Years ago a friend and his wife milked on a 200 cow dairy. He told me that an old black man said the fastest way to "fix" a problem with calves scouring is to mix a tbsp. of alum and an egg in a 1/2 bottle of replacer and feed the calf 3 feedings like that over the course of a day. I've often fed an egg in my replacer for calves that seem a little weaker. And I do not consider somewhat runny manure as scours.... to me scours is real runny like water, and shooting out when they go. I seem to get that at about 10 days or so, and it is almost always coccidiosis. Yes, I have been told over and over that it is species specific, but the only place I have this trouble is where I raised turkeys one year in a part of the barn that is now all for the calves and nurse cows. Don't have it anywhere else, like at the other place we sometimes have bottle calves. So I feel it is from the turkey induced coccidia. Unless someone can prove me wrong, I will still think that. And yes, I had calves there for a couple of years before I cut back on the calves and raised this group of 20 turkeys free range there.
There are packages that have a "gelling agent" in them that you can mix and feed quickly to calves that will do the same as the sure jell idea. Yes it helps. My thoughts are if you can get it to stay in the gut tract longer, the calf will get the nutrition out of it.
Regardless, I am glad that you talked to someone who you know and respect, face to face, and who you can hopefully call in an emergency in the future. And that she said to not over worry it.....
Unflavored Knox gelatin, that is suggested for people to drink to help strengthen their nails and hair, will do the same as surejell and maybe be a bit more palatable.