Yearling ram died tonight--Why??

[aggieterpkatie]

grass tetany is not immediate. it takes weight loss, and time.

I disagree. I have not seen it be immediate, but it's can happen pretty quickly.

define quickly.

quickly to me, means hours to days.
otherwise, it's days to weeks like a normal problem.

If I'm not mistaken, the OP said this ram died within minutes to hours.

It will take several hours for the grass to even move through the digestive system to cause the deficiency.

Read up on it here; http://aces.nmsu.edu/pubs/_b/B-809.pdf

Quickly to me means hours to a day or so. The dairy cow we had with it was fine the night before, and the next morning she could not get up. That's not immediate like this ram died.

 

[cedarcurve]

I disagree. I have not seen it be immediate, but it's can happen pretty quickly.

define quickly.

quickly to me, means hours to days.
otherwise, it's days to weeks like a normal problem.

If I'm not mistaken, the OP said this ram died within minutes to hours.

It will take several hours for the grass to even move through the digestive system to cause the deficiency.

Read up on it here; http://aces.nmsu.edu/pubs/_b/B-809.pdf

Quickly to me means hours to a day or so. The dairy cow we had with it was fine the night before, and the next morning she could not get up. That's not immediate like this ram died.

but i bet your cow had been on grass prior..

explain to me the symptoms this cow had, what kind she was, and when she last calved. sounds to me like it could be something else.

 

[aggieterpkatie]

define quickly.

quickly to me, means hours to days.
otherwise, it's days to weeks like a normal problem.

If I'm not mistaken, the OP said this ram died within minutes to hours.

It will take several hours for the grass to even move through the digestive system to cause the deficiency.

Read up on it here; http://aces.nmsu.edu/pubs/_b/B-809.pdf

Quickly to me means hours to a day or so. The dairy cow we had with it was fine the night before, and the next morning she could not get up. That's not immediate like this ram died.

but i bet your cow had been on grass prior..

explain to me the symptoms this cow had, what kind she was, and when she last calved. sounds to me like it could be something else.

We both have the same opinion that it was most likely NOT grass tetany that killed this ram. Seems silly to go back and forth over something we both don't think was the problem.


And the cow was diagnosed by a vet, and treated. She was fine a short time later. It was grass tetany.

 

[boothcreek]

Had a mouflon ram lamb die of a broken rib that pierced both his rumen and lungs within 30mins of it happening. He was playing head butting games with one of the older rams and wussed out last minute and instead of being hit butted in the head he turned away and got it in the ribs..... He basically suffocated on his stomach content within minutes.
Those boys play rough and are tough as nails(when they really get into the games they run and buck and jump like fools inbetween some light half hearted headbutting) but I think he was just hit at a weird angle.

 

[Southdown]

This is getting a bit depressing, geesh I would feel so bad if it was the older ram. My husband said that prior to letting them out into the pasture that night, it seemed that little Leroy didn't want to come out of his pen. Maybe he was feeling ill before getting let out? When we found him dead outside, the older ram was happily eat grass far away from Leroy.

 

[bonbean01]

The most depressing thing is that your little lovely ram died, and I feel for you

Our neighbour found his year old ram dead one morning (no other rams with him) and never knew why. You may never know the real reason he died...just so sad that he died. It could have been for a reason that you'll never figure out. He walked his entire pasture and could not find a plant that might have been poison. No marks on the ram, no clues at all. His ewes were all fine and still are today, a year ago now. We had his ewes with our ram this year and he bought a young ram that will be old enough for next year's breeding season.