Ragwort? Is there any treatments?
- Thread starter redsloe
- Start date
- Location
- Exeter, Devon
Not the best picture, but doesn’t look like ragwort. Have you got any other photo’s?
- Location
- Scottsih Borders
It's definitely not ragwort.
- Location
- Dorset/Wilts
Fausty bales?
- Location
- Ardrossan Ayrshire
Did hear of calves being poisoned with buttercup hay, but that was a long time ago.
- Location
- East Sussex
How old were the calves?
- Location
- Mendips Somerset
looks like a buttercup ,ragwort would be more like small dandelion , buttercup leaves supposed to be poisonous in large doses , i had a field covered in them after a red clover reseed (so couldnt spray ) always cut for silage , never a problem with ewes and lambs , more likely mould issues in your bale
- Location
- Central Scotland
Vet thinks Listeria - so its probably Listeria - based on his/her years of experience. Ragwort causes liver damage - usually as a result of eating it over weeks and months. They would need to eat a lot of it as well - between 1% and 10% of their body weight - which is a lot of ragwort plants before they would show symptoms. Is it possible that your hay has this much dried ragwort in it?
- Location
- Aberdeenshire
Think CCN is a more likely diagnosis.
nails
Member
- Location
- East Dorset
Yes looks like lead poisoning to me if they are going blind Outlook is not good depending on how much they have eaten. There is one drug that works but is very expensive and needs injecting into the vein frequently. I had an incident about 10 years ago when a group of suckled calves ate lead from a car battery which had got hit with a mower spreading the lead onto the grass . I know it should not have been there but it got overgrown whilst fencing off a dungheap . It was stood in a trailer rut and the mower sliced the top half off . i was only cutting the grass and weeds to tidy up.
primmiemoo
Member
- Location
- Devon
Is the one that seems blind finding water by himself? I can see he's by a water trough, but if it's listeria, the nerve to his tongue might be paralysed at the moment.
Hope the treatment works.
I had a steer left mostly blind with a nonspecific poisoning. The Vet prescribed a drench of a pint of strong tea (cold) with a tablespoon of Epsom salts, and a good glug of cheap whiskey in it 3 times a day for a week, as well as normal drenches of water (he was also given a jab of antibiotic).
He could swallow, and stayed down, so it didn't take as long to administer the drenches as it would were it needed to help him, but it cleared his system of whatever it was, eventually. Just his sight affected, although he lost a lot of weight that took time to come back.
Hope the treatment works.
I had a steer left mostly blind with a nonspecific poisoning. The Vet prescribed a drench of a pint of strong tea (cold) with a tablespoon of Epsom salts, and a good glug of cheap whiskey in it 3 times a day for a week, as well as normal drenches of water (he was also given a jab of antibiotic).
He could swallow, and stayed down, so it didn't take as long to administer the drenches as it would were it needed to help him, but it cleared his system of whatever it was, eventually. Just his sight affected, although he lost a lot of weight that took time to come back.
I have given both a steroid injection today, the second jab for the first affected calf and given both a vit B12 jab as well. Been trying all day to sit the one up with little success, but when my daughter fed them this evening he was sitting up. I've just looked and he's on his feet! He's been offered water but not keen.
The standing calf we steer to the water trough and he drinks freely, he's actually holding his own so perhaps he might clear whatever is afflicting him.
In think the vitamin hasn't done no harm.
The standing calf we steer to the water trough and he drinks freely, he's actually holding his own so perhaps he might clear whatever is afflicting him.
In think the vitamin hasn't done no harm.
God knows how if that's the case!Yes looks like lead poisoning to me if they are going blind Outlook is not good depending on how much they have eaten. There is one drug that works but is very expensive and needs injecting into the vein frequently. I had an incident about 10 years ago when a group of suckled calves ate lead from a car battery which had got hit with a mower spreading the lead onto the grass . I know it should not have been there but it got overgrown whilst fencing off a dungheap . It was stood in a trailer rut and the mower sliced the top half off . i was only cutting the grass and weeds to tidy up.
- Location
- Aberdeenshire
CCN. Occasionally you see it on calves on cake and poor forage. Do you have any haylage to get the rumens going a bit better?
CCN? You will have to explain the abbreviation!
Calves are on barley, a small amount of 33% protein blend and was on fairly good hay. Not really being pushed as I haven't changed the ration for ages.
- Location
- Aberdeenshire
Cerebral Cortical Necrosis. That’s why the vet gave you Bvits. They get an overgrowth off an enzyme that breaks down Thiamine in their rumen. They need thiamine for brain function otherwise you get what you saw (hence my post earlier on today about CCN when people were banging on about lead. ). Normally see in young animals on lush grass. I have dealt with an outbreak like you have and it coincided with a new batch of cake. We added some haylage and that stopped it. Don’t thing the farmer got anywhere with the feed company.
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