We need to all think more about timing for both lice and internal worms so that control products can do the best job possible.

We can also save money if treatment proves unnecessary.

Easier methods are being developed to determine parasite levels to make the treat-or-not-treat decision easier.

External parasites

With lice, kill rates are better if we wait until well into the winter.

They become active in the winter, so a warmer fall will see them emerge later. This is why we will see lice outbreaks in a very cold winter, especially if treatment was too early.

It’s also why we don’t have lice problems when the winters are milder.

There are only a few good products left for lice control, and they are getting fewer all the time. The products that are left have very specific treatment application methods and times.

In the old days, before good treatments were available, producers would cull animals that carried an obvious lice burden. Over time, producers essentially began selecting for a type of genetic resistance to lice.

Cattle oiler products are good for lice and flies, but while lice are controlled in the winter, flies are managed in the summer when populations become high enough.

Worm problems

The U.S. cattle sector has fewer problems with lice because of the warmer climate, but that means more issues with internal worms, which aren’t as much of a problem in Western Canada.

They are the worst in sheep, but bison are also bad.

With bison, I have seen worms kill some animals if they aren’t dewormed.

We see pockets of high incidence, and to complicate matters, some species of worms are more harmful than others.

Also, some species don’t lay as many eggs, so finding even a few species of certain types is significant.

Work done by Merck Animal Health in North America and Dr. John Gilleard found that an egg count of 10 per gram could have a significant impact on weight gain.

As well, the higher the worm count, the harder the animal’s immune system must work at getting rid of them, making them more susceptible to other infections. We call this co-morbidity, which can increase the incidence of conditions such as pneumonia and coccidiosis.

Fecal counts are a good way to determine worm loads in a herd, which are made easier by pooling samples done at the lab.

If done properly, a few pooled results can provide a good idea of what the worm population is in a herd.

These are best done in the fall when worm results will be highest.

It also gives producers a really good idea of how contaminated or not contaminated their pastures are.

Even if these fecal results are done every few years, it still lets producers know what they’re up against.

Maybe cattle can miss deworming for a year or maybe the count is high.

There are management strategies that can help eliminate worm burdens or keep them low.

Pasturing on higher grass (greater than six inches) ensures that cattle will rarely come in contact with the larval stages of worms.

Our cold Canadian winters kill a high percentage of the overwintering larvae, and desiccation in the summer also kills many.

With bison, increasing the time between rotational grazing is helpful.

Also, producers could take a crop of hay and leave a year in between grazing, which is even more beneficial for removing worms.

Besides the pour-on products, there are others that can be put in the drinking water, fed or put in the minerals in the summer.

There is also a product that has a double release. The only problem here is that the first release may be wasted if cattle were treated the previous winter.

Managing resistance pressure

Spending some money doing fecal counts and parasite checks may allow producers to skip deworming. This then lessens the likelihood of resistance.

Remember the 80-20 rule: 80 per cent of the parasites are in 20 per cent of the animals, increasing the importance of determining the right 20 per cent to treat.

Also if checking for parasites, it’s best to check older calves in the fall or yearlings. Cows will likely almost always have much lower counts than the older calves or yearlings.

Some clinics will do parasite checks in-house.

It’s best to avoid unnecessary deworming and lice.

We need to use the products we have properly because I don’t see any new ones coming down the line.

There are sporadic reports of liver flukes and lungworms, and if they are diagnosed in your area, it would be a good idea to talk to a veterinarian about how and when to treat.

Changes in how parasites are managed may see less product used overall.

As well, ensuring products are used at the right times and when needed should lead to better control.

The post Changing minds on cattle parasite control appeared first on Farmtario.

The good news is we can test for these parasites, and if thresholds are passed, then those herds or pens are treated.

Work done a few years ago by a pharmaceutical company with which I was involved found that we could put most beef herds into low, medium and high categories for internal worms, and only the medium and high herds would need to be dewormed.

The best time to check is after cattle have been on grassy pasture later in the summer when burdens increase.

Cattle are generally pretty low shedders of eggs because of low infestation, but later summer is the best time to check.

Yearlings generally have higher counts, followed by calves. The cows are most resistant.

Fresh manure is needed when doing a manure test.

The modified Wisconsin test is the most accurate test for cattle.

It’s possible to pool samples instead of doing a group of 10. This should save time and money and be just as accurate if done properly.

This should save the clinic time.

We all need to test more before treating the entire herd.

It has been found that ivermectin resistance is increasing, which reduces effectiveness.

Resistance varies greatly from herd to herd.

Check to see if your herd veterinarian does parasite testing at their clinic or sends them out.

The problem here is the number of tests that are needed as well as the cost and time.

Some producers complain about spending money on tests, only to have the deworm the herd anyway. Their response is that they might as well have just dewormed them in the first place.

This response is understandable, and quicker chute side tests need to be developed to reduce this problem.

I am sure some researcher will develop a quick, lower-cost method.

Another class of parasite treatment is the benzimidazoles, including products such as Safeguard and Valbazen.

The problem is that only internal worms are treated, and the products don’t include treatment for lice.

Until the last decade or so, ivermectin products accomplished both parasite and lice control.

Ivermectin products came on the market when my generation of veterinarians (baby boomers) were practising, and everything was treated.

Lice were most visible, which internal worms rarely got bad enough in Canada to cause outward clinical disease.

However, this is changing.

Now, veterinarians must help producers fine-tune their entire parasite treatment program as well as the fly control treatment program.

Internal parasites such as liver flukes and external ones such as ticks may also be showing up in slightly increasing frequency.

These parasite problems are in more specific geographic regions, and they can have complicated life cycles so may even show up in specific years under specific conditions.

Again, your herd veterinarian can help with specific treatments and monitoring if either liver flukes or ticks become prevalent in your area.

For fly control, especially, there are fewer and fewer products to use, and they are all similar chemically with no new ones on the horizon. Many have actually been taken away from us.

Treatments must be used only when fly numbers get high enough. If oilers are used, they can only be charged with product when necessary. This saves product and cost and slows down the development of resistance.

Canadian winter slows down the transmission of internal parasites, killing the eggs and reducing the survivability of larvae.

Rotational grazing with a long time between regarding allows more larvae to desiccate and die.

Producers should be able to keep parasites in check with selective and timely use of products, specific management changes and checking for eggs in the manure.

It might also be a good idea to cull cows that are determined to be lice carriers.

Parasites evolve and have been survivors, so constant research going is needed in this field so that we are aware of new developments and products.

Most research is species specific, but transmission can occur between similar species such as bison and cattle, horses and donkeys.

Ticks, on the other hand, can involve several different species in their life cycle, as do liver flukes.

It’s a complicated world when it comes to parasite management, and herd management needs to be reviewed from time to time.

The post The end of a parasite control era appeared first on Farmtario.

In Canada, the Beef Cattle Research Council has been the real centre for compiling information, putting out brochures and posters illustrating the clinical signs and organizing webinars and videos for veterinarians and producers. These should be of interest to the general public as well.

We all know that FMD is an extremely contagious viral disease affecting all cloven hoof animals, which includes wildlife species such as elk or deer as well as all farm production animals.

Horses can get a disease called vesicular stomatitis that resembles FMD.

Where are the foot and mouth disease outbreaks?

Producers and the general public need to be aware of several things.

One is where outbreaks are happening in the world.

The other is that the most likely transmission route is travellers bringing the disease back into Canada from abroad, either on themselves or contaminated meat.

Even tighter border security and the use of more sniffer dogs for meat are a great preventive step.

These days, this step would also help prevent the introduction of African swine fever into the country.

The list of countries with FMD outbreaks is ever changing, but hopefully the media can keep us up to date.

Generally speaking, most of Africa and much of Asia and the Middle East are endemic for the disease. Countries such as Turkey and now Germany have had outbreaks in recent years.

The World Organization for Animal Health has a great site showing where FMD exists.

It is pretty scary to think that the disease is only an air flight away under the right circumstances.

Prevention is always the best remedy, which it is important to ask questions at the border such as whether travelers were on a farm while abroad and if they plan to travel to a farm after they arrive back in Canada.

Tourists visiting mountain parks is an example of where wildlife could become infected.

I believe stricter protocols with disinfection might be necessary, depending on where travellers are coming from. For example, a farm worker coming from Africa or Germany might require quarantine or at least strict scrutiny.

Producers should be very aware of where visitors to their farms are coming from and the FMD and ASF status of their home countries.

When a country reports an outbreak, it results in an immediate cessation of meat exports from that country.

Biosecurity key against foot and mouth disease

Diligence about biosecurity not only helps prevent FMD and ASF but all transmissible diseases that affect animals and humans.

We all saw how biosecurity could be increased during the COVID-19 pandemic, but that is now a somewhat distant memory and we have all gone back to old habits.

FMD has been called the Greatest Economic Threat and the most important transboundary animal disease in the world.

I have heard that it can spread over land up to 60 kilometres and over oceans up to 300 km. Those are scary numbers, and even though they are extreme, we need to remain vigilant.

The sign-in register for visitors to ours farm is where we as individuals fall short.

This is especially true on purebred operations, which could employ foreign workers or host visitors from abroad.

Self-isolation in some cases may be the most appropriate thing to do.

Identifying foot and mouth disease

It’s also important to know how to identify the disease if it shows up on your farm.

Signs include several animals that are drooling or lame with initial blister-type lesions that soon rupture and be an open wound before clearing up in a few days.

This is where a diligent producer can recognize something abnormal and call in a veterinarian, who can then notify the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. This will start the investigative process.

If FMD is ever found in Canada, hopefully we’ll get lucky like they were in Germany, where the farm was relatively isolated and the disease pretty much contained.

FMD symptoms do resemble vesicular stomatitis and bluetongue, which is what they were ruling out in Germany. It also resemble more common diseases with oral erosions, such as BVD and IBR.

Foot and mouth versus hand, foot and mouth

An important thing to remember is that FMD in animals is not the same as hand, foot and mouth disease that children can commonly get from other kids.

This is a huge title misnomer that the average urbanite needs to understand.

Heavier fines and/or people being turned back at the border when unlawful products are brought in are likely necessary to stress the seriousness of the situation.

They always say it is not if we get FMD, but when. I would highly hope we can prevent entry, and if it does enter, that diligent producers and veterinarians recognize it right away.

This is for the sake of the entire cattle industry but also hogs, sheep, goats and our cloven hoofed wildlife.

We all need to work together on this one.

Roy Lewis practised largeanimal veterinary medicine for more than 30 years and now works part time as a technical services veterinarian for Merck Animal Health.

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This makes it necessary for producers to be in close contact with their veterinarians to ensure they’ve got what they need when they need it. The issues that can affect supply are  varied and include:

• manufacturing and batch failures
• distribution interruptions
• unavailable ingredients
• lapses in refrigeration during transport, and
• issues with active ingredients

For example, one ingredient may be produced at only one facility. What happens if that plant burns to the ground? Or perhaps the active ingredient is also used in human health products, and a shortage there trumps anyone else’s need.

While that might be inconvenient for livestock producers, few would argue against those priorities. Fortunately, only a few products cross over.

Over the past five years, I would say most of the top 40 products used in cattle production have experienced shortages, and this will become more common. As pharmaceutical companies try to expand product lines and uses for their products, production facilities can quickly reach maximum capacity. Then back orders and shortages occur, especially if there are production hiccups.

What if you need a product but it’s not available? The best thing is to have a good relationship with your veterinarian or supply company. Try to have stock for the next few months for flexibility and perhaps even stock for one season ahead. If the products require refrigeration, ensure they are stored appropriately and that the expiry dates are far enough out.

If a particular product has become outdated, ask your veterinarian about potential reduction in efficacy. Effectiveness will reduce gradually but not suddenly drop to zero. Having just-expired product is better than no product at all, in my opinion. Expired product would have to already be in your hands, because companies by law cannot sell expired products.

Remember that if vaccine supplies are limited, the swine industry does a lot of split-dosing to spread a limited amount of vaccines further. In one recent disease outbreak, piglets were given half doses, which saved a lot of young animals. This may not work in all vaccine shortages but is worth considering.

Alternative similar or generic products or similar vaccines should always be considered, but these days there’s a domino effect, as in the last few years when scours vaccines created shortages all the way around.

We can’t predict what will be short in the future, but veterinarians must have an inventory of certain medications they can’t be without.

Lidocaine was in short supply until a local pharmaceutical company manufactured it and bailed out the industry. Even human health was short of lidocaine. In an emergency, the human equivalent could probably be used or the pharmacy industry may be able to bring in what is needed by use of an emergency drug release. Approach your veterinarian and ask for alternative solutions if a shortage occurs.

You may be able to reduce the frequency of some vaccines for a time, such as those for pinkeye, foot rot, lepto or vibrio. There are always improvements in colostrum management, or non-specific immune stimulant products that may replace the myriad of vaccines we now give. They give a broader non-specific protection against many different bacterial or viral antigens.

Stressors such as parasites, flies, lice, poor nutrition, environmental temperatures or even calving can affect livestock illness. It may be possible to reduce or eliminate some vaccines or antimicrobials by reducing stressors.

We need to help each other manage through shortages. I hope that back orders or batch failures are greatly reduced over time and we won’t go through the unpredictability that seems to be the norm these days.

Roy Lewis practised large-animal veterinary medicine for more than 30 years and now works part time as a technical services veterinarian for Merck Animal Health.

– Roy Lewis practiced large-animal veterinary medicine for more than 30 years and now works part time as a technical services veterinarian with Merck Animal Health.

The post Managing veterinary medicine shortages appeared first on Farmtario.

Bulls can be hard to handle, but there are good facilities for examining and treating them.

Bulls should be vaccinated for most things you give to cows, with the exception of scours vaccines. Deworming and lice control should always be considered, since bulls get the highest load of flies in summer.

When handling bulls, get the best bang for your effort. Do as many procedures at once as you can, that your veterinarian recommends. Have the bulls semen tested to remove infertile ones and identify marginal ones.

Most producers in Canada manage bull health very well, in my opinion. Some go the extra mile and vaccinate against foot rot and attend to foot care such as trimming when necessary. There are also preventive things we can do against injuries caused by breeding, other bulls or during processing or transport. Lameness and injuries likely take out more bulls every year than lack of fertility.

Nothing frustrates me more than unnecessary injuries to bulls. It happens a lot when they are introduced or reintroduced to one another, and when transported together in trailers.

Bull pens must be big enough for animals to get away from one another. Every time we move them, fighting can start. If we are diligent about reintroductions or mixing, we can keep injuries to a minimum.

I may write an article about keeping bulls occupied and busy to decrease fighting. In the zoo world, it is called enrichment, and I’ve seen it used to some degree in purebred breeder bull pens.

We need to take advantage when disrupting the whole pen, which is a good time to do new introductions so the animals can blend into the group. There should be lots of space and distractions like big rocks, brushes or oilers. Ideally, bulls would be put in a field in the off season where they get lots of exercise.

Some producers have tried spraying vinegar on bulls’ backs (usually a couple ounces) with a spray bottle or applicator gun, to make them all smell the same. This can also work when putting bulls from different pens in the same compartment of a trailer.

If transporting any bull, and especially herd bulls, those not used to each other should be hauled in a different compartment. Serious injuries can occur when one bull can’t get away and is hammered into an immovable object like the inside of a trailer. Always try to separate bulls when transporting and use multi-compartment trailers.

Bulls introduced to breeding groups for the first time will spend a few days sparring rather than breeding cows. I prefer to run different ages of bulls together so the propensity to fight is averted because of the big size difference.

The same tendencies are seen in bison breeding bulls. Until they become dominant, they will breed very few cows except on the periphery. Smaller breeding groups with fewer bulls usually results in less fighting.

The worst breeding wrecks occur in single sire mating or when the dominant bull is infertile. This is where semen evaluation is critical. Observation is also needed to identify inability to breed, lack of libido or penile injuries.

Sparring and fighting injuries can quickly take a bull out of commission with damage to feet, broken legs and ribs. Some bulls that become poor performers have scarring, peritonitis or foot and leg injuries involving bones, tendons and joints.

Sound bulls are needed to get the job done in the finite breeding season. If you find an injured bull, act quickly. Pulling it is best, to let it convalesce and receive treatment, sometimes involving little more than NSAID drugs on prescription from your veterinarian.

Sound feet and legs are a necessity when starting the breeding season. Any necessary foot care should be done well in advance. Some conditions are treatable but sometimes a replacement bull necessary. Your veterinarian can give a prognosis and advise on whether to treat, ship or butcher.

Semen can be collected from really valuable bulls to preserve their genetics. If the bulls are insured, those avenues can be explored with the insurance company.

I recommend that producers buy bulls from reputable purebred breeders (virgin bulls) to eliminate risk of venereal diseases and ensure they have a satisfactory semen evaluation.

Let’s do all we can to avoid bull injury from fighting and increase the breeding future of herd sires.

Roy Lewis practised large-animal veterinary medicine for more than 30 years and now works part time as a technical services veterinarian for Merck Animal Health.

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One of these is malpresentations of the fetus. Some cows can deliver a calf with a foot back, but these are rare and most cows require birthing assistance.

Producers must maintain sharp observational skills to know when a cow is not acting properly or has been straining at labour for an hour with no progress.

Why it matters: It’s important for producers to know when and how to assist during a difficult calving.

As well, there are instances in which only one of the calf’s legs is protruding from the birth canal and cases in which only the calf’s head is presented. These are obvious signs the cow is in trouble and quick intervention is necessary.

With a forward presentation, three things must be present. If two feet with the head just behind are not presenting, one must search. These cases will require manipulation inside the birth canal so use two obstetrical sleeves held up with elastics or held on with a calving suit. The choice is yours but the bottom line is being able to clean the cow appropriately and keep yourself, especially your arms, very clean.

If you are doing this alone, using a maternity pen is best. Have the tail tied to one side.

I like to use booster cable clamps, which will give way if the cow goes down. To make it easier on yourself, try to have the cow standing for all manipulations.

When looking for a head or leg back, feel around and find the missing part. If the head is back, note which side it is turned or if it is underneath. Also note which leg is back and how far.

I have had many farmers phone me with what they thought was a backward calf only to find the head was pushed so far around that the calf appeared to be coming backward.

An easy way to determine if you are feeling a back leg or front leg back is to remember that with front legs the first two joints should bend the same way. Mistakes are made when a producer feels the elbow joint, which is the third joint on the front leg, and jumps to the conclusion that it is the hock on the back leg. This is a common mistake.

To bring a retracted leg forward, you must manoeuvre the other leg and head back into the birth canal.

This will take lots of lube and you will have to fight against the cow’s contractions. An epidural may help but most are done without.

If you have caught the cow early, it may be a matter of going in and pulling the retracted foot up. Make sure to cup around the hoof so as not to poke a hole in the cow’s uterus. Once you get all three things lined up, proceed with normal calving.

Sometimes the head and one leg are both through the vulval lips. This means the missing leg is considerably repelled and if the calf is still alive, the whole mass must be pushed into the vagina to get room. Severe ones may need a C-section if the calf is still alive or a fetotomy by your veterinarian if the calf has died.

However, most can be pushed in and turned into a normal delivery. Keep in mind, especially with heifers, that the calf may have been coming normally but because of a lack of room, the head or one foot was deflected to make room. If one gets everything lined up again, there may still be lack of room and a C-section may be necessary.

In calves that have died in utero, it is common for a limb to be down, possibly from lack of rigidity. This must be corrected to allow the calf to come out and the cow may then go on to adopt a twin or orphan.

In a calf with its head back, you must figure out which side the head is deflected and which direction it will be pulled around. The quicker it is found, the easier this should be. You can use the legs as a handle to repel the calf and make room in the uterus.

Techniques include cupping the hands under the head and swinging it around or grabbing the calf’s nostrils and using a head snare. An extra-long chain properly placed through the mouth and behind the ears will mimic a head snare.

All techniques will depend on the force necessary to get the head to pull around. Once corrected, I always check to see if the calf is alive by putting my hand in its mouth to see if I get a bite or gag reflex.

The possibility of malpresentations increases with twins, so always check for a second calf.

If you see no significant progress after 20 minutes, call for help from a more experienced person or your veterinarian.

With every calving, the goal is to get a live calf but the other goal should be to look after the cow. Be clean to avoid contamination and facilitate breeding for next year. Use appropriate painkillers where described by your veterinarian.

Any cows that are assisted warrant the use of NSAID painkillers unless it is very easy.

Remember, when malpresentations happen, your help can make a real difference in the outcome. Have the necessary supplies, such as chains, handles, head snares, gloves, surgical soap and lubricant, ready if you need them.

– Roy Lewis practised large-animal veterinary medicine for more than 30 years and now works part time as a technical services veterinarian for Merck Animal Health. This article was originally published at The Western Producer.

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These diseases are covered in the multivalent clostridial vaccines. Also, certain ones are covered in the scours vaccines so calves get protection in the colostrum and then are vaccinated for them later as young calves.

Why it matters: Following a vaccination protocol can not only help protect against specific diseases but can also offer cross-protection for others.

The exception is clostridium perfringens A, also known as jejunal hemorrhagic syndrome, which is primarily a disease seen in dairy cows in Canada.

This group of diseases is another reason to keep clostridial and scour vaccines current and boosted at least yearly in your herd.

For those who give these two vaccines to the herd by vaccinating the cows for scours, they are essentially boosting for these specific diseases twice a year, although sometimes clostridial and scour vaccines are given at the same time depending on the herd.

Scours vaccines are given close to calving and clostridial vaccines for cows are given close to grazing when they may come in contact with the clostridial spores.

The perfringens are spore-producing bacteria that produce toxins that can kill cattle. Death can be rapid but there are generally signs.

The common ones are hemorrhagic diarrhea that sometimes also leads to toxemia, resulting in a very sick-looking animal and weakness from anemia resulting from the blood loss.

Other diarrhea diseases such as coccidia or salmonella are on our differential list. Determining which is present may require manure testing because all these diseases have a different treatment regime.

If it is pefringens, then determining which type and whether that type is being vaccinated for goes a long way to eliminating this disease for our cattle production cycle.

Vaccines are efficacious and have been for years. If your veterinarian is suspicious when doing an autopsy and you have hemorrhagic and blood-filled intestines, it may be wise to have the perfringens bacteria typed because there are A to E types, with B and C being the most common. They produce toxins when they grow and a toxemia kills the animal. They produce a toxin or a combination of toxins, which is why some cross protect for each other.

A lot of the multivalent (seven- , eight-, or nine-way) vaccines have C and D in them. One of the scours vaccines has perfringens C and D in it and it cross protects for B. The other two scours vaccines on the market have just C in them.

Clostridial diseases are complicated but my advice in practice was to try and get as broad a coverage as you can. Different from the other clostridial diseases, perfringens gives latitude to be able to treat successfully. Those groups of organisms are often sensitive to penicillin so the treatment may be substantially different than other diseases you treat for.

I talked to a swine practitioner and they were getting clostridium deaths in sows and although clostridial is not a major issue in pigs, in this case it was. The vet used a clostridial cattle vaccine on the swine to alleviate the problem. As veterinarians, we need to make these moves by using science and our best judgment to reduce sickness and death.

On another disease course, I read where a zoo has given COVID-19 vaccinations to their primates and big cats primarily because of the susceptibility of those species. There are specific clostridial vaccinations for sheep that have clostridium perfringens in them and they are often used by veterinarians for goats as well.

Virtually nothing is on the label in Canada for species like goats or bison but the clostridial diseases are the most common vaccine administered to both species.

In feedlots where grain is fed, slowing down gut motility, we can get proliferation of these organisms but again their good vaccination status prevents this disease in most cases. The clostridial vaccines have very high effectiveness.

With clostridial perfringens diseases most of you are vaccinating for them without even knowing it because the clostridial vaccines provide that protection.

However, unlike blackleg, tetanus, or redwater disease that cause sure death in the animals, with clostridium perfringens there may be time to successfully treat the animals, especially in young calves.

Perfringens A can cause hemorrhagic bowel syndrome. Ideally, it would be great to get a product called Covexin 10 licensed in Canada because it also contains clostridial perfringens A. It was developed in New Zealand and is also licensed there for sheep at half the dose.

At times, products available in other parts of the world don’t get to Canada mainly because of cost, the difficulty to get licensed and the size of our market. Veterinarians can still get products into Canada as an emergency drug release for things like clostridial perfringens A with a vaccine named Essential 1.

While more progress in how we can treat these diseases would be helpful, if we vaccinate properly clostridial perfringens should be rarely diagnosed.

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Even though both these clinical signs seem different, as well as the age difference between the patients, both had somewhat similar things on post-mortem. It is what we call ‘software disease’ — the opposite of ‘hardware disease’ — metal in the stomach. Plastic materials and other miscellaneous things can lead to digestive upsets, among other problems.

Why it matters: It’s important to keep ‘software’ such as twine, rope and plastics away from cows and calves because if ingested it can cause serious health problems and death. 

I hope I can shed some light on preventing these incidents. We must realize that every case we discover is the tip of the iceberg. There could be many other less-clinical signs and production losses. In these hard-to-diagnose situations, vets should be thinking of a potential software problem.

Calves are especially inquisitive so plastic junk such as twine, plastic, rope halters, grocery bags and silage plastic can easily be consumed. Similarly to cows eating placenta, cattle will chew away at all kinds of materials.

My daughter’s post-mortem revealed a huge twine ball that was lodged and blocking the exit to the rumen. This must have been building up for some time. The producer did not cut and remove the bale twines so one would assume that all the cattle in this herd could have twine balls to some degree. 

In these cases, cattle are initially ‘inappetant’ — not eating and off their feed. When a blockage occurs they go downhill very quickly and dehydrate so prognosis can be very poor, and these conditions seem to be accentuated when cows are heavy in calf. The calf takes up more room in the abdomen, making blockages more likely. These cases are also very hard to diagnose clinically as signs mimic many other diseases. Ultrasounds, bloodwork, palpation or other physical exams often fail to find anything substantial.

Hard to believe what you find

I know of one case where a very valuable dairy cow was off feed and a skilled veterinarian was able to palpate what he believed was a foreign object in the abdomen. On exploratory surgery, an entire intact rope halter was removed from the rumen. The cow recovered. Who would have thought a cow would eat an entire rope halter, but it did. These one-off things will happen, but trying to prevent access to these things is paramount in our management strategies..

We know it takes a multiple approach to reduce the risk of hardware disease. Producers minimize access to metal objects by keeping yards, pens and pastures as clean as possible. Sometimes they install heavy-duty magnets on feed wagons to catch metal objects. Magnetizing animals with a permanent rumen magnet also works wonders at prevention. Not all metals have ferric compounds so are not all are attracted to magnets but most are.

We also know to avoid lead poisoning by being ever-diligent about old vehicle batteries being left along fence lines, in junkyards or around old deserted vehicles. Licking or consuming battery parts can be fatal to many animals so don’t hesitate to warn your neighbour, or to pick up errant batteries and have them recycled. If changing batteries, never, ever get them close to the cattle-feeding equipment. In other words, treat batteries as a potentially massive poison for cattle and handle accordingly.

But also be on the watch for this new hazard — software disease — as plastics do not break down in the rumen or other stomachs. Over time they can gradually accumulate.

I believe some cattle are more prone to eat these things that can result in a poor-doing, poor-performing beef animal, and even lead to death. It would be interesting to find out at slaughter how many twine hair balls are found.

Bale shredders accumulate twine on their paddles, so burn them off regularly. No matter how good you are at picking up twines and silage plastic, some gets missed, so always check your feed bunks and remove any hardware and software. This prevention will pay dividends in healthier cattle down the line.

I know certain manure haulers will not work for people that leave twines on bales that end up in manure piles. Imagine how this material might affect the health of their cattle, not even thinking about the issues with twines wrapped around axles, and damaging shafts and bearings of equipment.

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