Why does a calf grind its teeth: causes and what to do, methods of treatment

Cracking teeth in a calf may indicate some diseases that affect young animals at an early age. If the disease is confirmed, specific treatment is required. Consider why a calf can grind its teeth, diseases in which grinding is a symptom, methods for diagnosing and treating them, what needs to be done to prevent diseases.

Causes of teeth grinding in calves

First of all, it is necessary to exclude such a possibility as getting sand or earth into the feed, eating bedding, plaster from the walls, pieces of soil by the calf. This is caused by feeding with low-quality, defective food, as a result of which there are few nutrients in it, the calf tries to make up for the lack of which with the help of the means available to it.Sand and other solids can get into the calf's food if care rules are not followed, feed and stall are not ideally clean.

Typically, squeaking caused by solid particles in food occurs during feeding or chewing gum and can be easily identified by this feature. In other cases, creaking is a symptom of diseases that do not end in self-healing and require mandatory treatment. These are pathologies such as gastroenteritis, scar parakeratosis and white muscle disease.

Gastroenteritis

Basically, the causes of inflammation of the stomach and small intestine are malnutrition or feeding poor-quality food: stale food, rotten hay, moldy concentrates. Symptoms of gastroenteritis: the calf grinds its teeth, swears, mucus and blood can be observed in the feces, it has an increase in temperature, appetite decreases, the animal becomes lethargic.

Scar parakeratosis

This disease is typical for young calves up to six months of age.Occurs due to disturbances in the diet, when cows are given feed with an increased content of concentrates, insufficient carotene, with a small proportion of roughage. With parakeratosis, symptoms include grinding and grinding of teeth, salivation, mild contractions of the scar, weak bowel function.

White Muscular Disease

The exact causes of white muscle disease have not been established, but it is believed that the disease may be of viral origin, may develop due to a deficiency of vitamins E and A and mineral elements, such as cob alt and selenium. Symptoms of white muscle disease include characteristic grinding of teeth, severe general weakness in which the calf does not eat or drink, indigestion, foul-smelling stools, cloudy eyes.

With white muscle disease, degenerative-dystrophic changes occur - muscle fibers are replaced by connective or adipose tissue or are destroyed.

Disease Diagnosis

External symptoms may not be enough for a correct diagnosis. If the calf grinds its teeth more than once, you need to conduct laboratory tests. This is especially true when white muscle disease is suspected, when an incorrect diagnosis and treatment, or its absence, can lead to the death of an individual.

To determine the pathology, blood and urine are taken from the bull for analysis. With white muscle disease, the number of erythrocytes and protein will be less than normal, in the urine - the content of creatine is increased, the reaction is shifted to the acid side. If gastroenteritis is suspected, parasitic and infectious diseases with similar manifestations should be excluded.

What to do when a problem occurs

As soon as you can determine the cause and establish the disease, you should immediately begin treatment.

Medicated treatment

Medicines are prescribed based on the disease that caused such a symptom as grinding teeth. Treatment for gastroenteritis is a starvation diet for 1-1.5 days, at which time only warm s alted water can be given. Then the calf is given fresh sour milk, reverse, liquid oatmeal mash. If in the future the symptoms are generally favorable, you can gradually transfer the calf to a normal diet. The treatment of parakeratosis of the scar consists in normalizing the diet, which is necessary in order to restore the functions of the body, additionally give retinol, sodium bicarbonate, burnt magnesia.

For the treatment of white muscle disease, sick individuals are separated from others, since the cause of the disease may be a virus. Calves are given injections of vitamins A and E, products containing selenium (sodium selenite is used). This drug is toxic, so only a veterinarian should administer it, the calf may die from an excessive dose.If abscesses occur at injection sites, antibiotics should be used.

Folk methods and recipes

With gastroenteritis, to relieve symptoms, calves are given oatmeal or rice water, s alted heated water. With parakeratosis, young animals are given a soda solution to reduce the acidity of the juice, increase the share of hay, and reduce the share of feed.

With white muscle disease, drug treatment is necessary, folk should be aimed at supporting the cow's body to fight the disease.

Any folk medicines are effective as additional complex remedies, they cannot completely solve the problem. Therefore, you cannot rely on them alone.

How dangerous is the problem

Any of the listed diseases is quite common and can be found in any livestock farm. The consequences of diseases are expressed in the violation of the functions of the body of calves and cows, which affects their productivity.

Self-healing does not occur, therefore, if symptoms appear, including grinding of teeth, you need to check the animal with a veterinarian and, if necessary, treat it.

Prevention

The preventive measures that need to be taken to prevent these diseases are as follows: give cows and calves only high-quality feed, which will consist of products that contain all the nutritional components necessary for cattle. Animals should drink clean fresh water, walk daily in the fresh air, stand in spacious, clean stalls. Physical activity, sunlight, improving the mental state of the animal play an important role in maintaining the immune forces of the cow's body.In those individuals that are kept in good conditions, the incidence rate is always lower.

For pregnant cows and newborns, conditions must be created under which the likelihood of infection will be minimized, calves after birth should receive colostrum as a source of important nutrients for them. Everyone who works with cows must follow the rules of personal hygiene in order not to spread the infection throughout the farm.

If a calf grinds its teeth, this is not always a harmless symptom, it can indicate infectious and digestive diseases. Any animal that grinds its teeth should be seen by a veterinarian and treated as soon as possible.