Acidosis , off their legs ?

[MJT]

The old man decided to turn a bunch of ewes onto barley stubble yesterday morning and when checking this morning it was carnage. 4 dead and few more on the way out, treated anything dodgey with bicarbonate ,but quite a few are going off their legs, what could be causing this ? Low in Calcium or Magnesium I was wondering ? Thoughts please ?

 

[bovine]

Need vet out and the dead ones opening up.

Is there much barley on the floor? Acidosis is possible, but so are any number of other things such as pasturella/clostridia. Minerals vaguely possible.

 

[Derrick Hughes]

Barley poisoning

 

[yellowbelly]

That's a bad do. Sorry to hear about it. What are they eating? Barley grains could be acidosis(barley poisoning). A lot of lush volunteers could be inducing staggers, I suppose.

 

[MJT]

That's a bad do. Sorry to hear about it. What are they eating? Barley grains could be acidosis(barley poisoning). A lot of lush volunteers could be inducing staggers, I suppose.

Yep it's a hell of a downer ! Yes it's the barley that's done it ! None look any worse at last check so hopefully over the worst of it ! Tomorrow morning will tell.

 

[bovine]

How do you know its the barley? Last 'grain overload' incident I dealt with in sheep was pasturella speticaemia.

How are you treating them? Generally its impractical to treat with just bicarb. Bad cases are often best slaughtered as treatment is time consuming and costly.

 

[MJT]

How do you know its the barley? Last 'grain overload' incident I dealt with in sheep was pasturella speticaemia.

How are you treating them? Generally its impractical to treat with just bicarb. Bad cases are often best slaughtered as treatment is time consuming and costly.

I'm going on the amount of grain that's in the stomachs of the ewes which have pegged out . As well as ticking off most symptom related to acidosis

Bloated , diahorea, dehydrated , swaying

 

[spin cycle]

they'd have to eat a heck of a lot of barley i'dve thought.....more the sudden change of diet.....lush volunteers.....i take it you got the ewes off pronto?

 

[bovine]

OK. The goal of therapy is 4 fold:

• maintain hydration in the animal (often needs to be IV as oral fluids generate more acid)
• neutralise acid (bicarb can do this, but if you've ever made a volcano with papier mache you will know that in the presence of acid bicarb breaks down instantly - other buffers are needed to continue to neutralise newly produced acid, unless you are prepared to drench very frequently. Animals that are down need bicarb and other fluids into the vein.
  
• antibiotics to combat the bacteria getting into the blood from the inflamed rumen wall
• multivitamins given IV

My concern with a lot of the affected animals is their welfare suffers from inadequate treatment - and these animals can suffer and die over days. Either intensively nurse them or shoot them. A bit of bicarb and a shot of something or other is not good enough.

 

[tinsheet]

Get them off quick smart,
Then get the combine looked at seems to be loseing a lot of barley. Good luck.

 

[jemski]

How are they doing this morning? Hope they are ok.

 

[MJT]

How are they doing this morning? Hope they are ok.

Only one dead overnight and the rest look a lot better Thankyou ! Few still look like laminitis or similar but a lot brighter in their eyes .