‘Unfortunately, every farmer knows when an animal is dead'

I opened the door of the calf shed. There are eight pens. First, I met the blacks, the Aberdeen Angus cross calves. They were lying cosily against bales in a deep bed of straw. All quiet,

it was obvious that no calf had missed

a feed.

As I neared the middle of the shed where the youngest calves are, they spotted me and started to low for their morning milk.

My eyes were on the heifers at the far end of the shed. They are the furthest away from the door and sources of infection. They were starting to stir as the automatic feeder cycle was ending and a new one beginning. Their biological clocks had them queuing for the changeover.

First loss

Then, I spotted a calf just inside the gate of the last pen, lying on her side stretched out flat. Instinctively, I knew – unfortunately, every farmer knows when an animal is dead. A beautiful black and white heifer was lifeless.

She’s the first loss this year in the calf shed. My heart sank as I tried to determine the cause of her death. There was nothing apparent – no scour, no bloating, no struggle, just dead. I went to the computer on the automatic feeder. All her traffic lights were green, indicating that she was up-to-date with her feeds.

Signs of bloat

A few days later, I spotted a heifer lying down, kicking and jumping up again. It was a tell-tale sign of bloat. On examination, her abdomen was distended on both sides. I gave her 150ml of oil. Usually, it eases the situation quite quickly as the oil neutralises the bubbling gas. Colm came to my aid and we put an easi-feed stomach tube down her neck to release the gas. It had little effect so we had to call the vet.

Tommy from Blarney Veterinary Practice came to our aid. We had a discussion about the animal and he gave her medicine to relax her gut. He also released the gas using a needle and commented that the gas had a milky smell, indicating that milk may have spilled into the rumen. This can happen if the milk intake is too high.

Another case

He also put her on an antibiotic and advised more oil for the next day to keep her gut moving. The following evening, I had another case. She was a good deal worse so I acted myself and released the gas as I felt that time was against us.

I’ve been reading everything about bloat again, wondering what exactly is the cause of these two cases and worried that we will have more.

One expert told me last year that bloat is almost always a nutritional problem. The heifers are on the automatic feeder so their feeds are measured and timed periodically throughout the day. I’ve cut the feed back slightly for the smaller ones. The bigger animals are on 6l/day divided into three feeds and the smaller heifers are now on 5l/day.

Poor hygiene is another contributor to bloat. We change the teats every day and keep them washed and sterilised in a Milton solution. Other issues cited are poor bedding, feed contamination or not enough clean water. We don’t have an issue with any of these. Having said that, we do have a problem. It will take a bit of detective work to figure it out.

A new suggestion

One suggestion that has been made is to administer the black leg vaccine once heifers are over 10 days old as both black leg and bloat are caused by clostridium bacteria, even though they are different strains. We are going to try this and see if it works.

I’ll report back.