I have a friend in West Texas whose family runs some cattle on land that has oil and gas production. Long story short, there was a small leak on the land, several cows were in the vicinity of the leak and now appear to be sick. They called a Vet and tests were run on stomach and feces samples. Tests (from TAMU labs) came back and showed a "trace" amount of petroleum in the samples. My question, will this trace affect the cattle? The incident took place over a month ago. Can they expect any long term effects from this "trace" amount of petroleum?

I expect if they made it 2 days they're fine now.

Just don't go near them with an open flame.

Stupid cows...lighter fluid goes on the coals, not the steaks

Pretty soon these other wise normal cows will suddenly be from some amazing blood line and recently won some kind of grand champion of some sort and be worth $20,000 each.
In my experience in west texas and there are so many different company's operating in same area and fencing seems pretty limited it may be difficult to prove or know exactly where and when the cows ingested trace amounts of oil.

I'd at least hope the oil company or operator would reimburse the vet bills.

JAG03 said:

---

Pretty soon these other wise normal cows will suddenly be from some amazing blood line and recently won some kind of grand champion of some sort and be worth $20,000 each.
In my experience in west texas and there are so many different company's operating in same area and fencing seems pretty limited it may be difficult to prove or know exactly where and when the cows ingested trace amounts of oil.

---

yes, no doubt.. .and magically their numbers will show they are 30 years old too and were in remarkable health.

JAG03 said:

---

Pretty soon these other wise normal cows will suddenly be from some amazing blood line and recently won some kind of grand champion of some sort and be worth $20,000 each.
In my experience in west texas and there are so many different company's operating in same area and fencing seems pretty limited it may be difficult to prove or know exactly where and when the cows ingested trace amounts of oil.

---

100% this.

Black Gold Brangus

Why couldn't the vet answer those questions?

Ben K. Green in one of his wonderful books talks about this when he was a vet in West Texas during the '40s. Once they get into oil they do poorly thereafter, although they live if it was a light case. Many times such animals were sold at auction and the unsuspecting new owner could not figure out why there was no weight gain. He was called out to treat the same group of oil poisoned cows by three successive owners one time. Do yourself a favor and read his books, as Texas cowboy as it comes.

I've heard of Match Light charcoal, but Match Light beef is a new one......

Cattle pricing are increasing.

There's no telling how many mouths of gasoline and diesel I have enjoyed over the years siphoning on the farm.

I'm sure the cows will be fine.

Time to switch to all electric cow /biden

How'd the oil company handle the situation?

They're just trying to make sure they don't freeze up during the great blue norther of February '21...

Probably won't have any constipation problems for a while.

Why would a cow drink oil in the first place? Guess they're bred to be tasty, not to be intelligent and/or discerning...

I've dealt with a few cases like this. The oil wipes out the rumen microbes. With enough ingested, sudden death occurs. The others can have lasting issues. Treatment would include pulling some rumen fluid for analysis and transfaunation (taking rumen juice from a donor). If this was the result of carelessness (i.e. spill or gate left open), then the company should cover the damages.

txrancher69 said:

---

Ben K. Green in one of his wonderful books talks about this when he was a vet in West Texas during the '40s. Once they get into oil they do poorly thereafter, although they live if it was a light case. Many times such animals were sold at auction and the unsuspecting new owner could not figure out why there was no weight gain. He was called out to treat the same group of oil poisoned cows by three successive owners one time. Do yourself a favor and read his books, as Texas cowboy as it comes.

---

Loved Village Horse Doctor. Was disappointed to learn later that Doc Green was not a veterinarian. Great story teller he was.

The cows will be fine. I've seen this happen many times. The cows most likely ingested voluntarily if there was produced salt water on the ground as well. I have seen cows lick drip barrels "pumpkins" clean on a regular basis that contained oil and salt water. They are after the salt.

Out here, probably licking the produced salt water and got hydrocarbon on the side.

Just do what one landowner did to me. When they die and have decomposed for about a week, throw them in the trench on the pipeline someone's building and claim they fell in and died. Easy $$$

G.I. Tracks will be thoroughly lubed.

My dad had a few cattle die several years ago when after a rainfall some oil from a nearby storage pad washed into his stock tank. You could see an oil slick across 2/3 of the tank. It can definitely kill them if they get enough.

And up from the ground came some bubblin' crude.

Thanks everyone. I'm told the company did pay for the Vet and testing and offered to pay for the bull and 3 other cows whose deaths could not be substantiated. They also set a time period that if any additional cattle die and testing showed petroleum, they would purchase those cows and pay the vet and testing. If no petroleum, the landowner would have to pay for the vet and testing. Seemed a bit much to me.