Heatwave 1 calves

[lowann]

Have any of you experienced Spastic Paresis in any of your Heatwave 1 calves? We have a bull calf out of a DJ Salute/Heartbeat cow born 3/13 that has developed the condition. She has never had a calf with any structure problems in the past. This is her 5th calf, first one out of Heatwave. He looked awsome when he was younger, we had high hopes for him. Now it looks as if he's not going to last through another month. Heartbreaking!

 

[Jenny]

Could you post a picture of your calf?

 

[lowann]

I'll try to get one for you. His back legs spasm, and cramp so bad anymore that he can't stand for very long. He is a big, thick, awsome hair, personality plus baby. He used to follow me everywhere! It is so sad.

 

[sunny]

We have had a spastic paresis calf out of a Heatwave daughter, so it is probably in his genetic background.  I'd guess it is in many club calf bloodlines.  I've seen them out of Heatseeker, Who Made Who, Witch Dr., Who's Your Daddy, and probably a few others I can't think of right now.  It would be great to know which bulls are carriers.  Any progress on that front from Dr. B, Barrel Racer, DL or anyone else in the know?  Until we have a test I guess we will have to figure this out the old fashioned way by breeders sharing our personal experiences with each other.  You have my initial input, anybody have any bulls to add to the list?  If it matters, the cows were sired by Heatwave, Heatseeker, Foreplay, and Tuffer N' Hell.  Makes Power Plant look pretty guilty, but it would be hard to find a club calf bull that doesn't go back to Power Plant somewhere!  I don't want anyone to misunderstand - I still use Heatwave, Heatseeker, Witch Dr. and Who Made Who, and believe they are great bulls, but there is that chance of a problem.  A test would sure make breeding decisions easier.

 

[justintime]

After seeing Heatwave in stud, I would be very surprised if he did not sire some calves with spastic paresis. No bull in my lifetime in this business has bothered me as much as Heatwave did when I saw him, because of the pain this bull was enduring. Even though it was almost two years ago when I saw him, it still bothers me today when I think of him. Even more bothering is the fact that, I understand he was still suffering a few weeks ago when a friend saw him.A very imhumane situation and I am very surprised someone has not reported his suffering to the animal rights people.

 

[kane1598]

My friend had a really nice DJ salute calf that has really baad spasms and is now totally crippled.

 

[red]

I know Chambero had quite a battle w/ that. We've had 1 at home. I do know of other that have the Heatwave line to have problems.

Red

 

[Jenny]

Wanting to see a picture because I think we have a calf with this also; the crippled calf's momma  is a Monsoon and the calf is sired by Sunseeker.
Would both the cow and bull carry this gene recessively?  The cow our crippled calf is out of is a beautiful cow going back to Siimm x Angus on the dam side, so she is not a whole lot clubby bred.
Don't know how long this baby is going to make it either.  She won't be going to pasture cause she can't cover that much ground.

 

[lowann]

We had 5 Heatwave 1 calves this year. 4 bulls, and 1 heifer. He is the only one with this condition. One of the other bull calves was a little crooked in front, but I think it was because of the way he was positioned in utero. He is gettting better all the time. Another bull calf out of a Black Dice cow moves like a cat, so does the heifer, she is out of a Meyer 743 cow.
It's in the genes, and when it does show up, it is so sad to watch them get worse day, by day. You guys are right though, allot of "clubby" bulls carry this dissorder.
It like the Who Made Whos, when they are good, they are really good, when they are bad, they are terrible.

 

[red]

maybe Barrel Racer can confirm this but I think Dr Beever is looking into this.

Red

 

[red]

for those not fimilar w/ the condition, this is from Merck Vet Manual

Spastic paresis

Spastic paresis is a progressive unilateral or bilateral hyperextension of the hindlimb(s). It is seen sporadically in most breeds of cattle. Post-legged cattle are most frequently affected. Attempts to move are believed to simultaneously trigger contractions of both extensors and flexors of the limb. Spastic paresis is currently considered to be inherited via a recessive gene(s) with incomplete penetrance.
Clinical Findings:
The disease may be seen within the first 6 mo of life. As the animal ages, the gastrocnemius muscles gradually contract. The hock and stifle become increasingly extended. Over a period of months, the hindlimbs become so stiff that the animal walks with short pendulum-like steps. If only one limb is affected, the animal stands with the affected limb camped back and the sound limb held toward the midline to maintain balance. If both hindlimbs are affected, the animal may attempt to bear more weight on the forelimbs by holding them well back and simultaneously arching its back.
 
Treatment:
There is no successful medical treatment. Because spastic paresis is heritable, affected animals (especially breeding bulls) should be eliminated from the herd. Palliative surgical treatment may be attempted, although ethical issues should be considered when breeding stock is involved. The procedures, usually performed on calves, include complete tenotomy of the gastrocnemius tendon, which results in a dropped hock; complete tibial neurectomy, which results in sufficient relief to permit a steer to be finished for slaughter; and partial tenectomy of the 2 insertions of the gastrocnemius muscle and the calcanean tendon sheath, which overcomes the problem of the dropped hock.
 

 

[lowann]

Thanks Red, that sums it up. It's a terrible condition. I will post pictures of my baby when the weather cooperates. Very windy, and cold here today. I won't be able to take any good ones of him under these conditions. He looks like the one pictured-only much worse.

 

[Dusty]

I would recommend treating him with a shot of lead....

 

[knabe]

the maine association i believe in december 07 or somewhere around there, gave the go ahead for dr. beever to proceed with SP.  if one reviewed the minutes, they could probably find it.

 

[red]

Knabe, I think they put it on hold but dr B is still going ahead w/ it.


Board mintues from 11/11/07

COMMITTEE REPORTS
Breed Improvement
Chairman Nessler reported that when we are ready, Dr Beever is ready to start work on a DNA marker test for Spastic Paresis. Consensus was to wait until the last wrinkles are worked out of the reporting issues for PHA.

Red

 

[chambero]

No experience with Heat Wave (yet).  But as Red alluded to, we've had a sp calf each of the past three years (different cows, but the same herd bull of ours was involved each time - twice as sire and once as sire of dam). 

Put them down.  They don't get better.

This is a calf born this past fall that came down with a very mild case of it.  He was born in late August and didn't show any signs until mid December.  It affected the back left leg.  You can't tell it by the photo, but it was not a case of just being too straight on the back end.  It was SP.  As a baby, the calf had plenty of set to his back legs.  First photo is at our country fair.  My son desperately wanted to show his mother and little brother wanted to show baby with her.  I shut my eyes and took them.  The calf would be terrible when he'd first get up in the morning, but after you'd get him warmed up he'd move ok.  Judge never noticed it really, just thought he was a little straight.  The calf didn't swing his back legs in the show because he was too nervous and never relaxed.  By the way, we have a very tough heifer show at our county with about 60-70 head shown.  Our pair won their class and were beat for Grand and Reserve by two heifers that won banners at Houston (a Charolais and an Angus).  The calf caused us to get beat, but afterwards a steer jock tried to buy him from me.  I laughed and told him he better look at that calf a little harder.  We wound up taking him to the sale barn were he brought $136.  Moral of this story - most judges and jocks ain't real worried about "structure" even in breeding classes.  I was afraid we'd get berated over the microphone for bringing a calf like that in.  I guess they've seen worse.


He was sired by Hard Core but out of a heifer whose sire had thrown our previous SP calves. 

Our previous two SP calves were out of a bull sired by Playamte and a cow sired by Power Plant.  The other two calves came down with it much quicker (around 2-3 months old) and quickly got so bad we had to put them down.

By the way, said bull is long gone - but he continues to haunt us to a certain extent.  His first crop of heifers we had calved last fall.  None of the rest had affected calves, but all of their babies were sired by Angus calving ease bulls.  We'll see what happens this year. 

SP is out there and I'd love to be able to test for it someday.  With the exception of being a threat to the momma, its just as bad as the other "stuff".  For my purposes its worse - you have to actually look at these accidents walking around vs. just dying at birth. 

 

[lowann]

I took several pictures of him today, but for some reason they won't transfer to Steer Planet. If anyone wants to see them, let me know. I will have to send them to email addresses. Sorry about that.

 

[farmboy]

email them to me, ill post them

[email protected]

 

[farmboy]

got em 

 

[lowann]

Thanks Zack!
This is my Heatwave 1 calf with SP. Zack was kind enough to post them for me.