Cattle Health

Well it means she's sick. Could be anything from lungworms to some respiratory disease. If she's not responding to any antibiotic like Nuflor, Excenel or Draxxin, you should worm her.

Yes. When this happens cattle can get heat stroke or heat exhaustion, and, just like with humans, they can die from it.

Black diarrhea means that there is internal bleeding occurring inside of the animal. Anything can cause internal bleeding, from a ruptured organ to severe bruising or even an infection. Get a vet out immediately to diagnose what is wrong with the animal and to see if there is any hope in saving it.

You could, but it depends on the wormer you're using and what the directions say for lactating cows. Typically you should not be worming cows when they're lactating, but only do it during weaning time or several weeks before they calve.

Go talk to your vet. Recommended vaccines and insecticides for your livestock depend on where you live and what stock you have. For instance, you will need different insecticides for Brahman cattle than you would for Angus cattle.

Antibiotics can cause abortions if not administered correctly or given at a time when the cow doesn't need it. It won't hurt the cow, no, but it may hurt the unborn fetus inside her.

A prion.

Medicine, vaccines, etc.

The withdrawal date for most antibiotics is at least 30 days. After 30 days have passed, then the animal is good enough to be slaughtered.

It depends on the dead calf. If it's a mummified calf, there's a risk of the cow developing metritis or infection of the uterus. Infection differs from the bacterial content in the uterus to whether there are any tears in the uterine wall from the calf's hooves scraping against the wall.

Other issues from calving itself (and not necessarily from birthing a dead calf) could include mastitis (no calf to suckle from), paralysis in the hind legs from delivering a very large calf, milk fever, etc.

If you can, it's highly recommended that you graft an orphan calf to the cow so that she still remains productive in your herd and doesn't let that milk "go to waste."

Calves with some sort of infection, like Joint Ill or Navel Ill, will loose their hair. It is imperative that you give the calf necessary antibiotics to help him fight off the infection.

It'll go a lot quicker if you get in there and pull the calf out as fast as possible. Backwards calves, in most cases if you see it happening, should be pulled ASAP. Don't wait for the cow to do it, because it the calf has no space to breath if the cow decides to stop pushing and take a rest. You MUST get that calf out immediately so it can live and breath, otherwise you will end up with a stillborn calf on your hands.

The term is called dorsovertical position of the foetus. The reason may be physical rotation of the foetus during the process of delivery.

Yes, if there is very little snow cover over the dirt in the dry-lot, and if the winter has been warmer than usual. Also, in areas where snow does not accumulate all that much or not at all, blackleg can be quite prevalent.

It's hard to say, as it's primary use is to act as a disinfectant, not a external parasite-remover.

Cattle may carry the organisms that cause anthrax, European tick-borne encephalitis, rabies, tapeworm, Salmonella infections and many bacterial and viral diseases.

Usually around 2 years old. Some a little younger and some a little older. Older is better for the cow and the survival rate of the calf.

She will have a large dark-red mass sticking out of her back end immediately under her tail. This dark mass would have warty-looking nodules on it, which is what is found in the inside of a cow's uterus. These nodules are called caruncles and are what are responsible for the attachment of the placenta to the uterine wall.

Some uterine prolapses are complete in that the whole large mass is hanging out the back end. Other prolapses are incomplete where the uterus is partly out. In any case, you MUST get the vet out immediately to assess whether the cow can be saved and to push the uterus back in. If left too long out coyotes can start chewing on it, and this means that the cow is better off slaughtered than saved.

You won't need a vaccine for this. When an animal starts urinating blood, this means that the kidneys are shot. You're better off to put the animal down, because eventually she will bleed to death.

A diet that is high in salt will cause a cow to intake water a lot more than a cow on a normal low-salt diet. Just like in humans, if a cow drinks a lot of water, she will urinate a lot. Cows don't get diabetes, so it's more to do with higher liquid intake than anything.

Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.

She is bright and alert, in good body condition, producing health quantities of milk (if she's lactating), eating well, defecating and urinating normally, her hair coat is shiny, etc.

It will look like a pink or reddish large bubble out of either the anus or the vulva opening (depending on what she has prolapsed). If it's a uterine prolapse, she will have a large reddish organ hanging out from under her tail that will extend all the way to her fetlocks. If you find a uterine prolapse you should get her in the chute and get it back in as soon as possible. Vaginal prolapsed cows should be shipped after weaning a calf since it is heritable and will often repeat itself pre-calving. No need to cull cows if they've had a uterine or anal prolapse though, as chances are it may not happen again.