Metabolic Disease From A to Z
Metabolic Disease From A to Z
There are few ways to quicker ruin a quality and valuable animal than nutritional disorders. Any interference with an animal’s metabolism and systemic functions, what we call “metabolic diseases,” can result in a whole array of colorful problems with impacts such as loss of production, poor health, and death. Fortunately, management and nutritional strategy can greatly reduce the risk of these types of diseases. In the majority of cases, they can be avoided in a fairly simple fashion.
Issues related to nutrition or improper diet, especially when animals are fed high levels of forages, concentrates or both, are not uncommon death losses in many beef industry segments. The best weapon in this instance is an understanding of the most common occurrences, their prevention, and treatment.
Acidosis
This issue includes rumenitis and liver abscesses, and are often the result of a sudden, improper shift from a forage-heavy diet to one high in concentrates or mass consumption offer fermentable carbohydrates at once. It is most commonly seen in feedlots, finishing programs or show animals on high-performance diets. Essentially, acidosis is caused by low rumen pH, below the healthy average of 6-7 pH creating an ideal environment for the growth of lactic acid-production bacteria which further drops the pH. Other problems, such as laminitis and liver abscesses soon follow. Symptoms include reduced or no feed intake, decreased feed efficiency, scours, lack of rumen activity and inefficiency.
Prevention is as simple as feeding a proper roughage to concentrate level and increasing feed intensity gradually. Adding ionophores to the diet, such as Rumensin, are also great ways to combat this disease.
Bloat
Bloat is a regular plague across all species of ruminants. The condition is the result of stable foam forming in the rumen which prevents eructation and the release of microbial fermentation gasses. When untreated, the rumen swells until it cuts off blood and oxygen flow to the point of fatality. Bloat can be divided into two categories: legume or pasture bloat (caused by overconsumption of one or several legume forages) and frothy bloat (sometimes referred to as “feed-lot bloat” caused by overconsumption of concentrates). One of the best preventative measures is to keep sufficient hay in front of cattle to avoid over-indulgence on pasture and avoid situations in which cattle will gorge themselves on concentrates. Pasture legumes should be no more than 50%.
Grass Tetany
Insufficient magnesium and calcium are the culprits of this common ailment. Affected animals will display signs of muscle spasms, difficulty walking and increased nervousness. Advanced stages result in seizures and eventual death. The season for grass tetany varies based on region but generally runs from late winter through early spring. Lactating animals are the most at risk due to their increased needs for magnesium and calcium. Pastures that have been tested to be deficient can be treated with dolomitic lime or phosphorus to enhance magnesium levels. Certain legumes are also high sources for both these nutrients and can be added to the pasture mix. But the most reliable method would be to simply supplement feed magnesium and calcium during grass tetany seasons if you’re in a deficient area. Cattle who are displaying symptoms can be treated successfully with CMPK gel or an IV solution if caught early enough.
Hardware Disease
Hardware disease, or traumatic gastritis and/or traumatic reticulitis, is another typical ruminant disorder. Caused by the consumption of sharp, foreign metallic objects, this disease can be a bit difficult to diagnose as symptoms are similar to several other ailments, such as depression, going off feed, arched back and reluctance to move. The best prevention is keeping a clean farm and facilities, regularly moving debris and deteriorating metalwork animals can get their mouths on. Cow magnet can be a curative or preventative measure, but serious cases accompanied by an infection from the trauma may need antibiotic treatment.
Ketosis
Ketosis or pregnancy toxemia is a condition where an animal is deficient in energy due to a loss of blood glucose at a time of increased energy demands. Because there’s not enough energy, the body uses other reserves such as body fat which leads to large amounts of ketone bodies, basically chemical byproducts, building up in the body creating toxicity. This is commonly seen in dairy cattle late or early in their lactations, but it also affects improperly prepared beef cattle in the pre- or post-partum. One of the clearest indications is the presence of ketone bodies, typically by a distinct odor to the breath or urine and testing positive on a ketone strip. Other symptoms are depression, reluctance to stand up, abnormal gait, and eventual death. Propylene glycol given orally is one of the best treatment methods to boost blood glucose levels. Prevention accomplished by having enough high-quality feed and nutrition before calving.
Milk Fever
Another disease commonly associated with dairy cattle is milk fever or hypocalcemia. It is similar to ketosis but is caused by low blood calcium. Like glucose, when calcium is too low the body pulls from other reserves such as bone. Symptoms include depression, refusing to get up, weakness, muscle tremors and reveal death. Prevention is surprisingly to avoid feeding too much calcium before calving. This encourages the animal’s body to mobilize their bone stores efficiently. After calving calcium should be adequately provided in feed or supplement. Feeding Vitamin D increases proper calcium absorption and should also be included in a pre-calving ration.
Urinary Calculi
Urinary calculi, or kidney stones, are usually only fatal to bulls and steers on high concentrate diets. This is caused by calculi building up in the bladder or urethra, due to too much urinary phosphorus. Eventually, the bladder may rupture resulting in death. Signs are usually telltale, straining to urinate, dribbling urine and discomfort in the abdominal cavity. Surgical treatment may be an option depending on where the calculi are located and when diagnosed. But by far the best treatment is in prevention. The rule of thumb is to maintain dietary calcium to phosphorous ratio of 2:1. Salts such as ammonium chloride may also be fed in a high concentrate diet.
White Muscle Disease
White muscle is another deficiency disease, caused by a lack of vitamin E or selenium. This can affect calves born to dams who had deficient diets during gestation. It comes in two forms, cardiac and skeletal. The cardiac variation is usually only diagnosed by a sudden death due to heart failure and respiratory distress. The skeletal form is more treatable, it is exhibited by muscle stiffness and weakness in otherwise healthy animals. Upon necropsy, these animals are identified by white lines in the muscle tissue. White muscle can be easily controlled through proper supplementation of the cowherd, but calves may be treated with small appropriate doses of vitamin E or selenium. Some geographic regions this isn’t an issue, because pasture sufficiently provides this but in others, the only option is to manually feed additional supplementation.
Metabolic Diseases
May 2020
