At a loss for explanation

[picketwire]

Been busy here back and forth and have had an issue come up that Dad. myself and the vet are all at a loss to explain. Two days ago one of the replacement heifers at first light showed to be in extremely poor shape. Pneumonia was ruled out as was most respiratory ailments. No big ration changes (getting ready for synch) to create digestive upsets. Could not rule out injury but cannot figure out how it may have occurred. Knots behind the ears and on the neck and blindness, and very lethargic. Neighbors had an isolated (one in the herd) incidence the last two years where each year had one angus heifer showing polio symptoms and one vit B shot cleared things up. So far no response to anything here and it has a lot of experience very confused. Any suggestions or experience with anything similar would be greatly appreciated. THANKS

[bookcliff]

is she pissin and crappin herself to death as well as the blindness and bumps?

[picketwire]

Nope, only slightly dehydrated, no off white or yellow mucus from the nose, just some clear snot on occasion but with the dust here that could be anything or nothing, lungs sound good as well. . .

[guffeygal]

Blindness always makes us worry about lead poisoning. Any chance of that from old batteries or the like?

[picketwire]

No new or old batteries anywhere near where they were or are now. This deal is an absolute frustrating oddity like we have never seen before. One hates to be defeatist, but I really wonder if it doesn't fall into the category of you won't see anything odd if you don't own em in the first place.

[talin]

I would suspect a fungal infection with nodes it's possible to have blindness in severer infections they are notorious for sinus involvement then secondary fungal meningitis at least in humans outcome is poor. If the vet can dissect a node maybe it can be stained for bacteria or fungal shouldn't be too expensive those are 50 yo stains although with blindness I personally would try a few things seperate her and she will go down one road or the other

Speak to your vet doubt if there is much you can do maybe try the IV iodine similar to Actinomycosis? Or a good dose of PCN I bought a Beefmaster lump jaw cow at the sale barn and tried PCN since it works well in oral infections and she is on her second calf

Good luck

[picketwire]

Waiting on feed and water analysis to rule out or confirm a sulfur toxicity, but doubt there is one. Seems a bit better today compared to yesterday but still not doing well. Knots and bumps were gone after around 36 hours. Rabies is a possibility but can't be confirmed unless/until she dies and she is holding her head better today. Temps still normal, still blind altho maybe a slight reaction in the right eye. With a fungal infection severe enough to cause blindness would there be an indication of sinus involvement or infection? Right now still no signs of any infection. Thanks to all for all the suggestions, will keep posted.

[talin]

Interesting rabies has typically photophobia not wanting to be in light but definitely a thought. I fortunately have never seen a case but there was a family that lost their show string to rabies and recommended vaccination

My thought with fungal is you have probably given antibiotics but it would be nearly impossible to give a cow am antifungal due to the cost new ones are 50K per dose and the old ones have a lot of resistance

The fungal and rabies can cause a meningitis or iriitation of the covering of brain and optic tract some of the fungal infections get into sinuses and cause a mass effect when they erode the bone good surprise when you have been prepped for a fatal brain tumor

Good luck improving is a good sign

[Deleted]

Hope it is not rabies but if it is you'll know soon enough because she'll be dead within a week and her condition will deteriorate very fast. We lost a cow in the summer pasture to rabies a few years back, she found a deep part in the creek to just stand in and didn't move from there or eat at all. Only thing we could assume was she got bit by a wild animal but wasn't going to risk anything looking for evidence.

[talin]

This thread crossed my mind today at cow calf boot camp (excellent to those who are in Ok). Anyway there was a comment that many of the byproducts are having increasing sulphur content that can cause toxicity including blindness described as star gazing

[picketwire]

Past experiences with the corn distillers byproducts we used to get around here caused us to drop them several years ago for just exactly that reason. Water and feed analysis did rule out a possible sulfur toxicity. Lungs, liver, kidneys were normal upon post mortem exam with absolutely no signs of infection. Will take awhile to get results from diagnostic lab on brain analysis to rule out or diagnose rabies, but so far still the damndest mystery we have experienced. Her short improvement didn't last long and it was rapidly becoming evident it was time to end suffering and try to figure out what was going on, fingers crossed here that we will eventually get some answers. Thanks to all for the suggestions. Will post some results if and when we get some.

[Deleted]

I thought of this article..

beefmagazine.com/health/1101-longbrake-water-remedy

What poison plants could she have been exposed to?

I lost a horse 20 years ago that had been chewing on a packaging "gel pack" that someone had dumped on the range.

[hoekland]

Give her a good dose of activated charcoal, it can't hurt and might even do some good and besides, it costs almost nothing.

[picketwire]

Well a little good news on the post mortem brain exam, it is not rabies. Damn little good news however. Only thing that showed up was a thiamine deficiency. And we are double checking with feed supplier that there was no dried distillers used in manufacturing the wheat midd pellets that were part of the ration these hfrs were on (free choice hay and about 4lbs/hd/day of a custom mix of ground corn and wheat midd pellets). Also inquiring as to why the mineral/vitamin tub they had free choice access to didn't take care of the thiamine deficiency, label says it is there but actual analysis is still pending (a separate anaylsis at our cost). So we are back to double checking all feed analysis as well as soil analysis where these heifers were. They were in a small irrigated trap that has only started growth here after we pulled them and no alternative sources (lead, sulfur, etc.) have been found so we are still at somewhat of a mystery now to the source rather than what the issue was.

[Trailmaster]

I sure hope you find the answer as to what it was.