Posted: Fri Nov 24, 06 10:34 pm Post subject: Unexpected side effect of global warming?
Our cow has died. My husband was feeding the pigs the day before yesterday and as he was walking back down the field the cow just keeled over and looked like she was fitting. We called the vet and he was there within half an hour. He'd just been at another farm where they'd lost 3 cows. He said the warm weather was playing havoc with them. It's magnesium and calcium deficiency apparently. We got the cow in and injected her with magnesium but it was too late and she died yesterday afternoon. Apparently the unseasonably warm weather recently has resulted in a quick growth of grass which is lacking in nutrients. We spoke to another vet yesterday afternoon who said she'd been at various farms and had seen 4 cows die in the last week of the same thing. That's 8 cows in a 10 mile radius in the last week, not much in the greater scheme of things but that's just between 2 vets. Who knows how many have died in total. I'm sad about our cow. She was a beauty who gave us sterling work
I know it won't help you - but as this phenomenon has been seen quite a bit in your area and you have now warned others about it, is there something others can do to prevent this happening to their cows? I don't know much about cows at all but is there a mineral lick or something that people could buy to compensate for this?
Have I read something about magnesium bolts? bullets? bolsters?b..(something)? that you administer to cows? (usually in spring I think)
It's such a shame you lost your cow and this would be further compounded by others losing theirs unnecessarily if something can be done about it thanks to your warning.
Thanks all . We've bought a mineral lick for the other 2 - her youngest calf is 4 months and has spent a couple of days shouting for his mum
You kind of get lulled into a false sense of security because there is grass. They've been having silage as well for the last few weeks but it seems that it wasn't enough.
This far north, most of my neighbours have already got their beasts in for winter (since about end-Oct), so not an issue here. Reasons being the cold weather, rain (leading to trampled grazing) and lack of grass.
I was asking one of my friend who is a vet ... and she was telling me that you can actually get some magnesium (bolt or something) to apply directly on the skin, I think behind the neck to prevent this ... or at least to fix it if caught early ...
Camile
Marionb
Joined: 27 Aug 2006 Posts: 5267 Location: Mid-Wales
Posted: Thu Nov 30, 06 9:06 am Post subject:
Sorry to hear about your cow... I lost one of my lambs that I was hoping to breed from next year, a month or so ago, its very upsetting.
Just wondering, is this deficiency thing likely to be a problem for sheep as well as cows? Perhaps I should get a mineral lick in for our sheep - we have 2 due to lamb on Xmas Day!!
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