Friday, July 15, 2011

Texas Drought Causing Cattle Deaths... From Too Much Water?

It seems like everyone is feeling the heat this summer. Human, canine, feline, or even bovine, we're all at the mercy of high temperatures. In Texas, several cattle are dying due to the drought-like conditions. The hitch is, they're not dying of thirst. In fact, it's quite the opposite. Cattle are dying from too much water. The drought conditions have caused cattle producers to move their herds from pastures where water tanks have dried to new pastures with healthier water supplies. The cattle then gorge themselves on too much water and die within minutes of water intoxication, according to The Associated Press. "They over drink because they're thirsty," said Dr. Robert Sprowls of the Texas Veterinary Medical Diagnostic Laboratory in Amarillo. "Once they fill up on water it happens pretty quickly." While over-hydrating can be a problem for cattle, they're also suffering from dehydration. Typically, an average cow consumes as much was 8.4 gallons of water per day through grazing but this year daily water consumption is down to about 0.6 gallons, according to The Associated Press...more

1 comment:

Tick said...

I'm having the same problem with the catfish, perch and such on my place. When one of the ponds was nearly dried up I got my kids and grandkids over to help me seine the fish to transplant to another pond. As soon as we put them in their new home many of them went belly up. Now I know it must have been water intoxication.