Spontaneous Fractures in Heifers

During the early part of spring 2011 we noticed that we were experiencing more calls than what we would consider “normal” for broken legs. The odd case on individual farms perplexed us, as no reason could be found, and most often the animal involved was a heifer. Then came the case of 4 broken legs in heifers (out of 34) on the one farm over a 4 week period. This was an incredibly unusual event, and after ruling out “normal” causes a bone development problem due to mineral deficiencies was suspected. Calcium and phosphate are both critical for bone growth and strength and are often lacking in a grass only diet. Another possibility that we considered was copper deficiency, as this can be associated with spontaneous fractures in cattle. Blood calcium, phosphate and copper tests showed normal levels, but a liver sample from one of the animals when it was euthanised revealed a serious deficiency. Treatment with copper has resulted in no more fractures on that property. After discussing this problem with other vets it would appear that we were not the only clinic to have had outbreaks of multiple leg fractures in heifers that responded to copper therapy. We heard of another Waikato farm that had 14 out of approximately 180 heifers.