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Rattlesnake bite on cattle?

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DejaVu

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We wintered 8 bulls for neighbors. All went well until the day before they were to be picked up. One bull had a lot of swelling under the throat, down the brisket and across the chest. We called the owner, who was unconcerned about it. The bull was dead the next morning. Rattlesnakes have been common this Spring. Has anyone here experienced a snakebite on cattle? We're at a loss as to what happened. The bull looked great, except for the sudden swelling and of course, being dead!
Looks like payment for wintering and feeding these guys is going to be difficult to extract from the owner. He didn't want the bull posted. Bull was a two-year old purchased in March. Owner didn't have him insured. Bull would be covered by the seller if it was a reproductive issue initially.
 
What a bummer!!!
We have had cattle get snake bit (usually in the head area)
and they eventually got ok. So I'm not sure if what you are
dealing with is snakebite.

How about Brisket disease? I'm not familiar with that, but Wyoming
Rancher must be because she has mentioned it more than once.
I doubt if your altitude is high enough for brisket disease, tho.

Golly. Hard to know without posting him. Guess I would want to
know bad enough that I'd pay for it myself. It only costs about $25.

Sure sorry this happened to you. Not fun!
 
Brisket aka High Altitude disease wouldn't be a factor here. We're 1,700 feet.
Don't believe it was a feed issue as they were all eating the same ration out of the same bunks. I talked to my Vet today and he felt it wasn't Hardware or a heart problem. It came on too fast and the bull didn't have weight loss.
 
Man that sucks. :shock: We have never had any livestock die from a snake bite not even my dogs. We used to have some pretty big rattler snake to.
 
what part of Kansas?? here the rattlers are small....24 inches is a BIG one. and most cattle that get bit swell up and recover....if you are in the east part, they say the snakes are much bigger there, so I guess that may factor in.
 
I assume by posted you mean post mortem. Do it anyway, he died on your place you need to know.
 
You are correct Per. Posted is short for post-mortem examination.

I don't know how long ago the bull died but I'm betting all of the suggestions are for naught. If the bull has been dead for a few days and your weather has been warm, there probably isn't anyone going to cut him open.

Faster Horses---How do you get it done for $25? That wouldn't even cover the mileage here.
 
First guess....you're screwed!!


Unless the post mortem was done farily quickly....and it's been warm in your area.....you might as well say aliens did it as he's gonna be all gooey and nothing worth taking a sample of.
 
When I put cattle out and one dies, I always pay the feed bill (per head per day) up until the time the critter died. That would seem to be the fair way to deal with the issue.
 
When you say"should have", it's always too late. Ever notice that? Looking back, we should have had him posted. Posting him would have cost $150-200. It's hard to spend that on someone else's problem but might have given ground towards payment of the feed bill. It's been too warm to do it now. Jigs, I'm a little east of Russell.
 
I agree with Soap. You put out the feed and the labor, why should you lose? It was up to the owner to have insurance on him. Cattle die all the time.

$150-$200 to have him posted. WOW. I just checked here with our vet
to answer Richard Dolittle's question on cost of posting and here is
what I found out:

It costs $20 if you bring the critter (usually a calf) to them and they cut it up right there and come up with a diagnosis. If they have to send tissue in, it runs $25-$50 depending on what all is done at the lab.
Looks like you guys are grossly overcharged.

We had a horse die mysteriously one year and since it was such an
odd deal, we had the horse posted. What the vet found was SAMONELLA,
which is very contagious. We buried the horse and was glad we found
out what the problem was. Had we not buried the horse, more horses could have died. (It was a really nice horse, too.) :x
 
What I've found out today in talking to my vet and K-State is that, cattle don't die from the bite, they die from the complications of the bite. Swelling that cuts off the airway, infection at the bite location, etc. From our description of symptoms, the number of rattlers seen in the area this Spring, the veterinarian and K-State, concurred that it had to be a snake bite. So, now to collect the feed bill. On another subject, why can't I get the emoticons to work? When I click on one, it doesn't show as a symbol, I get words, like :X
not the "face" I want. What am I doing wrong????? I'd put a frustration face here if I could get the little sucker to work right.
 
Sorry to hear about the bull, that's a bad deal.
With regards to the emoticons, perhaps you have them switched off. Make sure you don't have a check mark beside 'disable smilies in this post'. That's the extent of my computer knowledge. :wink:
 

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