? for cattle ranchers

[BuckSnort]

Over here most of the land where the cattle live during winter is foothills with oak tree's full of missletoe. I have been told that if a cow eats the missletoe it can abort the calf. Seems like an old wives tale to me. Is there any truth to it at all?

 

[kilowatt]

Missletoe is a poison and should never be put in a mouth, maybe some truth to it, I don't know.
Maybe if txhunter58 sees this, he can give us an answer because he is a veternarian(sp?).

Brian

 

[theridge]

Funny how deer can eat the chit out of it and never get sick. The Dept of F&G uses it to trap deer. Deer go crazy apeshit over it. According to General Walters it act like an aphrosdesiac when consumed by female humans. ??

 

[NVBighorn]

Mistletoe is poisonous but I'm not sure that abortion is a symptom or result of it. There is a thing called "foothill abortion" that occurs in the situation you describe but I can't remember the exact cause. Wasn't mistletoe poisoning, though. Might be a local cross confusion or assumption from one thing to another like the cows experience foothill abortion when they are on the California foothill ranges with mistletoe in the oak trees, therefore the mistletoe gets the blame. As far as that goes any illness could cause a cow to abort so it indeed could be one result of mistletoe poisoning.

 

[D13er]

LAST EDITED ON Jan-19-07 AT 08:01PM (MST)[p]Foothill abortion is caused by a tick bite. Pajaroello tick.

I have never seen a deer interested in mistletoe.

JB

 

[runamuk]

back when they were doing a bunch of logging in Arizona, as soon as the loggers would shut down for the day, the elk would come in to eat the mistletoe out of the downed trees..

 

[elkslam]

Pine needle abortion, cows that are not being fed enough or are starving start eating pine needle this in turn will cause them to abort. I can't remember what in the needles eactly kill the fetus but is a bad deal.

 

[NVBighorn]

JB, thanks for refeshing my memory on the tick.

Even if a deer was interested it might not e poisonous to them and still be to the cattle. There are lots of lants poisonous to man or cattle but the deer are not susceptible. They have evolved with it.

 

[bittersweetmuleymeat]

There are several plants that are toxins when ingested by our Bovine freinds, we loose calfs up here in Mt mostly after a big wind, when pine branches snap off and litter the pasture. Plants such as Water Hemlock can be fatal to the adult cow as well. We have lost several in a week before we can get all of the plants located.

bittersweetmuleymeat

 

[bittersweetmuleymeat]

Elkslam, didnt notice your post before. Cattle dont have to be starving, or even very hungry to ingest green pine needles when they are on the ground.

bittersweetmuleymeat