Calving disaster

ajcc

Member
Livestock Farmer
I had similar this spring, lot of problems predominantly with bunch of Angus heifers. A dairy farming friend heard we had problems and turned up with heap of cosecure boluses, rock salt and bags of mag. flakes.....
It improved and you didn’t feel so helpless. I feel for anyone suffering similar, calving should be an exiting, rewarding, pleasurable time for the suckler farmer, not filled with daily dread and anxiety.
Never had so many presentation problems and hard calvings with bad outcome and hope never do again but cosecure with copper will be main line of prevention going forward for me.
 

Werzle

Member
Location
Midlands
Iodine deficiency will cause pre calving death, we lost a couple when we had it plus a couple more dopey calves died a few days after being born, no problems the year before, bolus twice a year for it now.
Not saying that's what this is but its worth checking if there is another dead one the vet should be able to tell
I would be interested to know what would cause such a deficiency if they hadnt had problems in the past and mineral buckets have been offered.
 

Henarar

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Somerset
Surely the firms making the the precalver buckets read tff and realise iodine is the elixir of life and should up the dose!
Our vets practice is spread over two areas they recon down this end is iodine deficiency and the other is copper so there is no one size fits all
 

Henarar

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Somerset
I would be interested to know what would cause such a deficiency if they hadnt had problems in the past and mineral buckets have been offered.
Apparently compaction don't help and it was after a couple of wet years, don't know really but we did notice a difference in calf vigour after starting using the bolus regularly, they have selenium and cobalt in as well and apparently sel will help.
 

tinsheet

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
West Somerset
Is iodine a problem for a lot of folk? I've never had a issue just put minerals on the feed.
Yes problem here, we're low in iodine copper selenium, pretty much all trace elements, bolus twice a year seems to keep everything in check. Poor hill ground. (Doing my utmost to improve it though)
 
Surely the firms making the the precalver buckets read tff and realise iodine is the elixir of life and should up the dose!

A few years ago, new rules reduced the amount of iodine that could be included as standard.

Get afew cows blood tested. You will be surprised

They may be on bloods, but atr some time during the pregnancy they will have been deficient, leading to enlarged thyroid in the unborn calf.
I do , never had any come back saying low in iodine

When we first had this problem (iodine deficiency) MAFF lab vet told us taking cow bloods was a waste of time. It had to be a liver sample. And that is impossible if the cow is still alive and walking about.

The weight of the dead calf's thyroid will tell you if there's an iodine problem.

Chelated iodine in bespoke minerals to match on farm deficiences help.
As do Brinicombes Easy calver Aqua trace beads which hang in the water troughs.
As does Lugols iodine which we make up and is water soluble, not spirit based.

With iodine deficiency, you will usually get a a full term calf which is dead or dopey, and although has a heart beat, won't breath or suck.. Abortions may indicate a neospora problem and bloods should screen for that.

It's pretty disheartening, so good luck.
 

gavd

Member
Location
aberdeenshire
Spoke to the vet about the initial PM results this morning.
Negative for BVD, IBR, Lepto, Neospora. Ecoli found on the calf but they reckon that's just picked up from the ground after calving it.
Asked about the thyroid weight and they reckoned it was within normal. Basically a lot of things it isn't!
Will wait for the remaining tests to come back. After putting iodine down them Sat morning had a healthy live calf last night, probably a bit soon for it to work so just coincidence I guess?
In the meantime got some Easi Trace minerals for their water trough and Vet recommends blood testing the cows if we get anymore.
 

choochter

Member
Location
aberdeenshire
Spoke to the vet about the initial PM results this morning.
Negative for BVD, IBR, Lepto, Neospora. Ecoli found on the calf but they reckon that's just picked up from the ground after calving it.
Asked about the thyroid weight and they reckoned it was within normal. Basically a lot of things it isn't!
Will wait for the remaining tests to come back. After putting iodine down them Sat morning had a healthy live calf last night, probably a bit soon for it to work so just coincidence I guess?
In the meantime got some Easi Trace minerals for their water trough and Vet recommends blood testing the cows if we get anymore.
did you test for M. bovis ?
 

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