Housed cattle coughing all of a sudden

smallbeef

Well guys,

I put in 36 store bullocks last weekend (avg weight 500KG). I dosed them with Ivermectin at housing as a few were coughing outside but not bad. A few were coughing for the first few days after dosing but was all silent the past 4-5 days.

Came to them this morning and at least half of them are coughing. I didn't find the sheds stuffy but opened the back doors of the sheds and they will stay open now until gets colder or wind picks up. We never had a problem with ventilation as the cattle feed in open yards and they tend to spend a good bit of time out there. No animal off form, all eating, chewing etc. just coughing every now and again. What is worrying me is that none were coughing yesterday. Anyone have similar and did it develop into pneumonia?

older by the day

Your ivermectin is working and they are coughing up the dead lung worm. I sometimes have calves coughing worse after dosing for a couple of weeks. The bother is now that the weather is so humid. If they have good space they should be ok. It's not ideal. Smarter people than me on here

Base price

As @older by the day said it's a combination of the Ivermectin and the warm humid weather. I would never dose cattle at housing with Ivermectin, we use a white oral dose like Albex initially and give them a few weeks to settle.

wrangler

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058271561/housed-cattle-coughing-all-of-a-sudden

Ivermectin kills worms very quick and cattle are stressed trying to cough them up, Coughing will restrict their feeding and if bad enough can trigger a virus and then pnuemonia. Take the temperature of anything looking a bit off, they can go down very quick this time of year with lung infections

smallbeef

Thanks lads. I always did ivermectin at housing but the worm burden must have been higher this year. I thought the coughing on the days after dosing were them coughing up the dead worms so I didn't know what this was. I'm a bit relieved it's ivermectin related and hopefully will pass fine. Will monitor them anyway.

Any version of white dose in under skin injection or pour on? Oral dose is hard to administer to bigger cattle in our crush so I avoid it.

Hershall

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058271561/housed-cattle-coughing-all-of-a-sudden

I put in some last weekend didnt dose them they were coughing during the week seems to have eased a bit now I'd imagine its viral. Theyre eating away

DukeCaboom

Are they done for Ibr?

kollegeknight

speaking of side effects.

i got a positive result for rumen fluke and on advise from the vets office, I used levacas diamond.

she did say they would be scuttery. But no way did I expect the current outcome. Like a bad horror movie.

all part of the process- they weren’t over dosed or anything as I had them only weighed recently.

cosatron

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119869210#Comment_119869210

You need to be putting an oral dose into your cattle at least once or twice a year. Pour ons and injections will only get you so far.

farm to fork

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119871031#Comment_119871031

I use Levafas Diamond also after a couple of weeks of the cattle being housed. Great stuff can be hard on cattle but they get some clean out. You could get sprayed from 10 foot away....

Hershall

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119870842#Comment_119870842

Yes but on the day they went in I know they should be done a couple of weeks beforehand but hard to round them up.......

somofagun

Housed 33 bullocks/heifers about 4 weeks ago, mixture of 6 to 18 month olds.

Been coughing on and off and some of the younger ones with a runny nose.

I have had to take 3-4 out so far as the ears have dropped and the just didn't look well.

I done them all with Ivomec Super on Saturday and had to take one of the older ones out last nite as it was coughing bad and had rapid breathing, give it some metacam and seemed fine this morning.

White Clover

For people that have yet to dose cattle, it might be worth dung sampling the stock first. It could help to avoid similar problems as above if stock do not actually need to be dosed.

Count Mondego

I find lungworm or hoose to be the biggest problem with weanlings this time of year. I'm assuming evidence of them won't turn up in a dung sample.

Lime Tree Farm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119874987#Comment_119874987

Their larvae is coughed up from the lungs and swallowed, then excreted live in the dung,

smallbeef

Was down with mine there for an hour and not a cough and all in fine form. Whatever it was it didn't last long. The extra ventilation might have helped but it probably was them coughing up dead worms after the dosing a week previous. Thanks lads. I probably overreacted a bit and wouldn't even notice another year but lost one to pneumonia earlier this year so am hyper-sensitive to coughing cattle...

greysides

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119874987#Comment_119874987

They won't show up in a normal FEC. It needs a different test of the faeces, the Baermann test. To show positive, adults need to be present.

blackdog1

Blood test any coughing cattle for Pi3 and Ibr . I used to have problems several years ago but now all my young stock get vaccinated for IBR live and Pi3 just before housing and then worms at housing. haven't looked back since.

leoch

I see a fluke injection for sale on donedeal called fluconix its a trodax equivalent anybody use it ??

tanko

I’ve used Flucnonix 340, i’d be happy with it.

Hard Knocks

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119876521#Comment_119876521

Do you just vaccinate for IBR & PI3 once per year?

Bass Reeves

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119877579#Comment_119877579

With the last five years I do stores for IBR ideally pre housing if not at housing. I find it a great job. I also use an ivermectin at or just before housing. No coughing this year. It also prevents runny noses. Costs about 2.5/ head AFAIR.

Dairy/suckler farmer and calf rearers are vaccintaing for everything and cattle are away slower to develop there normal immunity.

leoch

it seems fairly expensive tanko wat else do lads use to dose for fluke ??

blackdog1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119877579#Comment_119877579

Blood test before you vaccinate. Especially live vaccine. If you don't have it and are a closed herd don't vaccinate for it. I vaccinate whole herd twice a year with ibr live and all youngstock with pi3 live. All cows get pi3 dead vaccine (bovipast). I've been vaccinating everything for pi3 for last 2 years so hopefully in another year or 2 this will stop. Ibr I'll keep it up as it's cheap.

Hard Knocks

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119878183#Comment_119878183

We do IBR live & bovipast here twice a year

orm0nd

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119878183#Comment_119878183

We got an awful hammering with ibr about 12 or 15 years ago.

Blood, dung, milk, and nasal swab tests all came back negative.

Eventually showed in a pm. Using live vaccine twice yearly since.

greysides

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119876521#Comment_119876521

Regional lab won't blood test for PI3 or RSV unless under special request. The organisms are ubiquitous. As in, all submissions show positive regardless.

Nasal swabs might be more telling but I've had very little luck with them.

japprentice

Lads only one thing for it is start dosing, keep dosing. Dosing is the only way out of it.

Conversations 3

Have the cattle in 3 weeks, all from 12 - 18 months, were coughing during the humid weather but has died down since.

Done with Mastermectin when housed, should I worm dose now after the few weeks?

Have 2 with snotty noses and look off, will give them Florfenikel and monitor.

Bass Reeves

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119884494#Comment_119884494

If they were treated at housing with Mastermectin, they should have no worms now. Fluke may be an issus and you May need to treat for that but the timing depends on the product

wrangler

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119884761#Comment_119884761

Agreed, it's impossible to pick up worms in the shed, yet it's surprising those that dose mid winter......... must be a more resilient type of worm where they are

Lime Tree Farm

Ostertagia type 2 are late developers, not all doses have cover

wrangler

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119888069#Comment_119888069

Never heard of worm doses being growth stage specific like fluke doses, surely a housing dose clleans out everything, I only ever did the housing dose once

greysides

Levamisole doses don't hit the Type II, inhibited larvae, of Ostertagii. Causes "Spring Scours" when they become active, usually March time, I think. How important it is, is questionable. The other dose types have been dominating for years so I've never seen it. I suspect it's the reason why people started dosing "going out of the house". Levamisole would be effective again at that point.

funkey_monkey

What's everyone using this year on their cattle? We've got Virbamec Super - Ivermectin and Clorsulon.

I've just been wondering this evening about whether it would be better to get something like Closamectin injection that can treat immature fluke and therefore we can dose sooner after housing as the calves do kick on after dosing?

Combinex can treat all stages of fluke - maybe that and something else for mites & lice etc. like Spotinor or Flypor? Calves could be dosed at housing and any burdens would be removed sooner.