Bloody Noses and Fevers

I’ve been working on a case for the last couple weeks on a farm that seems to be having some respiratory issues. The milkers have noticed several cows that have come into the milking parlor with bloody noses. One cow was described as having a “foul smell” to the nasal discharge while the others seem to be more just blood tinged mucous.  I hope by now, you’ve all learned to not eat while you are reading my posts….

The picture is one of the aforementioned cows.  The herdsman has also been concerned with several “first calf heifers” that have been spiking temperatures of 104-106 F, about 1 week after calving.  They are down on milk, not eating like they should, but seem to respond to anti-inflammatories and antibiotics. 

Let me pause to explain to those who may not know what a “first calf heifer” is.  A “first calf heifer“ is a cow that has had her very first baby.  In the dairy industry we use this term very frequently.  We still call her a “heifer” because she is still growing and has not yet reached her full mature cow size.  We call her a “first calf heifer” because she just had her first baby and has entered her first lactation.  Cows will continue to grow to mature size until they are about 3-4 years old.  They have reached sexual maturity, at 1 year of age, and therefore we breed them to have their first baby by the age of 2, but not physical maturity until 3-4.
Ok, back to the case.  So upon physical exam of these animals, I’ve noticed some clear nasal discharge (a good thing), normal temperatures, normal stomach movement, heart and lung sounds, normal manure and uterus discharge; pretty much completely normal physical exam for a fresh cow (new mom).  So now what???

In veterinary school we often heard the phrase; “If you hear hoof beats, think horses, not zebras.”  In my world, this means, if it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck and walks like a duck, it’s probably a duck!  So, when I see bloody noses in cows, my first thought is usually; “did they have a lung abscess/hematoma that popped from a previous pneumonia event?”  My second thought is “did someone hit them with the skid steer pushing up feed?” If the answer to the first two questions is no, then I turn to the zebras, the very important DO NOT FORGET ABOUT zebras, such as Foot and Mouth Disease, Bluetongue and other foreign animal diseases that must be reported to the state veterinarian, resulting in a very fast quarantine and Plum Island certified veterinarians taking samples.  EEEEEEEEKKKK!!!

To see one cow with a bloody nose is not really a big deal, and almost always, I chalk it up to a lung abscess that blew. But, this farmer gave me 4 cows with bloody noses. After discussing with the other veterinarians in the practice, I decided it was best to take blood samples to submit to the lab.  When we pull these blood samples, we usually have to wait two weeks and then pull another sample called a “convalescent sample”.   These blood samples get sent to the lab to check for antibody titers to various common respiratory diseases. Taking two samples, two weeks apart, allows us to see if the cows antibody response to the virus has come down as the cow’s body starts to deal with the virus.

A normal cow’s temperature ranges from 100-102.8 F.  When they have temperatures as high as 105-106 F we often think immediately of viruses.  Bacterial infections will raise a cow’s temperature, but usually not as high as a virus will.   These high temperatures along with other cows in the herd having bloody noses in the barn were most likely due to one of the 5 or 6 bugs associated with pneumonia in cattle, also known as Bovine Respiratory Disease Complex, or BRD.  When I received my finalized report for the first round on blood samples taken, it looked as though these cows have a few different bugs they are dealing with.  The first bug is “Coronavirus.”

Coronavirus (Corona) is an old bug in a new form.  More commonly Corona is known to cause diarrhea in baby calves and winter dysentery in adult cows. It’s one of the bugs that are always around in cattle and when we go looking for it, we find it. To help a newborn calf deal with Corona, we vaccinate mom when she is very pregnant and starting to make her colostrum. This way, the calf will hopefully receive the protection it needs as starts life.  It is recently starting to show up in multiple cases of respiratory disease in cattle of all ages. Unfortunately the vaccine used to prevent diarrhea in baby calves, has not been seen to help much with adult cows with the respiratory form of the disease.  There is lots of money going into research on corona and how it plays along with the other common bugs associated with BRD in cattle.   

The other bug that seemed to be mucking the waters was IBR, Infectious Bovine Rhinotracheitis.  The actual virus that causes IBR is Bovine Herpes Virus-1. This is another common bug found in the BRD complex in cattle. There are several good vaccines on the market for IBR and although these respiratory vaccines may not prevent the disease, they certainly lessen the severity of the disease.

 For this particular herd, we may need to re-evaluate the vaccination protocol to see how we can help booster the first calf heifers’ immune systems.  Cow’s that just had a baby need to have as smooth a transition into being a milking cow as possible, and having high fevers and dealing with pneumonia is something that definitely sets them back.  All the cows pictured are doing just fine and the cows that had high fevers are doing much better.  We continue to monitor temperatures and look for bloody noses and hopefully as the outside temperature starts to steady, so will the cows!