I am so angry at feed supplier!

[BarnyardChaos]

On two farms, we have 8 cattle and one donkey on pasture. The donkey is a newcomer to the herd, and is a great little guy, protector, and 'hey! something's wrong!' alarm. One of the heifers has a nursing calf, and three others are due to calve any day now, plus a bull and 3 feeder calves - so we have all variety of dietary needs. Well yesterday, I went to our local agricultural grain dealer and feed manufacturer/supplier for the first month's winter feed supply to supplement their hay. The associate I dealt with advised a product called Cattle Guard as a supplement that most farmers & ranchers in the area buy from them, and is for all stages of a cow's development. I'd told him we have a donkey in the herd, and mentioned it again when I asked for the recommended daily ration. I bought 1650 pounds to start.

Now, I'm in the habit of collecting nutrition labels and tags from any feed or supplements I buy, and I keep those in folders dedicated to each species of animal we have. And I READ them. This Cattle Guard feed contains Monensin at 18mg/lb of feed. A type of antibiotic that prevents coccidosis. Well that's good, I thought! But then in the fine print, under the "CAUTION" heading, was a warning "do not allow horses or other equines access to formulation containing monensin." Isn't a donkey an equine? Well, yes, it IS. Why can't they eat monensin? BECAUSE IT IS FATAL!!!!!

My little donkey need only consume 25 pounds of feed to reach "LD50" - so even less than that could kill him! There's no antidote.

We haven't started feeding yet, so no harm has been done. I'll bring that batch of feed to our 2nd farm where we have only the feeder calves, so I don't have to return it nor waste it. But the feed store is LUCKY it's Saturday and they're closed, so I'm forced to cool down my temper for a couple of days - but Monday morning I'll be on their doorstep and give them a dose of Monday morning blues.

People - PLEASE READ YOUR FEED LABELS AND UNDERSTAND WHAT YOU'RE FEEDING YOUR LIVESTOCK! I might have killed little JackJack if I hadn't!

 

[MysteryChicken]

Coccidiosis ain't a bacteria, it's a protozoan parasite.

 

[sourland]

Very good that you caught that - the store associate should have known that - come Monday they will.

 

[Kiki]

Beware: Feed store employees don't usually know a thing about what they sell. I'm glad you read the labels yourself and now you know to continue to do your own research.

 

[RoyalChick]

Oh goodness!
And not to scare you but LD50 is not half the lethal dose. It is the dose at which half the test subjects died.
So LD50 is the lethal dose for half the test population!
Glad you spotted it in time.

 

[BarnyardChaos]

Coccidiosis ain't a bacteria, it's a protozoan parasite.

Apparently, monensin is effective as an additive in cattle feeds to prevent coccidiosis anyway - and in higher doses can treat it. From Wikipedia (sorry to use this reference, but it's a good summary backed up by references to actual research, footnoted):
"Monensin is a polyether antibiotic isolated from Streptomyces cinnamonesis. It is widely used in ruminant animal feeds."
"Monensin is used extensively in the beef and dairy industries to prevent coccidiosis, increase the production of propionic acid and prevent bloat."
"Monensin has some degree of activity on mammalian cells and thus toxicity is common. This is especially pronounced in horses, where monensin has a median lethal dose 1/100th that of ruminants. Accidental poisoning of equines with monensin is a well-documented occurrence which has resulted in deaths."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monensin

 

[mamajos]

Maybe they were actually referring to this:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...on-coccidiosis-vs-cocci.1190998/post-18823931

 

[BarnyardChaos]

Coccidiosis ain't a bacteria, it's a protozoan parasite.

Maybe they were actually referring to this:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...on-coccidiosis-vs-cocci.1190998/post-18823931

Getting my education today! THANK YOU both for the information.
What I've learned thanks to you folks prodding me to go looking for more information, I'll summarize here. Helps me to remember, and might help someone else:

Not to be nit-picky (well, yes I am), as I understand it, coccidiosis is neither a bacteria nor a parasite. It is an infection caused by the parasite coccidia. Cocci are completely different organisms, a naturally occurring bacteria in our bodies, but an overload can cause a variety of infections, none of which are called coccidiosis. Wanna get even more confusing? Coccus is the term for a single bacteria, cocci is plural. Then there's coccusbacilli............
Enough already! TMI.

Just to be clear, Corid does NOT treat cocci or coccusbacillium or anything bacterial. It is used to treat the infection caused by the parasite coccidia.

 

[BarnyardChaos]

..... advised a product called Cattle Guard as a supplement.....

I can't edit my original post. The feed with Monensin is called Cattle Charge, not Cattle Guard.