Plastic Disease

[kirkdickinson]

Here is a good article that discusses the severe consequences of plastic ingestion in cattle, a problem often overlooked and difficult to diagnose. Plastic can block the digestive system, leading to symptoms like diarrhea, bloating, and eventually death. Diagnosis is challenging, and many cases go undetected or misattributed to other diseases. Prevention measures include diligent removal of plastic from grazing areas. Unlike diseases, no vaccine or specific treatment exists, making proactive management essential. Owners may never know the true cause of unexplained cattle deaths due to plastic ingestion.:
https://www.texaslonghorn.com/longhorn_info/management_tips/index.cfm?con=plastic

 

[Big Muddy rancher]

We used to tub grind feed, He did it so fast unless we had the twine off the bale before he got there you could not keep up but we never found much twine in the pile and he cut a long rope of it off his machine. When we switched to net wrap when it was ground you could see the shreds of it on the pile of cut feed. Not much to cut off ,machine.
We stopped letting the net go through the grinder.

 

[Puzzled]

I question whether I should have kept a coming 2yr. old heifer I have. As a coming yearling a 10-15 foot piece of of poly wire disappeared from the fence around her small pasture. Never ever showed up anywhere, so will always suspect it maybe in her somewhere.

 

[Faster horses]

The yearling in that photo looks terrible. Where did that originate from?
Maybe it's to show how cattle look that injest plastic?
Mr FH and our daughter used to team rope and we kept the roping steers at our place
to strengthen them up after coming in from Mexico. One steer had orange paint on
his horns. It wasn't long until that steer got sick. We doctored him, etc. The vet came and he and Mr FH carried him into the barn where he died. The vet cut him open and he
was full of baler twine and the black rubber strips that saddle horns are wrapped with. Poor little bugger, he was so hungry he ate anything he could. He plugged up when he was fed hay, and died.

Of all the animals in the world, I think roping steers have it the worst of all.
Ropers don't seem to realize they are ATHLETES and need taken care of as such.
Our roping steers were extremely well taken care of because we knew this and
we took great care of all our animals.

 

[Puzzled]

The roping steers(and calves) and the steers used for bulldogging do not lead an easy life. I often wonder how good some of those rodeo dudes times would be if they had to rope or bulldog a well fed Corriente.

 

[kirkdickinson]

The yearling in that photo looks terrible. Where did that originate from?
Maybe it's to show how cattle look that injest plastic?
Mr FH and our daughter used to team rope and we kept the roping steers at our place
to strengthen them up after coming in from Mexico. One steer had orange paint on
his horns. It wasn't long until that steer got sick. We doctored him, etc. The vet came and he and Mr FH carried him into the barn where he died. The vet cut him open and he
was full of baler twine and the black rubber strips that saddle horns are wrapped with. Poor little bugger, he was so hungry he ate anything he could. He plugged up when he was fed hay, and died.

Of all the animals in the world, I think roping steers have it the worst of all.
Ropers don't seem to realize they are ATHLETES and need taken care of as such.
Our roping steers were extremely well taken care of because we knew this and
we took great care of all our animals.

Many times the plastic originates from dumpsters that don't have their lids shut. Cattle can thrive on all type of roughage and sometimes don't discriminate. A wayward bread wrapper might taste like bread to them. Sometimes they will pass it and other times it gets caught up in their rumen and they can die.

 

[DosArroyos]

I have a pasture on the hwy and I bet I pick up 4 to 5 feed sacks full of plastic bags every year.

I had a 500lb steer have trouble with something in his gut and the vet and I assumed it was probably a plastic bag.
He finally went down in a pen and died and it was in a place that I couldn't get him out with my backhoe,so I just shut the pen off from the other calves and let the buzzards eat him.A month and a half after the buzzards got him I went in with a lick tub to put the bones in and see if I could find out what it was that had stopped him up.I've seen cotton work gloves stuck in the pelvis of some dead cows before that had eaten an oilfield worker's oily gloves off the floor of a pulling unit.I flipped the hard hide over and started looking around.The calf had eaten an aluminum Dr Pepper can.

 

[Big Muddy rancher]

I have a pasture on the hwy and I bet I pick up 4 to 5 feed sacks full of plastic bags every year.

I had a 500lb steer have trouble with something in his gut and the vet and I assumed it was probably a plastic bag.
He finally went down in a pen and died and it was in a place that I couldn't get him out with my backhoe,so I just shut the pen off from the other calves and let the buzzards eat him.A month and a half after the buzzards got him I went in with a lick tub to put the bones in and see if I could find out what it was that had stopped him up.I've seen cotton work gloves stuck in the pelvis of some dead cows before that had eaten an oilfield worker's oily gloves off the floor of a pulling unit.I flipped the hard hide over and started looking around.The calf had eaten an aluminum Dr Pepper can.

Maybe he was self medicating with Dr. Pepper lol

 

[DosArroyos]

I think someone had smashed the can down flat between their hands and tossed it out the window and then it was baled in a round bale. That's how I think he got a can.You could tell that he chewed on one side of it for a while before swallowing it.

 

[Faster horses]

Many times the plastic originates from dumpsters that don't have their lids shut. Cattle can thrive on all type of roughage and sometimes don't discriminate. A wayward bread wrapper might taste like bread to them. Sometimes they will pass it and other times it gets caught up in their rumen and they can die.

Being a roping steer from Mexico he was obviously hungry, as they all were thin.
We got them early and kept them at home to feed them up so they would be strong to rope. They were fed well all summer. Many roping steers aren't so lucky.