Cow not growing!?

[Katlyn Ann]

She hasnt been wormed because her previous home didnt worm her & they told me if I wormed her, she'd get sick from it. Is that false? if so, I have wormer & i'll give it to her, all my other animals get wormed. As for the hay, I have tried everything except a hay rack/bag, they dont like to eat over buckets and tubs so they rip it all out and eat it off the ground, they all have straw bedding so they arent eating their poop when theyre finished, the pictures are from November, eating outside while I cleaned stalls, I'll go get salt and minerals today, and as soon as someone lets me know its ok to worm her, I will.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Worm her!

If you don't feel comfortable worming her in the condition she is in - please consult a veterinarian and have him/her give you a plan of action. Your cow needs help and she needs it quickly.

 

[Sweetened]

Id worm her now and maybe again i. A week and again in another week? someone give input on this? The big thing to worry about is die off, and her not flushing. Make sure your dosage is accurate.

 

[goatsrulemymorning]

Don't take this as yelling, alrighty...
But in leiu of calling a vet to take fecal samples and determine what parasites she has,and what regimen to start her on
( and by the looks of the pics and story...my cattle experience says she's pretty much infected with something, either brown worm or tapeworms....(does she have bouts of diahrea?, bloody stools, is her hide rough and dry?)... the best course of action I can recommend would be to start her on wormer now...if it's that severe, and you either can't or won't get a fecal count or diagnosis, then forgo the feed store wormers, ivermectic/ivomec is good, but only works on some parasites, safeguard is child's play....the best multi-spectrum you can give her that works on darn near everything internal and external, especially if she's never been wormed would be (*note)(" I am not a vet, but I have raised quite a few hundred head of cattle over the years")
Is To get yourself some ( Valbazen )
You can get it from places like Jeffers, Valley Vet, KV vet supply, online....
It is a broad spectrum wormer, and it is strong....it kills browns, tapes, poles, flukes, lungers,.... normally, even I wouldn't recommend it if you had a worming regimen in place, but something this severe, hit it hard now, or dig her a hole.
Follow the instructions to a "T"....
And pay close attention to her after treatment starts, and relocate her alone, to a dry clean lot if possible, she'll probably get the squirts if she's badly infected,from the Valbazen, its a sign its doing its job, but keep up the regimen as per the instruction, you can't slaughter for at least 27 days, and breeding her is out of the question for a while, but as a "hailmary".... it is highly efficient in its job.
Just my 2 cents worth, from my experience...
I highly recommend fecal testing and vet regimens, but other than that...hit them now, or write her off soon.
Good luck to you.

 

[Katlyn Ann]

Im going to do the fecal samples, got some sweet feed & minerals today, they didnt have salt so I'll keep checking for them to get it in, vet isnt coming my way until March 1st, so she'll have to wait until then To get looked at, forgot to ask about worming her but i'll call back Monday & ask. She never has diahrea or bloody stools. It's all solid & her skin isnt dry or rough. When I got her she had some dry flaky skin, but i bathed her and it got rid of most of it.

 

[goatsrulemymorning]

And I forgot....if it works out, then start using ones like Ivermectin,Moxidectin or
Fenbendazole, so she doesn't build up a resistance to them all...if she's got mites...ivermectin does the trick as well.

 

[greybeard]

She hasnt been wormed because her previous home didnt worm her & they told me if I wormed her, she'd get sick from it. Is that false? if so, I have wormer & i'll give it to her, all my other animals get wormed. As for the hay, I have tried everything except a hay rack/bag, they dont like to eat over buckets and tubs so they rip it all out and eat it off the ground, they all have straw bedding so they arent eating their poop when theyre finished, the pictures are from November, eating outside while I cleaned stalls, I'll go get salt and minerals today, and as soon as someone lets me know its ok to worm her, I will.

You were told at least 3 different times on pg1 it was ok to worm her, because none of us that raise cattle would advise someone to de-worm an animal if it wasn't ok to do so. JHM has already given you the timeframe and period between wormings, and he has raised 1000s of head of cattle--for himself or others. I've raised 100s myself, but if I needed cattle advice, JHM would be my go-to guy for that advice here at BYH. He was blunt for a reason--that animal is approaching near death status, especially for this time of year and if corrective action isn't taken soon.......
I don't know why the previous owner told you de-worming would make it sick--makes no sense at all to me.

You stated "never been wormed and never been sick".
First part of that is true--the second is false. She's sick now, and has been for quite awhile.
When an animal is not growing, there's something wrong with it--in this case, it's "sick" from malnutrition caused by parasites. It's body condition shows it, it's hair coat and tail shows it, and it's weight:age ratio shows it. Look at her legs-way too skinny--long--just skin and bones--there's very little muscle development at all.


1. Rule of thumb for any new animal brought onto the premises or at weaning age:
Quarantine and Vaccinate and de-worm. Always.
2. Cattle pull hay out and put it on the ground for one reason--it's unpalatable, smells bad, moldy, or tastes bad--they're rummaging thru the hay looking for something they can actually eat or prefer to eat. Not finding it, they then "have" to settle for what they discarded and eat that. Cattle prefer NOT to eat off the ground in cold winter months--they don't like their nose and tongues on the cold ground and snow, but if they have no other choice, they will.
3.Build, if nothing else,an old fashioned hay rack,what we used to call a hay maugh or hay mow.
It's slats or wire to hold the hay and has a wide deep trough underneath it, to catch what falls.
It will look something like the one in this picture:

You can build it one sided in the stall, meaning it will consist of only half of the one above. I have one in an old barn and another in a newer barn in case I have to feed an ill or injured animal inside--works great, very little waste and they never pull a bunch out and discard it unless it is just stemmy and sorry hay.
4. Get her started on some grain as soon as you can--gradually. She's in poor condition, and if she hasn't had any grain at all, she will have to build microbes in her rumen to process it. Tho usually a problem in calves only, scours can happen at anytime the rumen is flooded with an unfamiliar feed--especially a higher protein feed than has been used to. Bloat is another possibility with a "hot" and new feed. "hot" as in high protein. You'll have to watch her. Keep good grass hay available for her.
5. Lice and mites. You'll see it a lot in fall thru early spring. The parasites are comfortably in dusty dry conditions--hay and straw litter. Check the area around her tailhead carefully, with a magnifying glass and you can see them and their eggs.
6. Minerals including salt--There is rarely any time that cattle should be without good mineral supplement--and I prefer loose minerals over the blocks. I personally don't believe a growing or bred bovine can lick a block enough to get adequate intake of mineral.
7. Hay--get the best you can find. I would not start feeding this animal high test alfalfa, but I would feed it a very good quality grass hay or a lower protein alfalfa hay.

 

[Katlyn Ann]

K. Shes wormed, fed hay, she also has sweet feed and tomorrow she'll be getting some minerals.

 

[greybeard]

You need to be thinking what your long term goals are for this animal assuming she gets back into good health. At her present age, she should be having her 1st calf right about now, but her body condition probably hasn't allowed her to go into estrus recently--maybe never. In mammals, especially large mammals with poor health or nutrition during formative years, parts of the body won't develop correctly or fully. Reproduction is very low on nature's priority list-basic survival moves to the top of the list. There's not much guarantee this animal will grow out of her size very much--she will most likely be a runt or what we call a dink. Her ability to breed, carry to term and successfully raise a calf may very well be compromised, and even if she does have a calf, she will have great difficulty providing for it.
Will Rogers once said----"Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment". Done my share of making mistakes.
If she were mine, I would get her back into some semblance of good condition and weight and sell her at market price and take the proceeds and replace her. Right now tho, I would be very surprised to see her bring $.70/lb here and that is way below market price--WAY below.
Keeping her, more or less as a pet-------is a different story.

 

[Katlyn Ann]

She's a pet.