Something is Making Cow's Hooves Fall Off

Zilmax is a Merck drug that is given to cattle to "beef" them up; it debuted in the US in 2007. It is now suspected for causing cattle's hooves to fall off - or as the spin goes: "limited mobility."

It wasn't just 17 cows dropping hooves. It's been an ongoing problem.

Something is Making Cattle Hooves Fall Off www.activistpost.com...

I'm not sure if it's just this drug causing it to happen or the overall degradation of cattle health. Either way, I think it's pretty cruel. The farmers would probably know best and they did express concern at that meeting.

There is already a thread on this....

What's Ailing America's Cattle? Zilmax GMO.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Nugget could you please link to the specific thread & not just the Conspiracy section? There are 715 or so threads in there!!

reply to post by nugget1


Thanks - I did a search but I guess I should have searched for zilmax. Sorry about that. Should have known it would be old news to ATS! That was a good thread found here:

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Well then, the update would be that Merck is planning to bring it back to market and if it does, Cargill will use it. If Tyson uses it the other companies may follow.

This isnt anything I can link to, but my cousin married a rancher. Small rancher, but a cattle ranch. This was years ago, but I believe its valid. He wasnt organic or anything and they were using the gmo food and injections. The cattle started biting their feet off, the hooves were becoming infected/malformed, and then they started chewing their own tails off.. acting all nuts. It wasnt anything that they tested for.. not hoof and mouth, nothing bacterial or fungal... it was a VITAMIN deficiency. Seems fiddling with the hormones and givng them GMO food was hampering their nutritional health and absorption through the gut... and they were having severe skin, hoof, etc problems that as it went on would make them deathly ill.. lay down and not get up. A local vet told them about the nutrition issue and they started giving them injections. The problems lessened. I think personally the problems would have disappeared completely if they had stopped the "factory" beef thing with the feed and hormones/antibiotics.

reply to post by Caver78

Caver78
Nugget could you please link to the specific thread & not just the Conspiracy section? There are 715 or so threads in there!!

Caver, I linked to it in my recent reply - hope that helps.

reply to post by Advantage

Advantage
The cattle started biting their feet off, the hooves were becoming infected/malformed, and then they started chewing their own tails off.. acting all nuts. It wasnt anything that they tested for.. not hoof and mouth, nothing bacterial or fungal... it was a VITAMIN deficiency. Seems fiddling with the hormones and givng them GMO food was hampering their nutritional health and absorption through the gut... and they were having severe skin, hoof, etc problems that as it went on would make them deathly ill.. lay down and not get up. A local vet told them about the nutrition issue and they started giving them injections. The problems lessened...

Ohmigosh, Advantage, that's so interesting. So there would be other reasons for it. And I know for a fact that GMOs block nutrition absorption in plants because they were designed to do that by withstanding the Roundup like pesticides. It has to do with an enzyme being blocked so they don't uptake all the poison.

I had a friend ask me about an anti-rage diet, if there was such a thing. My research kept reiterating NO gmos because of what it does to the animals. I think you are right about the whole factory farm thing.

Kmhotaru
reply to post by Advantage

 

Advantage
The cattle started biting their feet off, the hooves were becoming infected/malformed, and then they started chewing their own tails off.. acting all nuts. It wasnt anything that they tested for.. not hoof and mouth, nothing bacterial or fungal... it was a VITAMIN deficiency. Seems fiddling with the hormones and givng them GMO food was hampering their nutritional health and absorption through the gut... and they were having severe skin, hoof, etc problems that as it went on would make them deathly ill.. lay down and not get up. A local vet told them about the nutrition issue and they started giving them injections. The problems lessened...

Ohmigosh, Advantage, that's so interesting. So there would be other reasons for it. And I know for a fact that GMOs block nutrition absorption in plants because they were designed to do that by withstanding the Roundup like pesticides. It has to do with an enzyme being blocked so they don't uptake all the poison.

I had a friend ask me about an anti-rage diet, if there was such a thing. My research kept reiterating NO gmos because of what it does to the animals. I think you are right about the whole factory farm thing.

**somewhere** here on ATS Id read about vitamins and minerals having a direct link to neurotransmitters.. and diet influencing those neurotransmitters so much so that when malnourished ( even if outwardly appearing "healthy") these neurotransmitters were insufficient.. as in dopamine particularly.. and caused rage among other things. The animals are harder to handle and impossible to train because with dopamine.. it effects your action/reward pathways.

Caver78
Nugget could you please link to the specific thread & not just the Conspiracy section? There are 715 or so threads in there!!

I'd love to! I tried, twice...and they came out wrong both times....not sure how to do it, I guess....

reply to post by Kmhotaru


Thanks to you & Nugget!
This still has the potential to be a great thread! Now off to go catch up on the previous one!!


Ok that didn't take long and that thread seems of of just rolled over & died. Go Figure. Wonder what beef suppliers are accepting these "beefs" and how we find out?

Thats awful! There should be a law against giving them anything like that its Animal Cruelty, which goes in a horrible chain of not only affecting them but the people who consume their meat and i have no doubt in my mind it would affect people consuming it, no wonder we have all these weird medical problems pop up with the stuff our food is grown & bred with. With Organic meat they dont use anything like that on them do they?

You can founder a cow just like a horse, though. Letting them get into the grain bin will do it. Or not feeding them enough hay or silage. Or getting into the wrong stuff in the pasture.

Pretty much anything that makes their rumen acidic enough will founder a cow. Then it's pretty much over with. If you act fast enough you can save a few of them, but they often have long term problems.

eta: I forget you guys aren't former farmers at times. Isn't everyone like me? Anyway, hoofed animals like cattle and horses have "feet" (actually their toes) that are enclosed by a hard hoof, horses worse then cows. If the feet swell, they've got nowhere to go, and the blood flow is cut off or restricted. That's bad, because it's a positive feedback loop. The more the feet swell, the less blood flow, which makes the feet swell etc. Once this gets rolling it's hard to stop. It's a design defect. We call it "foundering", the less acute form is "laminitis".

Cows, having a split hoof, don't founder as easily as a horse. If you ever watch accurate Westerns, you'll notice a cowboy never lets his horse drink too much cold water from a stream at one time. That's all it takes to founder a horse. A cow, on the other hand, is more resistant to it. But not immune. Water won't founder a cow, but you can do it with anything that screws up their digestion. When a cow gets indigestion, they try to die on you. For example, if a cow gets into wet clover, they'll bloat like a cow shaped balloon and die, unless you shove a sharp tube into their guts called a trocar (and you have to know where and how much...).

Similarly, if a cow gets the wrong sort of feed, or not enough of the right sort, their rumen will go acid and they'll founder like a horse on water. You generally get this if they don't have enough roughage. You have to feed a cow hay or silage. If you leave the grain bin open and a cow gets a bait of wheat, their feet fall off. This is a constant problem with grain fed cattle in the finishing pen, and has been since grain finishing has been around.

Also, many small cattle men do not keep good records and is easy to create an incest situation. No telling what weird problems could arise. I also agree with the lack of some type of hay being induced into their diet.

reply to post by Caver78


Caver, the sales are suspended in the US for now. Tyson dropped out first, Cargill followed. Cargill only started using Zilmax in 2012 because they were extremely hesitant for a long time. So for now, there is no known US beef that are fed Zilmax. If more "testing" gets done and they can convince the beef producers it will come back. You could watch Merck announcements for that. Notice, the FDA never took it off the market or suspended it?

nugget1

I'd love to! I tried, twice...and they came out wrong both times....not sure how to do it, I guess....

Nugget - I just searched ATS for Zilmax and clicked on the link, it brought me to the exact thread. I had searched the site before for "hooves" and "cows" which is why I didn't see the previous thread. Hope that helps for future reference.

reply to post by Shana91aus


Shana - I'm 99% sure that Zilmax would be banned under organic standards. At least, certified organic. It could not legitimately be considered naturally grown with Zilmax. But, the USDA standards leave a lot of room for funny business - for one, organic apple growers can use antibiotics

reply to post by Bedlam

Bedlam

eta: I forget you guys aren't former farmers at times. Isn't everyone like me?

Anyway, hoofed animals like cattle and horses have "feet" (actually their toes) that are enclosed by a hard hoof, horses worse then cows. If the feet swell, they've got nowhere to go, and the blood flow is cut off or restricted. That's bad, because it's a positive feedback loop. The more the feet swell, the less blood flow, which makes the feet swell etc. Once this gets rolling it's hard to stop. It's a design defect. We call it "foundering", the less acute form is "laminitis".

Oh, your whole post was helpful! I love to learn about it and understand I'm fairly removed from animal husbandry. This explains a lot. Well, they said something about the animals who died - that the drug may have interacted with antibiotics to cause the acid and bloat conditions. If they are that prone, then that would make sense. These were cattle ranchers/farmers/lot owners who would have a lot experience with cattle so they were definitely concerned.

Antibiotics - fungal infections - unbearable itch - chew foot off. Possible but do they test for more clandestine or systematic infections routinely. How sad.

Dianec
Antibiotics - fungal infections - unbearable itch - chew foot off. Possible but do they test for more clandestine or systematic infections routinely. How sad.

Cows can't chew their feet off.

What I'm reading is that some research concludes that in this case the industry has gone to far and it's a consequence of it all. With that it could be a combination of factors in modern factory farms. The drug in question should still be on trial more, before any action to allow it's use again.

Bedlam

Dianec
Antibiotics - fungal infections - unbearable itch - chew foot off. Possible but do they test for more clandestine or systematic infections routinely. How sad.

Cows can't chew their feet off.

Advantage above stated the cows started biting their feet off in relation to her cousins farm. I have no idea what cows can do. Was going off of that. Their mouths can't reach their feet?

Something is Making Cow's Hooves Fall Off..

and everyone who purchases/consumes beef and/or dairy products, even lactovegetarians, are to blame for supporting, rewarding, endorsing, accepting this commercially unsustainable animal food product!

i mean, how else in the world can US continue to supply nearly 300million Americans who just love their beef & dairy products in most every single meal 24/7/365!?!


S&F for bringing it to the ATS roundtable