Feedlot Illness

Spotting sickness in the feedlot is the most important asset that our employees can have. Knowing the early signs of sickness can help prevent multiple treatments and mortalities. Today I would like to talk about some of the problems we see in our feedlot and the symptoms we watch out for.

When walking/riding through the pens, the most obvious things to look for are diarrhea, pinkeyes, ear infections, depressed cattle, dehydration, and laboured breathing. Pinkeyes present with redness around the eye, swelling, and discolouration of the eye itself (see photo below). Ear infections present as ear drooping, discharge from the ear and head tilting out of discomfort. Other symptoms we watch for include going off feed, lethargic cattle, bloat, shivering, and snow/frost cover.

Pinkeye in this calf presented with discharge, swelling of the eyelid, and a glassy film over the eyeball.

When walking through the pens in the morning, we calmly move through the cattle to get them up and watch them stretch (as pictured to the right). This is also a great time to observe the condition of their feces for any signs of distress.

On snowy, cold days the cattle should have a full coat of snow on their back. However, if every other calf is clean and one calf is frosty, this is likely that they have a fever or are not insulating their body properly and the heat is escaping causing frost to form.

Free gas bloat is the over production of gas in the rumen which causes distension. This presents high on the left side and can cause breathing problems due to the pressure on the lungs. Bloat can result in death if not caught soon enough. The key is to release the gas as quickly as possible with a tube down the esophagus or by puncturing the rumen from the exterior to create a hole for the air to escape.

Coccidiosis is a parasitic disease of the intestinal tract. This results in diarrhea, blood and mucus in the feces, dehydration, weight loss, and in severe cases, death. The photo to the left depicts feces from a calf presenting coccidiosis symptoms. Coccidiosis is transferred from the environment when animals ingest the eggs. Catching it early and quarantining the infected animal is critical.

Diphtheria is the infection of the larynx causing heavy breathing and honking. Most often, you will hear these cattle in the pen before you see them. It is important to catch these cases quickly or the swelling can impede breathing and cause death.

This is just a few of the things we deal with in our feedlot. When we find sick cattle, we have two ways to treat these cattle. We can slowly move the cattle out of the pen and up the cowboy alleys to our hospital area. We have two separate chutes set up with hospital pens to treat animals in a safe environment and keep animals quarantined when needed. However, sometimes cattle can be too stubborn to let us pull them. Therefore, we will rope calves when needed and treat them right where they are in the pen.