Brisket disease?

[Benlee]

Hello, I have a 5 year old hereford bull that may have brisket disease, just based on what I've been able to research so far...but I have no prior experience with swelling in the brisket area. He seems to have swelling under his chin as well. Just about everything I read on this says that it is due to high elevation, but we are in North Texas and not high elevation at all (only about 500 ft elevation). I'm posting multiple photos and a video from various angles so you can see it well. Thanks so much for your input!!
-Ben

 

[Faster horses]

I am no expert but I dont think that is Brisket disease.
I wonder about snake bite.
Has a vet looked at him?

 

[Benlee]

A vet has not looked at him yet, but possibly tomorrow.

 

[DaneG]

Possibly hardware

 

[Silver]

I have never seen anything like that. Is he lethargic? I know you’re too low for brisket disease, but it maybe it’s possible he has a bad heart?

 

[Older Whiskey]

It looks like edema to me effecting the brisket, legs, shoulders, neck, and face.

Back in the day, I hauled well over 100 head from Texas pasture at 2000 feet to Colorado pasture at 8000 feet. We never had a problem. I think it is a hereditary congestive heart problem that is brought on by elevation and/or diet change. It may just be brought on by the animal aging. I wouldn't keep any bull or cow for breeding that has this problem.

Many years ago, ranchers that used higher elevation summer range and then brought cattle down to a lower elevation for winter feeding, purposely disposed of any bovine that had this problem. Most have long bred out this genetic weakness. Since it hasn't been an issue with cattle kept at a constant elevation, the weakness, while maybe not showing up for a few generations, may suddenly show up and be baffling since no diet or elevation change was made.

I may be way off, but it looks like edema from congestive heart failure.

Did this come on all of a sudden or build up slowly? Any change in diet recently? Any other cattle effected?

 

[Benlee]

I have never seen anything like that. Is he lethargic? I know you’re too low for brisket disease, but it maybe it’s possible he has a bad heart?

Yeah, I'm concerned that it could be a heart issue. He does not seem lethargic to me, still up grazing, but he typically is a slow mover. 2 Days ago he let me get close enough to push on the swelling, but this morning he would not let me get that close.

 

[Benlee]

Older Whiskey: no change in diet. Our cattle graze and rarely have any other type of food, unless we call them to a feed bucket when we need to immunize or things like that, which has not been done recently. We have a few horses and the cattle will eat some of their leftover hay, which is coastal hay.

I can't say how quickly this came on, since this bull is on our back pasture and we are not down there that often. We were at the pond 2 nights ago and my wife happened to notice the swelling. I checked on him this morning and he looked the same, no better, no worse. His breathing sounded normal and was hard to even hear it. 2 nights ago when we first noticed it, his breathing sounded a bit louder, but not especially "labored", but that was at the end of the day when he would have been grazing all day, and this morning he would have been grazing for maybe an hour or two at the most by the time I saw him. I could be reading into that too much, but just trying to weigh out all the factors.

 

[Older Whiskey]

Older Whiskey: no change in diet. Our cattle graze and rarely have any other type of food, unless we call them to a feed bucket when we need to immunize or things like that, which has not been done recently. We have a few horses and the cattle will eat some of their leftover hay, which is coastal hay.

I can't say how quickly this came on, since this bull is on our back pasture and we are not down there that often. We were at the pond 2 nights ago and my wife happened to notice the swelling. I checked on him this morning and he looked the same, no better, no worse. His breathing sounded normal and was hard to even hear it. 2 nights ago when we first noticed it, his breathing sounded a bit louder, but not especially "labored", but that was at the end of the day when he would have been grazing all day, and this morning he would have been grazing for maybe an hour or two at the most by the time I saw him. I could be reading into that too much, but just trying to weigh out all the factors.

Get a vet to check him out. It sure looks like edema from congestive heart failure. How long have you had this bull? I sure wouldn't use him for breeding until a vet can say without a doubt it isn't hereditary.

 

[Benlee]

We've had him for about 4 1/2 years. Agreed, if he has heart disease or brisket disease then we need to take him out of our breeding.

 

[Faster horses]

Older Whiskey: no change in diet. Our cattle graze and rarely have any other type of food, unless we call them to a feed bucket when we need to immunize or things like that, which has not been done recently. We have a few horses and the cattle will eat some of their leftover hay, which is coastal hay.

I can't say how quickly this came on, since this bull is on our back pasture and we are not down there that often. We were at the pond 2 nights ago and my wife happened to notice the swelling. I checked on him this morning and he looked the same, no better, no worse. His breathing sounded normal and was hard to even hear it. 2 nights ago when we first noticed it, his breathing sounded a bit louder, but not especially "labored", but that was at the end of the day when he would have been grazing all day, and this morning he would have been grazing for maybe an hour or two at the most by the time I saw him. I could be reading into that too much, but just trying to weigh out all the factors.

You can't be too careful. At today's prices, when he heals up, he's worth quite a bit of money.
Good luck. Let us know what the vet says. I know I am interested and I think others here are as well.

 

[Older Whiskey]

This interest me, so I did some research. Bovine Pulmonary edema is not all that uncommon in the Panhandle of Texas. While most commonly seen in feedlot finishing stages, some researchers find it seems to be more prevalent in cattle that come from choice stock.

This makes me wonder if what I learned as a livestock judge, with such things as a wide width and large girth, which indicates animals will finish out heavier and make more beef, may also indicate that the animals heart isn't bigger, thus leading to overworking the heart, and resulting in congestive heart failure with symptoms of edema.

In 1915, this was first noticed when cattle at low elevation, were taken into high elevation. That was easy to figure out, because the lower oxygen level. As I mentioned before, many ranchers built their herds from cattle that didn't show any signs of stress with elevation changes.

So, I wonder if selecting cattle by the old judging standards, while producing more beef at sale time, might be a mistake for selecting replacement heifers. Maybe the larger bone, lanker cow, might have a stronger heart suitable for any altitude grazing and take changes without problems.

 

[Silver]

I would suspect that the incidences of this happening is rare enough as to be a non issue with respect to selecting cattle to produce more beef. At least that’s how I’m going to approach it until evidence points to the contrary.

 

[Faster horses]

I know a lady that was a member that runs a ranch in Wyoming. She deals with this and I'll send this to her and
see if she can come on here and post. She might help quite a bit.

 

[Benlee]

Thanks, I appreciate that!

 

[jodywy]

Growing up in western Wyoming, we rand from over 5000feet to summer range over 8,000. Everything was Herefords back and no brisket disease. But there was one Registered angus ranch that trail north and downhill in the valley never getting above 5500feet and they always had a handful of cows with Brisket. Before we moved outfit would lease the grass across from us and run some put together cattle from all over. They shoot at least one calf each summer that had Brisket. Haven't seen it in Ne east Wyoming we run from about 4200 feet to over 5000 feet.

 

[Older Whiskey]

Growing up in western Wyoming, we rand from over 5000feet to summer range over 8,000. Everything was Herefords back and no brisket disease. But there was one Registered angus ranch that trail north and downhill in the valley never getting above 5500feet and they always had a handful of cows with Brisket. Before we moved outfit would lease the grass across from us and run some put together cattle from all over. They shoot at least one calf each summer that had Brisket. Haven't seen it in Ne east Wyoming we run from about 4200 feet to over 5000 feet.

That agrees with what I remember. Our Herefords never had a problem, but some of the Angus ranches did.

 

[Puzzled]

In the coastal strip we have the liver flukes. I knew that could cause swelling under the jaw, but a few years back a
vet told me it can also cause swelling in the brisket. Northern Texas is not likely to have flukes, but heart or liver problems
might be a factor.

 

[Older Whiskey]

@Benlee Has a vet checked him yet? Also he appears to be polled. I know back in the day polled Herefords had some genetic defects that sometimes showed up later in life.

I am interested to hear what the vet says.

 

[jodywy]

In the coastal strip we have the liver flukes. I knew that could cause swelling under the jaw, but a few years back a
vet told me it can also cause swelling in the brisket. Northern Texas is not likely to have flukes, but heart or liver problems
might be a factor.

We had Liver Flukes in Star Valley , High Mountain valley with wet meadows in the bottoms. one year Merck put on a steak dinner for produces. After dinner they started a slide show of condemned livers, as they just came out with Ivermectin F. Yeah the crowd started leaving with the slide show, Heck my old track coach moved from my table earlier because of my rear prime rib. Ran into the gal later at a meeting , she said they didn't do a dinner with the Ivermectin G=F anymore.
Heck we kill a spring lamb in the fall and have to throw away the liver, flukes were that bad.