Dectomax Doldrums

[CattleAnnie]

Processed the herd this winter and did the usual gamut ( Dectomax and 8-way) but am seeing an alarming percent of cattle starting to look patchy. Followed the dosage amounts to a "t", so not sure what's going on here.
Anyone else have this problem, or am I the only lucky one?
Take care.

[kato]

Call your vet. Right away. Before re-treating them. See if you still have the boxes or bottles with the lot numbers on them too. That can come in handy if it was a manufacturing problem.

He (or she) can inspect them and put in a report to the company. They are pretty good about standing behind the product.

[cowman]

Just wondering why do you use decomotox? Is it for lice, mange, internal worms or warbles...or all of the above?
I've used ivomec in the past and I guess it is about the same? I don't use anything now as I started to wonder about a product that kills everything for up to a month. How can this be healthy?
I don't worry about a few lice. When the weather warms up they'll be gone anyway. Haven't seen a warble fly in years. No mange. So that leaves internal worms and I doubt if I have any kind of a problem there. If you don't have a problem why fix it? Now I'm not preaching the organic gospel to you here...if you have a problem with parasites then you go for it.

[CattleAnnie]

I use it because we have a problem with lice in the area. It's really helped along by the moose, deer and elk that like to frequent the hay yard (they give the gift that keeps on giving by rubbing along the bales, as well as eating and making a mess of the hay. Was hoping to put up game fence last fall, but due to lack of funds that hasn't been an option. Being that it's blizzarding out currently (blowing snow and minus 41 C windchill - gotta love that when we're a third of the way along in the calving program) I feel pretty sorry for any animal that doesn't have a good thick coat. Thanks for the suggestions, though. Will call the vet in the a.m. to see what my options are.
Take care and stay warm!

[smokey]

Absolutely do not retreat until you talk to your vet. I had the same trouble a year ago. My vet came out and verified that I had a lice problem again. 24hrs later a company rep was at my door with enough product to retreat all 460 head.

[kato]

This year a lot of guys in our area decided to save money on Dectomax/Ivomec. About Christmas time they couldn't stand to watch the cows scratch themselves raw and broke down and treated.

Annie...some people around here have luck keeping deer etc. out of their feed by making a ring of straw bales around the hay yard. Round bales stacked two high make a pretty good fence...cheap.

At our place, the German Shepherd has taken it upon herself to defend the hay. She's pretty busy too, because we have between 50 and a hundred deer living within a mile or two.

[cswilson]

I just broke down and treated last week-lice susceptability has got to be genetic because there were only about ten perecent of the cows really rubbing the rest were fine. As to keeping deer out of hay yards-if you can find a dog groomer get some bags of dog hair and spread them around your bales it sounds funny but it works.

[CattleAnnie]

Thanks for all the replies. I've contacted the vet, and a rep will call tomorrow. He said that sometimes the cattle get a form of dermititis that can have the appearance of a lice infection, but didn't elaborate. Guess we'll wait and see what the results of his testing is.
Take care.