Beef Cattle

Cattle disease is something that every cattle breeder fears and must work to fight against at all times. If you do not catch the disease in time, you could literally lose your whole heard. This is not a complete list of cattle diseases, but it will give you a general idea of some of the ones that you need to look out for and the symptoms that you will see.

Acetonia is a disease that is more common to the dairy industry and tends to show up more in the winter months than at any other time of the year. The main cause of the disease is when the cow does not have the proper energy intake compared to its needs. Some of the clinical signs of Acetonia are reduced milk yield, dull coat, weight loss, unusual temperature and heart rate. As with any disease, you have to realize that for every cow that you are treating, there are several more that are infected with the disease, that is why it is so important to prevent and detect as the earliest possible times.

Fatty Liver is a disease that happens because the cows body is breaking down too much fat for the liver to process. The liver cannot process it and it then becomes toxic to the animal. Clinical signs of fatty liver are reduced fertility, quick weight loss and reduced milk yield. This is a disease where treatments are found to be far more ineffective and why prevention is so important.

Gut worms are usually found during the moister summer months and early autumn. They are gut parasites and can grow in numbers very quickly. A noticeable sign of gut worms will be a large immediate weight loss that is accompanied with diarrhea (usually large and green in color). The breeder will want to employ an effective worming program as again, prevention is the key. It is imperative that the farmer understand that prevention is far less expensive that treatment.

Lice are something that are very common if the proper precautions have not been taken. Lice will tend to show up more in the winter time than summer as the animals are more likely to be inside during the colder months and the dark conditions are more of a breeding ground for lice than the sunny outdoors. This infection is most costly to the leather industry and is quickly becoming one of the hot topics in the cattle breeding industry. ?The problem with lice is they create blemished on the skin of the cow which of course will take away the value for the leather producers. It was recently estimated that the industry suffers a loss of over $20,000,000 a year due to this condition. This is a disease that is very treatable, but treatment cannot often be justified for lighter cases of infection or for cows that are not being used for their skin. The cost simply does not justify the treatment

One of the more common skin diseases know to cattle is Ringworm. Cold, wet winters are the times when ringworm will wreak havoc the worst. Clinical signs of ringworm are grey-white areas on the skin that are usually circular in nature (hence the name ringworm). The sizes of the infections will vary in size and are commonly found in the ear, leg and eye areas of cattle.

It cannot be stressed enough for the cattle owner to be properly educated on the causes and prevention of cattle disease. You will often find that prevention is much less costly than treatment, in fact we have reiterated that fact several times to you already as it is extremely important to grasp that concept.

In most cases, treatments are not very successful and you can end up losing a significant portion of your herd as treating the cow that obviously has the disease is merely the tip of the problem. There are more than likely a larger number that have been infected, but are not yet showing the signs. Once you begin treatment, the costs will quickly add up and the cost of losing animals may take quite some time to recover from.