grass tetany

whelan1

had 2 cases this morning , anyone else have it?:mad:

vanderbadger

oh feck, we havent had that for years, i just bought a magnesium lick this morning but wonder if they are any use any way, is it treatable?

djmc

About 3 weeks ago cow started looking nervy in the parlour I gussed it was grass tecney and call vet straight away
When vet came she went down he gave her calcum and gave me a spare bottle She died ten minutes after that:mad:
I am now feeding ration with cal mag twice a day and have a bottle of calcum
on hand just in case.

bogman_bass

djmc wrote: »

About 3 weeks ago cow started looking nervy in the parlour I gussed it was grass tecney and call vet straight away
When vet came she went down he gave her calcum and gave me a spare bottle She died ten minutes after that:mad:
I am now feeding ration with cal mag twice a day and have a bottle of calcum
on hand just in case.

hope you mean magnisium.
Clacium for milk fever, mag for grass tetney

whelan1

mine are on meal with cal mag in it , going to put out mineral buckets for tonight also, a few years ago my da injected a cow in the vein with magnessium for tetany and it died straight away lesson learned only small amounts of magnessium can be tolerated intraveneously

whelan1

1 of the cows is grand the other which the vet thinks had milk fever rather than tetany can stand but her front leg is damaged - she got herself lying in a funny way during the night and couldnt get up , she is scouring now , would the calcium make her scour , i gave her some white powders just in case , she wont eat

tismesoitis

whelan1 wrote: »

mine are on meal with cal mag in it , going to put out mineral buckets for tonight also, a few years ago my da injected a cow in the vein with magnessium for tetany and it died straight away lesson learned only small amounts of magnessium can be tolerated intraveneously

same happened to me a few years back cow down with milk fever shortly after calving ran and grabed a bottle of what i thought was calcium from a new box just purchased from local co-op turned out they gave us mag by mistake cow was dead within minutes(a lovely vg85 lord lily) extreemly anoying and upsetting watching her rolling over and dying in front of me. claimed 50% of the value of the co-op and got it, i kinda felt half to blame for not checkin d bottle. on d tetany thing we dust the paddock every morning with mag

adne

whats the early signs to look out for... lameness, drowsy etc ....

whelan1

very agitated and jumpy , shivering , heart racing . kicking , you only have a short time frame to treat them as they can die very quick

snowman707

whelan1 wrote: »

very agitated and jumpy , shivering , heart racing . kicking , you only have a short time frame to treat them as they can die very quick

as above , an early sign may also be that the dung may be scoury and smelly, we had 1 with loose smelly dung last night left her in as a precaution and gave her some hay and a bottle of mg under the skin, kept an eye on her on cctv for a few hours anyhow she is fine now will let her back out in the morning

babybrian

Whats the easiest way to dust the paddocks? fertilizer spreader?

lifelover2006

bogman_bass wrote: »

hope you mean magnisium.
Clacium for milk fever, mag for grass tetney

I have some Mag bullets left over from last year. woudl they be safe to use a year on.

by the way, woudl many suckler farmers give bullets to their cows. I have given the bullets over the past few years adn also give the mag bucket in the field ????????????

whelan1

we give bullets to the sucklers and also have the buckets with them

dunsandin

Having run 100 sucklers, tetany used to be a huge problem. We ran a high nitrogen grassland system. Then, we decided to go organic. No ferti, but also, no more tetany. So, there must be a link between nitrogen usage and tetany as we have now got no cases whatsoever. We used to use mag bullets and licks, but still got cases every year. It is now a distant memory. I would say allow a good time lapse between spreading fert and letting the cows in to graze, and try to minimise artri fert usage. BTW we have not noticed any great drop in grass yield since we stopped spreading urea/can. We use only dung and slurry now. The meadows are a lot more diverse too.

whelan1

i thought if there was slurry put out it is a major cause of tetany

babybrian

I am on a dairy farm in Australia for a few months at the moment and I have seen cows here with milk fever too, what they have out here are 500ml packs with a mix of calcium, magnesium, phosphorus and glucose(4 in 1). Each pack has a tube and needle so out in the paddock the pack can be given into the vein and then disgarded. I am wondering has anyone seen these packs in Ireland? or is it all in ackward to use bottles which means having to use syringes also?
I have also seen these packs with just calcium.

whelan1

sounds very handy

John_F

dunsandin wrote: »

Having run 100 sucklers, tetany used to be a huge problem. We ran a high nitrogen grassland system. Then, we decided to go organic. No ferti, but also, no more tetany. So, there must be a link between nitrogen usage and tetany as we have now got no cases whatsoever. We used to use mag bullets and licks, but still got cases every year. It is now a distant memory. I would say allow a good time lapse between spreading fert and letting the cows in to graze, and try to minimise artri fert usage. BTW we have not noticed any great drop in grass yield since we stopped spreading urea/can. We use only dung and slurry now. The meadows are a lot more diverse too.

yes there is a link, magnesium is stored in the stem of a plant and so young leafy spring grass (got from nitrogen) has lower amounts of mg as little stem, cows need 30mg per day of mg and calcium each i think.


@babybrian any pics of them packs handy?

babybrian

heres some info on them, maybe your vets might have an idea if there is something like them around.

http://www.animalhealthdirect.co.nz/Animal-Health/Metabolics/Calject-500ml-Pouch

Had to use them again today, gave 1 straight into the neck and 1 under the skin.. When giving them there is a rule of thumb that you squeeze the pack just as hard as you would give a good handshake. works a treat.