very sudden calf death

ootbitb

two week old lively bucket fed calf stopped drinking half way through his feed stood five seconds and then collapsed.

roared in obvious pain and lay still but intermittently flung all four limbs about and died a couple of minutes later.

heart attack do you think?

whelan1

sounds like an obstruction of some sort... either a twisted gut or his windpipe could have been pushed up , was he in a pen , had a calf died years ago when the milk went the wrong way

ootbitb

in a pen with one other calf which had finished drinking and may have been dunting his mate.

funny man

ootbitb wrote: »

two week old lively bucket fed calf stopped drinking half way through his feed stood five seconds and then collapsed.

roared in obvious pain and lay still but intermittently flung all four limbs about and died a couple of minutes later.

heart attack do you think?

This may be of interest.

http://www.thedairysite.com/articles/1272/iclostridium-perfringens-i-infections-in-baby-calves

cltt97

or this http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1661306/pdf/vetsci00288-0016.pdf

Grecco

Was it new milk or milk replacer you were feeding him with??

Milk replacer can cause bloat/Gas in the stomach in very young calves,
If that was the case you could have saved it by puncturing a hole in its stomach side and releasing the Gas

Lizard_Moon

ootbitb wrote: »

two week old lively bucket fed calf stopped drinking half way through his feed stood five seconds and then collapsed.

roared in obvious pain and lay still but intermittently flung all four limbs about and died a couple of minutes later.

heart attack do you think?

Sorry for your loss, terrible thing to happen.

There is a condition in calves called " Bawling Calf Syndrome" and signs are pretty much what you have seen. The heart is involved and usually the excitement if getting fed precipitates the 'attack'.

Selenium deficiency is one of the possible causes. A post mortem at a regional veterinary lab should give a diagnosis. Also could get your vet to check selenium levels in the dry cows, if any around.

Muckit

Grecco wrote: »

you could have punctured a hole in its stomach side and released the Gas

A stomach tube may have done the same thing?

ootbitb

Lizard_Moon wrote: »

Sorry for your loss, terrible thing to happen.

There is a condition in calves called " Bawling Calf Syndrome" and signs are pretty much what you have seen. The heart is involved and usually the excitement if getting fed precipitates the 'attack'.

Selenium deficiency is one of the possible causes. A post mortem at a regional veterinary lab should give a diagnosis. Also could get your vet to check selenium levels in the dry cows, if any around.

thanks for that, nice to put a name on it.

greysides

Lizard_Moon wrote: »

There is a condition in calves called " Bawling Calf Syndrome" and signs are pretty much what you have seen. The heart is involved and usually the excitement if getting fed precipitates the 'attack'.

Selenium deficiency is one of the possible causes. A post mortem at a regional veterinary lab should give a diagnosis. Also could get your vet to check selenium levels in the dry cows, if any around.

x2


Have your selenium levels checked out.

lefthooker

Used to lose a few calves every year in the same manner. Vets diagnosed as Bawling Calf Syndrome and treated the cows last winter with a selenium vaccine and thankfully didn't lose a calf to BCS this spring. Was a real kick in the balls to see a strong hardy calf collapse in front of you

pakalasa

Would pre-calving minerals have prevented this?
Worth noting for those that think they are a waste of time.

lefthooker

pakalasa wrote: »

Would pre-calving minerals have prevented this?
Worth noting for those that think they are a waste of time.

The cows had access to lick buckets all summer while grazing and we would put pre calver mineral on top of their fodder beet when housed. Just happens that they were lacking in selenium so gave each of them a few mls of vitisel.