Wife Swapping

This pregnant crossbred cow was found dead Saturday morning for no apparent reason. She was due to calve in 27 days. The day before the cow received her 3-4 week vaccinations and I noticed her resting in a stall chewing her cud later that day looking as happy as can be. I was quite puzzled about what caused the sudden death and called the local large animal veternarian office to have someone come down to do a necropsy since the diagnostic lab at Penn State was closed until Monday. During the necropsy it was determined that she ruptured on the inside and died from Bloody Gut aka Hemorrhagic Bowel Syndrome. The calf she would have delivered was a bull. A full description of this frustrating disease is listed below: Bloody gut, also known as hemorrhagic bowel syndrome (HBS), is a frustrating disease that strikes apparently healthy animals without much warning and has a fatality rate of 85 percent or higher. HBS is more prevalent in dairy cows, especially in early lactation, although it also has been reported in beef cattle. According to National Animal Health Monitoring System, from 1996 to 2002, the number of operations reporting their initial case of bloody gut/hemorrhagic bowel syndrome (HBS) increased dramatically, supporting opinions that this is an emerging disease. In the last few years, several studies have indicated an association between HBS and C. perfringens Type A. While no single cause has been identified for HBS, C. perfringens is believed to be a contributor …

Tags: Bowel, death, from, Hemorrhagic, Syndrome, Video, ~Graphic

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