A cal-phos imbalance can cause crazy things. Even zinc to copper in the wrong ratio can. I knew a rancher who had these problems and when I looked at his mineral tag--he had it mixed at a local feed store--there was no zinc in it. I asked him about that, and he said the feed store was out
of zinc. He had something similar happen to his cattle that fall and I really believe it was due to their being copper in the mineral and no zinc. I have no idea why the feed store even dared mix and sell it without zinc.
What mineral are you feeding and what is the analysis? Maybe that will shed some light on this. List the ingredients if you can and we'll take
a look.
Another thing, are you feeding wheat hay at this time, or any grain hay?
Cattle can get what is known as winter tetnany, acts like grass tetnany
but occurs when cattle are on grain type hay which contains more phos
than grass or alfalfa hay. Cattle fed solely grain hay need a different type
of mineral; one with less phos so that they will eat it and get the traces they need. Phos is a limiter--cattle won't over eat it--therefore the reason for lower phos mineral.
So again, what are they eating or being fed? Important that we know this.
Remember, vets are vets, they aren't nutritionist, so he may have missed what they are consuming.
I am anxious to know the zinc to copper ratio.
