Common Cattle Diseases and Ailments
Nobody gets into cattle farming because they’re excited about disease management. But this is one of those chapters you need to read. Knowing what can go wrong is how you keep things from going wrong.
Let’s go through the major diseases and ailments that affect cattle, what causes them, and what you can actually do about them.
Johne’s Disease
This one is nasty and sneaky. Johne’s (pronounced “YO-nees”) is an infectious bacterial disease that attacks the intestinal tract. It’s more common in dairy cattle, but beef cattle can get it too.
Here’s what makes it particularly frustrating: animals can carry it for years without showing any symptoms. By the time you notice something is wrong, the disease has been silently spreading through your herd.
It spreads through manure, colostrum, and by introducing an infected animal to your herd. So buying cattle from unknown sources without testing is a real risk.
Symptoms: Lasting diarrhea and weight loss even though the animal is still eating well. When a cow keeps eating but keeps losing weight, Johne’s should be on your radar.
Treatment: There is none. No cure exists. The only approach is prevention through good management practices and maintaining a closed herd. That means being very careful about bringing new animals in and testing when you do.
BSE (Mad Cow Disease)
You’ve heard of this one. Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy is a fatal neurodegenerative disease. It literally destroys the brain.
The cause is disturbing. BSE is linked to the practice of feeding cattle remains back to living cattle. Ground-up cow fed to cows. Industrial farming at its worst. The disease is believed to be caused by prions, which are misfolded proteins that cause other proteins in the brain to misfold too. It’s like a chain reaction of brain destruction.
The incubation period is long: 2.5 to 8 years. So an animal can be infected and show no signs for years.
Symptoms: Aggression, lack of coordination, drop in milk production, and lethargy. Basically, the cow starts acting strange and things get progressively worse.
The human angle: BSE can pass to humans through contaminated meat. In humans, it’s called variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, and it’s also fatal. There have been very few cases in the US, but it’s the reason feed regulations changed to ban feeding cattle to cattle.
For small farmers, this is mostly a non-issue as long as you’re not feeding your cattle processed animal proteins. But it’s worth knowing about because it’s part of why many people got interested in raising their own cattle in the first place.
Mastitis
Mastitis is inflammation of the udder caused by bacterial infection. If you have dairy cows, this is probably the disease you’ll deal with most often.
There are two serious forms:
Acute Toxic Mastitis: This is potentially life-threatening. More than half of cases happen in the first month after calving, when the udder is working overtime to produce milk. The infection can become systemic and make the cow very sick, very fast.
Gangrenous Mastitis: Rare but terrifying. It has a high mortality rate and is caused by bacteria commonly found in soil. The udder tissue actually dies. It’s as bad as it sounds.
Prevention comes down to hygiene. Clean milking equipment, clean hands, clean udders before milking. Most mastitis cases trace back to bacteria getting into the teat canal. Keep things clean and you reduce the risk significantly.
Scours
Scours is calf diarrhea. It’s not technically a disease itself. It’s a symptom caused by various viruses and infections. But it kills calves, so it gets its own section.
The death usually isn’t from the diarrhea directly. It’s from dehydration. A calf with scours loses fluids fast, and if you don’t catch it and intervene quickly, the calf can die within hours.
Scours is more common in hand-reared calves than in calves raised by their mothers. Why? Because hand-reared calves might not get enough colostrum (the first milk that contains antibodies), and their environment is often less ideal than being right next to mom.
If you see a calf with watery stool, act fast. Electrolyte solutions and fluid replacement are the immediate response. And call your vet.
Brucellosis
A reproductive disease that causes abortions in cattle. The good news is that most states in the US are now free of brucellosis thanks to testing and vaccination programs. But it still exists in some wildlife populations, so it’s not completely gone.
Leptospirosis
Another reproductive disease. It causes abortions and can also trigger mastitis. Vaccination is available and commonly recommended. Talk to your vet about whether it’s a concern in your area.
Vibriosis
A venereal disease that spreads from bull to cow during breeding. This is one more reason why artificial insemination is popular on small farms. No bull contact means no vibriosis transmission.
Ailments: Not Diseases, But Still Problems
Lameness
Lameness is one of the most common problems in cattle, and it happens most often in the hind feet. It’s painful for the animal and costly for you because a lame cow doesn’t eat well, doesn’t produce well, and doesn’t breed well.
Common causes include:
- Wet flooring: Standing in wet or muddy conditions softens the hoof and makes it vulnerable to infection.
- Standing too long: Cattle that spend too much time on hard surfaces without relief develop foot problems. This is more common in confined dairy operations.
- Poor nutrition: Hooves need proper nutrients to grow strong. Bad diet leads to weak hooves.
Prevention is mostly about management. Keep floors dry, give cattle time on soft ground, and feed a balanced diet. If a cow goes lame, get your vet involved early. Waiting makes it worse.
Infertility
When a cow won’t breed successfully, the causes can be tricky to pin down. Common factors include:
- Malnutrition: An underfed cow may not cycle properly.
- Physical defects: Some animals have structural issues that prevent successful breeding.
- Hormonal imbalance: Just like in humans, hormones have to be right for reproduction to work.
Infertility is frustrating because sometimes you do everything right and it still doesn’t work. But nutrition is the first thing to check because it’s the most common and most fixable cause.
The Big Takeaway
Most cattle health problems are preventable. Good hygiene, good nutrition, clean water, dry housing, and careful management when introducing new animals to your herd. That covers a huge percentage of potential issues.
Find a good large-animal vet before you need one. Not when you’re in a panic at midnight with a sick cow. Build that relationship early. Ask what vaccines they recommend for your area. Set up a health plan.
And watch your animals. Every day. Cattle that are eating, drinking, and acting normally are probably fine. The moment something changes, that’s when you need to pay attention.
This post is part of a series retelling and reviewing Backyard Farming: Raising Cattle by Kim Pezza (ISBN: 978-1-57826-495-7).