CASE - recumbent cow is depressed, 7yo and calved yesterday what to do next?
CASE - recumbent cowis depressed, 2yo and calved yesterday what do you do next
With weight loss and poor performance what are 2 important things to consider
What are the 4 main manifestations of poor performance
1) Easier with exercise performance -> decreased athletic performance - horses and greyhounds
2) Poor growth
○ Expected birth weight or weight at certain ages - BENCHMARKING
○ Growth rates -> under or over production can cause issue
3) Increased mortality in flock/herd
4) Increased susceptibility to other problems - ill-thrift in weaner sheep or cattle important
○ Ectoparasites
What are the 6 main steps in investigating poor performance and what is VERY IMPORTANT
1) compare to benchmarks
2) history - hubandry, trainers opinion, change in management
3) regular longitudinal management/measurement - unsure whether losing weight measure over period of time
4) Comparison with known ‘best practice’
5) comparison with Previous measurements
6) Good clinical exam & evaluating common causes for that production system
Important - are your client’s expectations reasonable (how do they compare to industry benchmarks?)
If have useful benchmarks can use this to communicate with clients
Weight loss what are some potential causes/contributions
What is important in preventing poor performance
Define illthrift, wasting and tail of the mob
Illthrift what are the common causes, specific causes in individual and mob animals
Causes - Not eating - Not being able to eat - Not being fed - Not being fed enough/correctly - Having parasites - Having diseases Individual animals - No teeth - Woody tongue/lumpy jaw - Johne's disease - LDA - Worms - Any chronic disease In a mob - Nutrition - energy, protein, fibre - Trace elements - Parasites - Diseases
Diagnostic approach to illthrift investigating
Mob illthrift issues what are the 7 main questions need to ask about potential causes
1) do they have enough energy
2) do they have enough protein
3) is there too much fibre
4) are there trace element deficiencies
5) is there a water quality problem
6) is there a parasite problem
7) is there an underlying disease - pestivirus persistenyl infected (calves), Johne’s disease (adults)
Energy how described, 3 main places get from and average energy of most diets
○ Metabolizable Energy - Per Kilogram Of Dry Matter = digestibility of the feed
§ MJ ME/KgDM
- You can get energy from
○ Fat: 1 gram = 37kj -> we don’t give cows a lot of fat
○ Protein: 1 gram = 17 kj
○ Simple Carbohydrates: 1 gram = 16 kj -> don’t feed complicated carbohydrates as the bacteria will take this
○ Rule of thumb - most diets about 10MJ/KgDM
Energy requirements what is the general equation, maintenance for 500Kg cow, how much needed for milk and therefore how to determine requirement in KgDM for dairy and when important to do
○ Maintenance -> ME = 0.55*BW^0.75 (as animal get bigger the proportion of energy needed for maintenance is lower)
○ Maintenance for a 500kg dairy cow = 60Mj
○ Milk = 5MJ/L
○ Average diet = 10Mj/KG
○ Requirement in KgDM= half the litres + 6
IMPORTANT TO DO FOR DAIRY COWS that aren’t producing
Protein what made of, how much calves need and what occurs with diet with this and with half of this
Not enough protein leading to illthrift what common in, what result in
Why is too much fibre a bad thing and what is the intake rules of thumb
What are the 2 main ways to measure a diet for energy, protein and fibre - EXAM
1. Dietary Assessment ○ Work out what they are eating ○ Use “typical values” ○ Look up requirements ○ Calculate differences 2. The feed can be measured ○ Pasture ○ Hay ○ Silage ○ Grain/concentrates Feedtest.com.au - A measurement of feed performed by the DPI
What are the 6 main trace element deficiencies that lead to illthrift
1) copper
2) cobalt
3) selenium
4) iodine
5) zinc
6) others - Fe, Mn, Mo, I, Cr, F
Copper deficiency main function, where stores and epidemiology of deficiency
§ Acts as enzyme activators or constituents -> don’t learn the rest
○ Copper is stored in the liver -> different to other trace elements
○ Deficiency Epidemiology
□ Grasses have lower Cu than cloves
□ In both concentrations declines from winter to late spring and increases during simmer
® Therefore - seen in winter and late spring and self resolves in summer
□ Copper deficient areas -> southern australia -> Victoria
Copper deficiency what are the main cliical signs
□ Change in coat colour –Black turns red ® More mild deficiency (may not see diarrhoea at this point) □ Diarrhoea ® Villous atrophy or exocrine pancreatic insufficiency ® Can resolve within 12 hours of 10mg Cu □ Infertility ® Delayed puberty - may be related to Mo excess □ Gait abnormalities ® Prone to fractures □ “Falling Disease” ® Aortic rupture due to weak collagen □ Immunosuppression ® Phagocyte function; ⇓ chemotaxis □ Anaemia ® Link between Cu and Fe metabolism ® Rare –needs very low Cu □ Humerus fractures □ Illthrift
What are the 2 main types of copper deficiency which most common and its cause - EXAM
§ Primary Copper deficiency is uncommon
§ Secondary Copper deficiency is common
□ Deficiency in the face of enough copper - adding copper to the diet WILL NOT HELP this situation
□ Following can prevent the absorption of copper if in high numbers
® Molybdenum (Pasture fertilizer) -> copper + molybdenum = non-absorbable compound
® Sulphur (Fertilizer, acts with Mo)
® Iron (eg water, soil)
Diagnosis of copper deficiency 3 main ways and what groups of animals test
a) Liver biopsy - Early diagnosis, but difficult and carries risk
b) Caeruloplasmin (ferroxidase)
◊ 80% of serum Cu is in this form
◊ Correlated with plasma and serum Cu
◊ Acute phase protein –mucked up by inflammation, fasting, stress
◊ Plasma is better than serum (sequestrated in clot)
c) Serum/Plasma copper
◊ Can be done, but more difficult -> micronutrient - VERY LOW LEVELS
□ Test high risk animals –calves or lactating/pregnant cows
® NOT NEW BORN ANIMALS - need to have adequate copper levels to be born
Treatment/prevention for copper deficiency what can do orally
□ Oral - reduced by secondary deficiencies
® Topdress the pasture (in the fertilizer)
® Add to ration (“trace element pellets”)
® Trace Element Licks
® Add to water (also stops the algae in troughs)
® “Copper Bullets” –long term treatment
® Efficacy reduced by Fe,Mo,S
Treatment/prevention for copper deficiency what can do parenteral and when cannot do
® 2 ml injection. Ouch. Abscesses -> not all the times - hygiene important
® Translocates to liver - the 2 types takes different times -> DURING THE TIME WHEN IN THE PLASMA - likely cause failure of conception
◊ Cu-Edetate - 7d - better choice if closer to joining
◊ Cu-Glycinate - 21d
® More recently Cu-edta “Multi-Min” -> new copper type
DO NOT INJECT COPPER WITHIN 5 WEEKS OF OR DURING JOINING