Skip to main content

Lantana poisoning killed our little bull

Our little Dexter bull Donald was sick with lantana poisoning for several weeks.  I wrote this post last week with a happy ending, hoping to share with you our success in curing him, but unfortunately he didn't make it, Pete burried him yesterday.  I still wanted to share this as a warning to take lantana seriously.  We have had cattle eat it before and not suffer any consequences, so we got blase, and now we have seen first-hand how dangerous this plant can be.  We are going to miss our little bull, I'll write more about that another day, here is just the practicle aspects of lantana poisoning.

Donald in full roar before be got sick

If your animal is sick and you are looking for advice in a hurry, scroll down to the summary at the end.


Lantana camara, a declared class 3 pest plant in Queensland, seems to flourish in the South Burnett (and indeed throughout most of coastal QLD and northern NSW). Usually I am happy to let plants grow, especially if they are thriving, but Lantana is poisonous to cattle, so in this case, I agree that it is a pest that must be controlled. Anyone who has removed lantana will have wondered why cattle would want to eat it (it smells awful), but apparently some cattle get a taste for it.

When we moved to our property, we were vigilant about removing lantana. We would fence off a new paddock (our property had no internal fencing at first), dig out all the lantana and then let the cattle into the new paddock to eat the grass. We also tried spraying the lantana with woody herbicide, but we found that it tends to grow back, so the best method is to dig it out with a mattock and remove all the vegetation and roots (it can re-sprout if you miss any). Although there is still plenty of lantana around on our neighbours’ properties, which regularly flowers and seeds, it seems like once you’ve dug it all out, and then let cattle eat the pasture, it doesn’t really get established again (possibly the cattle eat any small shoots before they can big enough to cause significant poisoning and that keeps it under control).

During the dry weather, one of our neighbours very kindly agreed to let us use his property to graze Donald as we were running very low on grass. We were so grateful, and quickly set up an electric fence, checked for lantana, decided it was all too dead to bother with, and let Donald in to eat. About a week later we noticed that he wasn’t his usual boisterous self, was off his food and not calling out to the neighbouring bulls, and that lots of the lantana had been munched. It was completely our fault for being so lazy, we were devastated to see him like that and felt so guilty that we could have prevented it. The thing is you never know which cattle will eat lantana (some will avoid it), but it seems that we had the right approach before, dig out all lantana, no matter what. Also be wary when the grass is dry, cattle are more likely to look for other options, and eat plants that are normally unpalatable if they don’t have green grass.

The toxins in lantana cause liver poisoning. The symptoms are depression, loss of appetite, constipation and frequent urination. The liver damage results in jaundice and light sensitivity, which is more obvious in light coloured animals in the form of peeling skin around their muzzles. Donald was lucky that he was completely black and was spared this unpleasantness. Donald also had trouble walking to his water trough and just laid down under is favourite tree all day, so we brought him buckets of water. He also had a very snotty nose and trouble breathing.

The main treatment recommended is immediate activated charcoal drench (vet required) to attempt to soak up the poison. We didn’t realise that Donald was sick for several days, possibly a week, so we decided we were too late to try this, of course now we wonder if it would have helped him. We gave him shots of penicillin for four days to help clear up his nose (probably a secondary infection). And we gave him shots of vitamin C and B12 as recommended by Pat Coleby, so support his body to remove the toxins. I gave him regular brushing to stimulate blood flow when he wasn’t moving around much. We tried to encourage him to eat, offering hay, freshly picked green panic grass, grain, copra, molasses, anything we could think of, but he didn’t want to eat. We offered fresh water in buckets as frequently as possible.

A lantana-poisoned animal can take weeks to die, so while Donald was sick we were constantly looking for signs that he might be starting to recover, or if he was suffering too much. With each injection he seemed to get stronger (i.e. more resistant, with tail flicking and head tossing), so we were convinced that he was improving slowly, but then in the last few days he just went downhill very quickly.  It was horrible watching him suffer and if this ever happens again, I will know to euthinise the animal before he gets to this stage, but I just kept thinking maybe he would pull through.

Summary
  • Lantana is poisonous to cattle, some cattle will eat it, and lantana poisoning can be fatal, the best way to prevent poisoning is to dig out all the lantana on your property (sorry there isn’t an easier answer, you can also spend a fortune on herbicide, but we found it just grew back).
  • The symptoms of lantana poisoning in cattle are depression, loss of appetite, constipation, frequent urination and light sensitivity in pale skinned animals. 
  • If you catch it in time, a vet can provide an activated charcoal slurry drench to try to soak up the toxins. If this animal is important to you call a vet immediately and have them try a charcoal drench.
  • If there is any sign of secondary infection, give antibiotics.
  • Shots of vitamin C, vitamin B12 and frequent brushing may also help support recovery.
  • Make sure the animal is in the shade and has access to water. Provide food, but it may not want to eat.

More information about Lantana and Cattle

QLD dept agriculture - Lantana

Have you experienced lantana poisoining in your stock?  Any tips for recovery?  Any tips for removing lantana?


Comments

  1. I'm so very sorry to hear about Donald. :( xxx

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'm sorry to hear about Donald. Best wishes to you Liz.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Sorry to hear about your bull Liz. I remember years ago a friend of ours had a property and they spent every weekend getting rid of that lantana. Regards Kathy A, Brisbane, Australia

    ReplyDelete
  4. oh no! I'm so sorry. i had to look it up - that is a ornamental plant around here. i had no idea it was toxic. i'm so sorry. :-(

    ReplyDelete
  5. Sorry to hear about Donald, Liz....that's terrible news. I never knew that Lantana was poisonous for cattle, so that's something new to me.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Really sorry to hear that despite all of your hard work you were not able to save Donald. I am glad you shared your story as it is not something that I think people are that aware of.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Oh Liz! I'm so sorry. We don't have lantana here but it sound terrible.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Vale Donald - he sounded like a super cool bull. Funnily enough, Lantana has (for me!) a wonderful fresh bushy smell. 'Lantana soil' was much sought-after for gardens years ago because of its humus-like qualities.
    I've enjoyed Grass Roots almost from its beginning and used to subscribe. These days I read it from the Library, that way I don't get an ever-increasing pile of once-read magazines. In the unlikely event that my name comes out of the hat, please send 'my' copy on to someone else who has not read it.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Oh no. I'm so very sorry. What a heartbreaking experience.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Well, after reading this I will attack our lantana with renewed vigour. We have a lot around the edges of our property and up the steep hills, but also have lots of pasture so I suppose we have been lucky so far with plenty of grass for feed. Since moving here over 10 years ago we have steadily attacked the lantana and always chop it down, break it up and stack it. Around 9 months later it disintegrates into mulch. Quite often the roots are very easy to pull out. Its the most effective way we think to get rid of it. I find it quite therapeutic actually and removing the lantana often reveals rock walls and such like hidden underneath. We are all hills and dales here with a creek running through the middle and nearly 100 acres so I have plenty to get on with. Joy

    ReplyDelete
  11. Our calf is going through this now ! Its been a week and thought he was improving....could he still die?
    We only discovered what it was 2 days ago. His nose is peeling etc...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm sorry to hear that. I only have the one experience, so its hard to say, but it does take them a long time to either die or get through it. See a vet if he is precious, there may be more you can do.

      Delete

Post a Comment

Thanks, I appreciate all your comments, suggestions and questions, but I don't always get time to reply right away. If you need me to reply personally to a question, please leave your email address in the comment or in your profile, or email me directly on eight.acres.liz at gmail.com

Popular posts from this blog

Chicken tractor guest post

Sign up for my weekly email updates here , you will find out more about chickens, soap and our farmlife, straight to your inbox, never miss a post!  New soap website and shop opening soon.... Tanya from Lovely Greens invited me to write a guest post on chicken tractors for her blog.  I can't believe how many page views I get for chicken tractors, they seem to be a real area of interest and I hope that the information on my blog has helped people.  I find that when I use something everyday, I forget the details that other people may not be aware of, so in this post for Tanya, I tried to just write everything I could think of that I haven't covered in previous posts.  I tried to explain everything we do and why, so that people in other locations and situations can figure out how best to use chicken tractors with their own chickens. The dogs like to hang out behind the chicken tractors and eat chicken poo.  Dogs are gross! If you want to read more about chicken tractor

The new Eight Acres website is live!

Very soon this blogspot address will automatically redirect to the new Eight Acres site, but in the meantime, you can check it out here .  You will find all my soaps, ebooks and beeswax/honey products there, as well as the blog (needs a tidy up, but its all there!).  I will be gradually updating all my social media links and updating and sharing blog posts over the next few months.  I'm very excited to share this new website with you!

Garden Update - July 2013

This month I'm joining the Garden Share Collective , which was started last month by Lizzie from Strayed from the Table , to allow vege gardeners to share their successes and failures and generally encourage everyone to grow more of their own food organically.  This first month, I'll give a detailed update on everything that's growing in my garden, for anyone who hasn't been following for long.  I'll do my normal farm update on Tuesday as well. If you've just joined me, welcome to my vege garden.  I recently wrote about gardening in our sub-tropical climate , so if you're wondering about the huge shade structure, that's for protecting the garden during our hot, humid summers.  At the moment though, the garden is full of brassicas, which grow best here in winter, and are suitably frost-proof.  The garden is about 12 m long by 5 m wide, and surrounded in chicken mesh to keep out the chickens and the bandicoots.  The garden has spilled out around the edg