may spend a lot of time lying down. Any animal lying down when the rest of the herd is grazing or eating hay should be cause for suspicion. If she seems healthy and normal in other aspects, make her get up and walk a few steps to see if she is lame. The sick animal may be dull,
with ears drooping instead of alert, or may have other subtle signs that give clues to a problem. If she’s not chewing her cud, this may be an indication of pain, fever or some type of digestive problem that halts rumen activity. An animal with a high fever will not chew her cud. On closer inspection, look for sunken eyes, moist cough, snotty nose or any other indication of illness. If it’s a very young calf, make
sure the calf is nursing and that the teats are not too large or long for the calf to suck. Make sure the cow doesn’t have mastitis or sore teats, or some other problem that interferes with her ability to pro- duce milk or to allow the calf to nurse. If her udder is sore she may be kicking the calf off. In a cow-calf herd, pay attention
to any cow with a full udder. If her calf hasn’t nursed recently, the calf may be ill. Often the fi rst sign of sickness in a young calf — even before he shows signs of pneumonia or breaks with scours — is that he doesn’t feel like nursing. “If the calf is falling behind the
other calves in growth and the cow has a big, swollen bag, this could be an indication she has mastitis and isn’t letting the calf nurse. She needs to be brought in and treated,” says Dominguez.
Trust your fi rst impressions Dr. Charlie Deyhle, Canyon, has
practiced veterinary medicine for 36 years and consults with ranches
tscra.org
and feedyards. “In a feedlot, it’s crucial to be
able to identify the calf that doesn’t feel well. Usually your fi rst impres- sion is correct. I’ve seen people try to talk themselves into thinking the calf is OK, when in reality it is not. In the feedyard, the most likely situation if the calf doesn’t feel well is because his lungs hurt (suffering from some form of bovine respiratory disease) — unless he’s just been weaned and is missing his mama, or has just been castrated or worked (dehorned, vaccinated or some other process) or just had a rough truck ride,” says Deyhle. It’s sometimes hard to describe
or quantify symptoms in a calf that doesn’t feel well. Even if he doesn’t feel good, he may become more alert just because he sees you. Cattle are prey animals, and that calf’s goal in life is to not let you know that he doesn’t feel good. He doesn’t want to be singled out by a predator. Quietly observe the herd or group of cattle from a distance at fi rst — before they become aware of your presence—in order to detect the ones that are a little dull. Know what’s normal and what
is not normal, for your cattle. “We have to consider breed disposition and general attitude. If you look at them early in the morning when they are waking up, this can give clues about how they feel — when they are just getting up and stretch- ing. We see most of the signs of na- sal discharge and congestion early in the morning before they have been up and moving and warmed up with sunlight on them,” says Deyhle. “You might even look at them
with binoculars or some other visu- al aid before you get close to them,” says Mays. This can make it easier to pick out any individuals you’d
want to get a closer look at — be- fore they become alert and harder to pick out of the herd. Some of the abnormal things
you might observe include inap- propriate hair loss. “It’s normal for cattle to rub in springtime to get rid of winter hair, but if cattle are itching more than normal, or at a different time of year, there may have external parasites. With the itching and scratching you might see rough, dry, scabby or scaly skin — such as along the topline where the animal has been rubbing under a low-hanging tree limb. There are also some toxic plants that cause photosensitization. The skin lesions might fi rst be noticed on unpig- mented areas of the body, such as a white face or legs,” says Mays. After cattle have been worked or
processed, they need to be closely monitored. “Maybe you just had the herd pregnancy tested or vaccinat- ed. If they’ve been handled, trans- ported, put down chutes or confi ned or restrained in a squeeze, check them closely afterward. Maybe one of them got a foot entrapped and it didn’t cause a noticeable problem at the time, but a day later it might be a problem.” It’s always good to check cattle
after processing, in case something went wrong for some of them and it went unnoticed. “If you see an animal standing in
the same spot, and it hasn’t moved since earlier that day, or maybe even yesterday, there is probably a reason it isn’t moving around, and it needs to be checked. It could be blindness, or lameness,” says Mays.
We will continue this topic in the September issue of The Cattleman, providing more clues to watch for such as posture, movement, digestion and other small signs.
August 2013 The Cattleman 89
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