Vaccinating Cows

[cheetah]

Well, We all know that vaccinating calves against blackleg and 4-way/8-way is a common practice, however, should breeding animals (cows, bulls) also be done every year, after they got them as heifers/bull claves? After all we don't give them blackleg. Any comments or insights are greatly appreciated

[15444]

Interesting you should raise this concern. A producer that lives about 1/2 an hour away from us was clearing land last year and turned his cowherd out on that newly-cleared land this spring. About 30 head died, including 8 mature cows. Cause? Old dormant strain of blackleg that the cows nor the calves had any protection against. My thoughts are now set that 'if you clear land or plow virgin soil, vaccinate everything for blackleg.'

[bombay_43]

To the best of my knowledge, blackleg is a disease that affects mainly calves or young animals up to 3 years). Once they are past a certain age, they are not considered to be at risk. The disease occurs mainly during the summer months, when the cattle are on pasture.

We do vaccinate our cows with IBR, BVD, parainfluenza, and bovine respiratory virus. I believe we also included the the vaccine with hymophalus in the past few years.

If you are concerned about it, or have had problems with blackleg, your best bet is still to talk to a veterinarian to be sure of your best treatment.

[bombay_43]

15444- just missed your post as I was typing.

If what you say is true, that puts a new spin on things!

Anything I have read on blackleg, tells us it is a disease of the young animals! Did your friend have these findings confirmed with a vet?

I think there is another disease (malignant edema)that has the same symptoms as blackleg, and only a lab can confirm which one it is.

[15444]

I believe it was one of the cows that was tested by the vet, and it was blackleg. The calves had not yet been given their shots, so that is why they died. But the cows are a whole other ball game.

[cheetah]

thanks for your answers, especially regarding blackleg. My point is, if we vaccinate the calves for IBR, etc. (4way/8way) and continue so until they are 2 years, do we really need to continue every year with this vaccination. Of course i'm refering to a closed herd. Or is it just so the manufacturer and or vet. can sell their product. I know blackleg is in the soil, but what about IBR, etc. etc.

What called my attention was an article in a cattle magazine, where a "good" rancher was talking about his cattle management and I was surprised to read that regarding health he only used Ivomec and vaccinated 8 way his calves.

[15444]

I struggle with this question as well. Especially when you pay $150 for a 250 mL bottle of Triangle 9. You wonder if it really is necessary to keep vaccinating for years on end when you essentially have a closed herd (with the occassional new purebred cow or bull). But then something happens to someone else and it scares the shit out of you, so you keep doing it.

[grassfarmer]

Being new to the country I took the vets advice the first year and give a fairly comprehensive treatment.Cows go through the chute once in the spring and get 8 way Starvac modified live vaccine. Calves get 8 way and somnus ph at branding time. At weaning they get another shot of 8 way, somnus ph and pyramid 4. I have always weaned the calves here either to background or precondition and sell. I have not needed to treat a calf post weaning in 4 years, I reckon that somnus ph is the key. This program works for me and I think it is money well spent. The blackleg part of the program is the cheapest so I wouldn't think it pays to risk missing it.

[cowman]

I always vaccinate the calves with 8-way in June. Anything that is staying around in the fall gets another shot of 8-way in the fall. Give all the cows a shot of 8-way about every three years...not because of blackleg but red water...on the advice of the vet. Apparently they have seen some of this around in western Alberta.
Bit the bullet years ago and vaccinated everything with a live BVD/IBR vaccine. Give everything that is staying for the winter a shot of Cattlemaster 4 (actually a cheaper version of it...don't remember the name). Heifers going out with the bull get a live IBR/BVD shot in the spring.
Don't vaccinate for scours or respiratory disease as I don't have any.

[les]

holy cow your cows must be full of holes..

[cowman]

Well I don't go around vaccinating for anything I don't need? I don't vaccinate for IBR...I get it and then you really have to go to town! Neighbor had a wild feeder get in with my cows about a dozen years ago and it was a wreck, big time! Ever since then I've had to vaccinate for IBR.
I sure don't vaccinate more than most.

[bward]

We vaccinate calf-hood, weaning , and yearling. A few years ago we decided to have the vet take some random blood samples as he was preg checking. It was an eye opener. The older cows ( 5 ) had very low levels of BVD titres.... and some low levels of something else... So now we routinely revac them every two years.

[dalek]

We used to vaccinate the Holsteins with Triangle 9 every 12 months but found that with dairy cattle the recommendations don't give them enough coverage, too many people started having BVD trouble with vaccinated cattle because the extra stress of milk production reduced the effect of the vaccine. Common practice until now has been to vaccinate every 6 months, but now we've started having lepto problems by 6 months and we've moved to every 4 months. Calves and heifers every 6 months.

[GrnAsMoss]

Back in the 80's we lost 5 big calves just before weaning. Over the years since then we've spent tons of money on Blackleg/8 way& IBR/PI3, more recently HSomnus and Corona/scours vaccs. I think of vaccinations as an insurance policy for calves. Not so much cows as you know, they get a broader immunity to bugs as they get older and exposed to more and more diseases. I would rather spend $150/bottle and plan for that purchase than have a large death loss and not be prepared for that.
Now in the face of BSE God only knows what to do, even now I think he's scratching his head.

[kato]

We, up till this fall, bought feeders to background. They bring everything under the sun into the yard, so our own cattle get vaccinated for everything under the sun!

Calves - Pfizer gold program at pasture turnout. Booster in the fall. Works like a charm, even with snot nosed auction mart riff raff over the fence.

Cows - Cattlemaster 4 in the spring. We would prefer a pre-breeding live shot, but it's not feasable to put them through the chute that early. Easier to get them on the way up the chute to the truck. We use Scourguard 3KC as well. It has a clostridium component to it. We're not sure how much clostridium is involved with calf scours, but there's evidence that it is involved to a certain extent.

It's a lot cheaper to prevent a problem than to try and fix it later.