Must have to eat a fair bit of pellets to get enough to die?
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Must have to eat a fair bit of pellets to get enough to die?
It takes very little lead to kill a cow. I have known of the death of calves being blamed on them licking the battery terminals of an old battery left behind the shed. I killed several calves by shooting a shotgun at the sparrows hanging around the meal feeders...expensive lesson that was.
Thanks for that Spook - I never knew how intolerant of lead cows are
Some guy a while back lost a whole lot of bulls, it turned out a battery had gone through a silage chopper and into the pit.....
I just gave on lead poisoning. Bringing three cows home 500metres to go and the bitch charged and headed back two run off.So we walked the other two back down to bring her back and same bloody thing happened. I bullet fixed her.:yuush:
I reckon it was the annual shoot day for the Blind Society - and the farmer forgot to remove his cows from the paddock.
Lead poisoning... Yeah I 'spose thats one way o looking at it
hahah we've had a few cows come down with a case of high velocity lead poisoning so far this season. although admitidly most of them couldnt stand let alone run away poor old buggers.:huh:
I'm afraid lead poisoning in cattle is real (sheep and dogs too).
Quote:
Pathogenesis
Absorbed lead enters the blood and soft tissues and eventually redistributes to the bone. The degree of absorption and retention is influenced by dietary factors such as calcium or iron levels. In ruminants, particulate lead lodged in the reticulum slowly dissolves and releases significant quantities of lead. Lead has a profound effect on sulfhydryl-containing enzymes, the thiol content of erythrocytes, antioxidant defenses, and tissues rich in mitochondria, which is reflected in the clinical syndrome. In addition to the cerebellar haemorrhage and oedema associated with capillary damage, lead is also irritating, immunosuppressive, gametotoxic, teratogenic, nephrotoxic, and toxic to the hematopoietic system.
See the full article at; Overview of Lead Poisoning: Lead Poisoning: Merck Veterinary ManualQuote:
In cattle, surgery to remove particulate lead material from the reticulum after the ingestion of batteries is rarely successful.
Suspiciously, I found a heap of spelling errors in the article!? Maybe vets just can't spell or don't know about spell checkers.;)
Is this related to the sweeds that kill the cattle in Southland?
Cow deaths linked to swedes | Stuff.co.nz , it does seem odd that other cows are dying on swedes that dont get shot over .
I can but concur with you about the odd coincidence. One farm has lost at least 20 after coming off the swedes and at least two farms have called meetings with the suppliers who claim acidosis from not transitioning. Further the vets have confirmed liver and kidney failure in the cows. The suspicion is that it is related to the h2 type of swede and also urea was applied. If excess urea is used the plant grows more leaf than bulb with a greater risk of nitrate poisoning.
Confusing, I agree and I sadly, suspect it will only "muddy the waters" yet again, despite the investigations carried out to date.
Some one on here mentioned nitrate poisoning before kiwi sapper,I'm not diving back thru the pages cause I got moos to check "While the rugby is on":)
Early grazing of immature Fodder beet can lead to nitrate poisoning also a potential
issue for brassica crops. Fodder beet can produce a high proportion of its total dry
matter yield from its tops. Excessive grazing of these tops can lead to scouring caused
by the tops containing low levels of “Oxalates”. The use of calcium is recommended
when grazing Fodder beet. Many of the stock health issues are more of an issue when
your first start grazing you Fodder beet so care during this period is critical.
(from SPECIALTY SEEDS web page)
It sounds like the lead ingestion is coincidental. But what I read on the 'net indicates that cattle can and do die from ingesting lead. We humans can swallow the same lead and nothing happens. To get lead in our system we need to swallow lead salts and oxides or breath in the lead oxide and salt dust. Ask me how I know! Cattle and dogs have a different digestive system to us (dogs can digest bones - we can't even swallow bones). And for some strange reason cattle eat car batteries! Why on earth would they do that?
Speaking to a guy who lives a couple of farms away last Friday. Only 10 cows died with a direct link to lead poisoning. Rumours of "insurance" are running rife through the rural grapevine.
The swede deaths are a different evil altogether. It appears to be happening on farms where cockies are grazing cattle on swedes that are well past their prime, something about the leaf has gone to seed, and the chemicals/toxins in the leaf have been translocated into the bulbs.
There's also situations where farmers have been left with significant amounts of winter crop left, so instead of wasting it, have bought some beef cattle from the local sales (typically animals off properties where they've been on baleage/hay/grass) and thrown them straight on the old winter feed to chew it out without "breaking" the cattle in properly. This is making cattle crook, and some are dying.
Cockies grazing fodder beet/sugar beet are not having the same issues.
bloody funny that josh -Ive just come on to ask you if there was any link between the two events .call it my professional paranoia ,but i found it intriguing that two major incidents could occur in the same region in such a short time ,both involving livestock grazing?contaminated areas. thanks for your excellent reporting and clarification.
must admit im a swede lover,but yes they nedd some polar chills up em to make em tasty!
I think at the moment the biggest problem the South has is that the newspaper reporters get really fucked up when it comes to stock dying...not long ago it was sheep being shot without leaving cases or projectiles, now it is the difference with metabolic problems and shot pellets. I wonder how many gun clubs the length of the country have ever had a similar problem?, I imagine, very few or the meat and milk industries would not tolerate lead poisoning entering the food chain.
Devils advocate here, can we rule out a genetically engineered frankencrop gone wrong? Does anyone have more info on this commercial variety of swede?
They all seem to have eaten the same strain of swede and have kidney/liver damage. Some research I saw found feeding mice GE food gives them kidney/liver damage amongst other things.
same strain of seed developed by a certain seed supplier. from what i understand the problem is solely with the seed it the first time its been commercially grown and the seed supplier doesn't want a dirty name so is blaming it on the farmers and metabolic issues.
Not going away, more stock affected:
No quick answers to stock death mystery | Stuff.co.nz
Could this be related to the sheep that were apparently shot and no shell cases found?
Maybe DOC dumped 1080 all over them and now their livers are failing especially after being inundated with opossum and trout carcasses plus GM swedes have given them lead poisoning both from the swede and the Black Ops ninjas who leave no trace or exit wound and the local vet is covering up for Don Brash who is a mates with Nick Smith (who we all know owns the US 1080 factory) and used Crusher Colins foibles as a decoy to poison some mice on the coast in the hope of killing all our deer (cause they're disappearing fast mate) and the guys from Fish and Game are laughing all they way to the bank cause now they have exclusive rights to trout fishing across NZ for free (cause who wants to catch a radioactive trout) and are propping up their other mates (probably John Key) who is crashing the dairy industry with melamine milk (via GM swedes of course) to drive down the dollar and get the FX gains (cause he bought a heap of greenbacks from Obama in Hawaii). Oh and its bound to involve some jews somewhere too.
None of that gives any indication of what the test results showed if they were actually performed
I smell a rat.
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Article in NZ Farmer Sept 29 2014 by veterinary pathologist Dr Mark Collett explains that it was not a unique case...been around 10-20 years...basically a management of stock problem with brassica crops.
Some time after that there was a "spate" of cattle deaths thought to be caused by grazing on beets - nothing to do with lead poisoning. Dunno if the actual cause was ever found but several farmers (and their stock) were affected. Bet the media never corrected the "lead poisoning" story.