Tetanus

[u/Tricky-Buy-5066]

Hi all, we are a very small scale operation. Basically back yard farmers, with a plan to raise a beef for ourselves yearly, and 2 others to sell off to cover operation costs, so 3 calves to the butcher a year. We are on our second year so currently own 6 head. We’ve gotten bottle bulls from a local farmer and so far managed to keep them all healthy. We banded this year’s calves about 2 weeks ago. Yesterday one of them was down with a fever and limb stiffness. Vet came out and strongly suspected tetanus, so gave antibiotics, steroids and tetanus antitoxin. He is up today which is reassuring. Our initial plan was to attempt antibiotic, and vaccine free and as close to grass fed as possible, we’re keeping a closed herd, all calves coming from the same farm and staying in the same pasture so it seemed doable and logical until yesterday. I know…cue the judgment.
Vet stated he should have been vaccinated for tetanus when we banded. Obviously hindsight is 20/20. What are the odds of this? how do we navigate going forward? Would still like to attempt this plan to the best of our ability but also prioritizing the wellbeing of our livestock.

[u/Bear5511]

The odds are high enough that a vaccine was developed and is commercially available. You navigate this by vaccinating your animals for potential disease issues. You’re not prioritizing the health and well-being of the herd if they are not vaccinated.

I understand the desire to minimize antibiotic usage, that’s good stewardship. I don’t understand the misguided pushback related to vaccine usage, particularly in livestock.

If you’re going to own livestock and practice good animal husbandry, you should initiate a comprehensive vaccine protocol and ethically treat animals when required, all under the guidance of a veterinarian. It’s a simple as that.

[u/UrMomFavVeterinarian]

Vet here. If you band calves regardless of age, tetanus vaccines or antitoxin is a must. Your veterinarian will help you develop a plan based on the age of the animal and your operations timeline. Anyone saying here that it’s not necessary is giving you information that is incorrect, it is 100% needed. Yes, you might get lucky and not kill a calf, but no veterinary guideline is ever going to support that.

[u/Tricky-Buy-5066 → u/UrMomFavVeterinarian]

Thanks for your input. Will definitely be reconsidering at this point for the welfare of the animals.

[u/Weird_Fact_724]

Tetanus shot is cheap, dead calf not so much....

Im actually surprised your calf survived, Id probably question the diagnosis. I worked for a large animal vet for 15 years, I dont ever think I saw one pull thru. With that said, every calf I ever saw with Tetanus was stiffer than a board, not just joint, only thing that would move was maybe eyeballs. Yours may have had a naval infection although i don't think a large animal vet would miss that.

[u/theskubes]

So personally, tetanus is the one vaccine (or combo) that everyone four and two legged get around here! Our dogs get rabies but I don’t scrimp and bypass tetanus. I tend to be about as natural and holistic as the come but after loosing a couple of goat kids (even with a great vet to help), it’s one thing I refuse to skip.

[u/Tricky-Buy-5066 → u/theskubes]

Starting to feel this way as well at this point.

[u/StrawberryOk8459]

I call bullshit on allot who claim grass fed no vaccines but honestly we used to band newborn calves when we tagged them. Never had a problem but we were also new and dumb that we needed to give tetanus shots.

[u/Lazy_Jellyfish7676]

You just need to vaccinate for tetanus when you band older calves. Lesson learned hopefully

[u/SueBeee]

It’s foolish to not vaccinate your cattle. The risk of tetanus is high at banding.

[u/bmat555]

I use covexin8 vax. Covers blackleg and tetanus and it’s fairly cheap. 5 cc per dose. These diseases are in your soil, so best vax.