Hello. I just wanted to get some opinions on how to deal with a problem we are having. My father and I have about 50 head of brood cows. It seems that about 25-30% of our herd (mostly calves and older cows) have a chronic hacking cough. They don't cough constantly but will have 1 or 2 hacking coughs and then may go some time (5-20 minutes) without coughing. An even larger percentage have running eyes. Admittedly, our management in the past has been lacking and most of our cows/calves have only been vaccinated for blackleg. Besides our bulls, we have only bought a few head of cows from off the farm (about a year ago) but the problem seems to have started sometime before they were brought here. Our vet has been out several times (for other issues) and we have mentioned it but he doesn't give us any specific recommendations. For the most part the calves and cows are doing well and none of them would be considered unthrifty, but we can't help but wonder if performance would improve if this problem was treated. does anyone have any ideas about what might be causing this and a treatment recommendation? Am I worrying about nothing?
Thanks for any ideas.
Thanks for any ideas.