If a cow is ‘looking at you funny’ there’s a chance it could be something serious
Listeria, often found in mouldy silage, can affect the nerves to the animal’s head and ultimately damage the brain
The heavy workload of spring has begun to get more manageable over the past week or so. Routine work in our veterinary practice is starting to take over from the manic fire-brigadetype calls you get with peak calving.
Vasectomising bulls, pre-breeding scanning and Bull Breeding Soundness Exams are beginning to fill up our weekly planner.
Calving cases, milk fevers etc are still featuring heavily, but as the transition from calving to bulling begins, there seems to be an upsurge in what one of my colleagues calls “the weird and the wonderful cases”.
These are cases that only seem to crop up around this time of year, but happen on quite a number of farms.
I was called to one such case early last week. Usually, as I drive to any call, I think about what possible conditions the animal could be suffering from.
On this occasion, I couldn’t come up with much, mainly due to the farmer’s vague description over the phone: “She’s just not herself and she’s looking at me funny.”
What we were dealing with soon became very apparent when I saw the cow. She was holding her head to one side and was indeed, “looking at us funny”.
Drooling
Her left ear was dropped, her left eyelid was partially closed and she was drooling from the left side of her mouth.
When we attempted to get her out of the pen and into the crush, she started to go towards her left side, as if her tracking was off. As she became more agitated, she started to go around the pen in tight circles.
All the signs pointed to a textbook case of listeriosis: a bacterial infection that causes inflammation of the brain and localised meningitis that affects the nerves that supply the animal’s head.
The bacteria survive in soil, but at this time of year is usually associated with mouldy silage.
It is usually a disease of younger cattle, as we think it is linked to eruption of permanent teeth. The bacteria get into the tooth canal and enter the nervous system there and ultimately affect the brain.
The affected animal on this farm was treated like we treat all cases of listeria: aggressive antibiotic treatment, accompanied by some anti-inflammatory medication.
The cow was given oral fluids by
a stomach pump, which included some rumen buffer to offset the large amount of saliva that was lost due to her drooling.
I also sedated her to allow her to settle down in the hope that she would not injure herself. Antibiotic treatment would have to be kept up for a number of days.
Once treatment was completed, I discussed with the farmer the probable source of the infection: mouldy silage. He assured me that all his silage was top quality and he couldn’t understand how this had happened.
It was only when we walked along the feed barrier that we both realised there was a problem.
On the face of it, he was doing everything right. He had made up a TMR mix to buffer-feed his cows for an hour before each milking.
He was using what he assured me was his best silage, but when we opened a bale to have a look, some mouldy patches were clearly visible.
Now, if these bales were left in to feed cows as they were, the cows would most likely sort the silage and
not eat the poorly preserved bits. However, when put through the diet feeder, sorting is no longer possible and the cows lick everything up.
The affected cow made a decent recovery, albeit it very slowly, and we had to stomach-pump her with electrolytes for a few days as her ability to swallow had become compromised.
We have seen a few of these cases over the past two weeks, so it is worth being vigilant, especially if feeding silage of questionable quality.
Listeria can affect sheep in the same way as cattle, so keep a close eye on your flock for any signs.
Another common case over the past week is the “she should really have calved by now” cow. As I was tidying up after calving a cow on a farm, I looked over the gate and saw one lonely cow in the cubicle shed.
The farmer told me that she was the only cow left to calve and, going by the scanning dates, she should have calved over a week ago.
I got the scanner from the jeep, although I presumed I wouldn’t need it as there would surely be a calf ready to suck my finger as soon as I put my hand in.
It turned out that the scanner was needed, as instead of an oversized calf, I found a perfectly viable 60-day pregnancy.
“That’s impossible,” the farmer said; he was convinced I was winding him up. He genuinely had no idea how this had happened. He was 100pc sure that there hadn’t been any bull near her at any stage since before Christmas. At the time of writing, it is still a case of ‘the immaculate conception’.
If you have any late calvers that aren’t showing signs of calving by now, it might be worth getting them checked. If they are empty, there isn’t any point in having them in the herd.
Lastly, it’s worth mentioning a common case we get called to at this time of year: a calf bleeding after dehorning. Often, it’s a strong calf that really should have been done 2-3 weeks ago and now just about fits into the crate.
It is the ‘cures’ to stop the bleeding that are interesting: I’ve seen cobwebs, cornflour, grease and prayers. None of them are a substitute for a nicely applied bandage, pain relief and antibiotic treatment.
With all ailments in cattle, early detection and intervention are important, especially with conditions such as listeria.
Hopefully, if one of your cows is “looking at you funny”, it’s only because you’ve slept in and are late milking her.
He was 100pc sure that there hadn’t been any bull near her at any stage since before Christmas. At the time of writing, it is still a case of ‘the immaculate conception’