, but didn't develop much udder at all. What you see is what you get - she milked out in a few seconds (I bottle fed her calf yesterday with 113's milk).

Both calves are a little small, not significantly so, and less robust than an average calf. I thought 41's calf looked pretty normal (they both walked home this morning) until she walked onto an electric fence wire and instead of bawling and struggling through as every normal calf does, she stood on it and bleated - with the volume turned way down. 59's calf, at about 3 - 4 hours old was unable to stand and refused to suck the offered bottle, but was walking and keen to feed a few hours later.

147 looks almost normal. She's not due to calve for another three weeks, and I'm contemplating whether she mightn't be just as happy in one of the dry cow herds now.


This image of 81 was also taken this morning. She had eczema back in March and lost a considerable amount of weight, but once she was back up over a condition score 4 in early June, I returned her to a dry cow herd.
She had twins on the 1 August, RFM, and managed to avoid being put in the colostrum herd the day after calving by challenging me to a race (I lost, she carried on walking until she reached the milking herd). She's not a cow who walks when a trot or run will suffice.
Two days later she took a nasty fall on sheer mud at the back of the farm, and was brought home on the tractor's calf tray. She had a slight leg injury, so later that day I brought her to the shed once she'd rested and grazed, and brought her heifer calf out of the calf shed. She seemed rather happy about this, so two more heifer calves followed, and I left them to get acquainted. When I returned, only one of the calves needed fed. In the morning I let all three go to the paddock with her, to give her some recovery time and keep her off concrete while she was still weak.
Two days later I took the smallest calf back in, as they were starting to look hungry. She had the other two for about another three days, and then I brought them in and sent her off to the colostrum herd for 24 hours, to check how much milk she had. Instead of looking better, she was looking daily worse and I was begining to suspect Johne's. That was the day before yesterday. She gave 7 litres of watery milk 24 hours later - around half what she ought to have given and not enough to maintain two calves. For the moment, she'll stay in the colostrum herd until she sees a vet. She's 10 years old, high BW and has done good production in the past.


These images were taken on the 29th July - two weeks ago.
147


151.
151 died on the 5 August. The other three (41, 59, 147) had started improving in early July. 151, around the same time, started looking worse, but had picked up slightly a week or two before. I found her down and bloated one evening on the muddy break, much to my surprise since she'd looked no different earlier. Sat her up on the long grass, propped against the calf tray (I left the tractor with her overnight) and she crawled from there over the next day, until I got her standing with the hip lifters 36 hours later (previous day she wouldn't try to stand when lifted). She went down again and died within two days.


59


41


On the 9th May:

59


81


151


This is 157 on the 24 April - one of the cows that appears to have made a full recovery from eczema.



19 calved on the 10/8, all well.
39 calved on the 7/8, all well.
41 - new calved, see above.
59 - calved yesterday, see above.
80 calved 20/7, unexpectedly small calf, appears well.
81 had twins 1/8, has deteriorated in health since - see above.
90 appears well, not due until October.
118 calved 1/8, all well.
131 was culled for udder problems, failure to get in calf and eczema. I don't think she would have survived the eczema.
142 was culled for eczema. I don't think she would have survived it.
151 died of eczema 5 Aug (see above)
153 died of eczema in April.
157 calved 31/7, all well.

Keeping the obviously sick cows was an unknown risk. I had 59 and 147 blood-tested to assess liver damage back in May, at the same time as making the decision to let 142 go - she was an older cow and had deteriorated fast. The results showed that they had severely damaged livers, but retained some function - in the vet's words they were 'on the fence', they might survive, they might not.
At that time, 151 didn't even look sick - just skinny.
Older farmers (dating back to pre-zinc) told me to expect cows that became poor-doers, or died after calving, possibly weak or dead calves. So my greatest concern was getting these cows through calving.
Right now, I'm not worried about 147 at all. I think 41 will be fine - and her calf too. There's a nasty storm tearing up the clouds overhead and although the colostrum cows have got good shelter in their paddock, it's not going to help 59. There's a very good chance that she'll go down hill from here, not much chance that she'll actually come into a decent milk supply. And I think 81 has Johne's and that suckling heifer calves on her is the worst thing I could have done.
I'm not worried about any of the other cows formerly identified with eczema, or their calves. Number 80 is the only one who had a small calf, and it has always appeared healthy. And so far there have been no other health issues possibly attributable to subclinical FE.

posted by nellta holdings @ 1:30 AM