Princess Pooper
Member
- Location
- East Mids
I'm interested in what health issues people have noticed in their cows that they think can be attributed to the heat and drought earlier in the year in Britain and other parts of Europe where neither we nor the cows are used to it. Our herd does not calve in a tight block but around 40% including the heifers calve in Aug/Sept, another 35% in Oct/Nov and an extended tail through to end of Feb. In our small herd we have noticed three things.
1) lots more New Forest Disease in the summer - mainly in dry cows and in calf hfrs who were down on our dry cow grazing next to the river. Our vet said they had a massive increase in cases this year. Many of our baby calves in Aug/Sept also had crusty eyes, not inflamed or red or even really weepy, just gummy, which he thought was a milder version, all calves recovered fine without treatment by about 6 weeks.
2) Increased absorbed foetuses mainly in cows due to calve Feb/Mar. These came back PD+ in July/Aug after non-returns to service but have since been seen bulling and have been manually PD'd negative (now all culled). One of the cows went right off her milk in the hottest week.
3) Increase in minor calf deformities. In 66 calvings we have had 4 with undershot ('parrot') jaws and several with mild cataracts (blue colouration of eyes, but not noticeably impaired vision), one (no cataract) with a slightly 'boggle eye' on one side. These were in both Simm and HF sired calves, from both cows and heifers, the Simm we have used several years previously with no issues. We have previously had possibly one undershot jaw in the last 10 years. Calves otherwise completely healthy other than one HF calf (fortunately a bull) had both and also was a poor doer and died.
As we are naïve for BVD we have been sufficiently concerned to run some BVD tests under vet guidance all of which have found nothing and our (experienced cattle) vet has no other suggestions. Other than BVD, bluetongue is the only other disease that seems to be associated with cataracts, but there are several papers that show an association with hot weather, late summer calves and possible nutritional deficiencies (possible vit A).
Anyone else noticed similar? The full blown New Forest eye and abortions not really a surprise, but the calf deformities are interesting.
1) lots more New Forest Disease in the summer - mainly in dry cows and in calf hfrs who were down on our dry cow grazing next to the river. Our vet said they had a massive increase in cases this year. Many of our baby calves in Aug/Sept also had crusty eyes, not inflamed or red or even really weepy, just gummy, which he thought was a milder version, all calves recovered fine without treatment by about 6 weeks.
2) Increased absorbed foetuses mainly in cows due to calve Feb/Mar. These came back PD+ in July/Aug after non-returns to service but have since been seen bulling and have been manually PD'd negative (now all culled). One of the cows went right off her milk in the hottest week.
3) Increase in minor calf deformities. In 66 calvings we have had 4 with undershot ('parrot') jaws and several with mild cataracts (blue colouration of eyes, but not noticeably impaired vision), one (no cataract) with a slightly 'boggle eye' on one side. These were in both Simm and HF sired calves, from both cows and heifers, the Simm we have used several years previously with no issues. We have previously had possibly one undershot jaw in the last 10 years. Calves otherwise completely healthy other than one HF calf (fortunately a bull) had both and also was a poor doer and died.
As we are naïve for BVD we have been sufficiently concerned to run some BVD tests under vet guidance all of which have found nothing and our (experienced cattle) vet has no other suggestions. Other than BVD, bluetongue is the only other disease that seems to be associated with cataracts, but there are several papers that show an association with hot weather, late summer calves and possible nutritional deficiencies (possible vit A).
Anyone else noticed similar? The full blown New Forest eye and abortions not really a surprise, but the calf deformities are interesting.
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