4 day old calf's tongue hanging out

[cmitch62]

We are new to calf raising and not sure what is going on with our 4 day old hereford bull calf. His mother wouldn't allow him to nurse so we had to take him home at less than 24hrs old. We have been bottle feeding him twice daily with 4 pints medicated milk replacer/1 tsp powdered colostrum each feeding.

The second day we had him we noticed his tongue was starting to hang out of his mouth and he was unsteady on his feet. We also noticed he was scouring so we took the advice of the people we got him from and started adding a raw egg to each bottle. By the third day he was having trouble standing, we had to lift him up onto his feet. He would stand and try to take a few steps but seemed to be stiff legged, almost limping. The scouring seemed to be getting better. He was nursing but it seemed like his tongue wasn't working right and still stuck out of his mouth. Today is day 4 and he is very listless, scouring again, and having trouble sucking on the nipple. He is not drinking as much as he was and can barely stand. His tongue still hangs out of his mouth and he appears to be drooling. All he does is lay down and sleep. He won't stand unless we lift him up. This morning when we fed him his nose and mouth felt cold. We are afraid he is dying.

We were told by the people we got him from that the listlessnes (they called it "laziness") and tongue hanging out were normal for hereford calves and that we just had a very laid back calf. This doesn't sound right to us so we are asking any of you for your knowledge, advice, opinion...anything.

Thank you!
cmitch62
Beginner

 

[rockridgecattle]

Start an antiboitic scour treatment with electrolyes added to the diet. Before you administer the first treatment, get a fecal sample then start treating and then get that sample to the vet fast. A young calf, it could be e coli and it requires certain meds fast.

Tongue hanging out in most of our cases indicates that the calf had a hard delivery and was deprived of oxygen. An anti inflam will help this.

The listlessness is from the scours, and or navel ill. Check the navel as well when you treat. Could be infected.

Eggs :???: ....next time, since you are a beginner, ask a vet. If you are getting into cows, cultivate a working relationship with your vet. This will give you the oportunity to learn and ask questions. Some calls will even be free if you support your vet. Since you will be talking to your vet ask him/her about BSE/mad cow disease, and ask if it is ok for rumient animals (vegetarians) to eat meat protien. Then ask your vet the difference between milk scours and infectious scours

http://www.pfizerah.com/health.aspx?dru ... 237&type=3
My sincerest apologies for sounding rude

 

[milkmaid]

Google "white muscle disease" or "selenium deficiency in cattle" and then stop by your vet's local clinic and ask for a couple shots of Bo-Se. If he isn't running a fever, likely a selenium deficiency is all that's wrong - but it will kill him if not treated.

 

[milkmaid]

He will need electrolytes and fluids too if he's still scouring, but the tongue hanging out of his mouth (as long as he doesn't have pneumonia/trouble breathing), stiffness and inability to rise are symptoms of WMD and I'd suspect that's the number one problem.

He'll need 2 quarts twice a day of milk replacer - make sure you're not underfeeding him - and colostrum is only "good" in the first 24 hours of life. No need to keep giving it.

If he feels cold - put him under a heat lamp. It's easy for a calf to get hypothermia and that's not going to help matters any.

Good luck with him.

 

[cmitch62]

Thank you everyone for your responses.

We set up a heat lamp for him yesterday to help keep him warm. It is not freezing here now but temps are in the 30's-40's.

We have a friend (who has a small dairy farm) coming over soon to help us with our little calf. She is bringing over some Bo-SE for him and also agrees that his behavior is not normal.

Please pray our little Bubba Louie pulls through this.

 

[rockridgecattle]

MM, I was out working calves and giving the vit shots. I was thinking along the lines of selenium deficency for bubba louie while working the newborns. Funny how you do not think of things right off the bat.
The tongue hanging out...pnemonia is a thought too. Check the temp

 

[jt]

i could be wrong, but the thought that keeps coming to me is that it sounds like your calf didnt get enough colostrum, and unless something is done to offset that problem he will still be sick a month from now (if he is still alive).

jmo

jt

 

[cmitch62]

Here's an update on Bubba Louie:

Our local bovine vet was kind enough to make a house call this afternoon. He gave Bubba some injections (vit B, Bo-SE, vit A & D, Gentamicin) and left us some packages of electrolytes. His diagnosis was calf scour and he also believes Bubba probebly didn't get any colostrum from his mother before we got him. Doc said he isn't out of the woods yet but he has a better chance now.

Bubba Louie will nurse off the bottle and seems to be doing better.

Thank you all for your help!

 

[dun]

Concerning gentimicin this may be of interest: http://www.vetmed.vt.edu/engagement/ext ... fall03.pdf

 

[jt]

i could be wrong, but the thought that keeps coming to me is that it sounds like your calf didnt get enough colostrum, and unless something is done to offset that problem he will still be sick a month from now (if he is still alive).

jmo

jt

Could be and that is why he got sick and scoured however, the tongue hanging out thing wouldn't have anything to do with no colostrum.

why not? it is all related. weak immunity can lead to all kinds of problems.
got some shots and is feeling better now, but if his sickness is because of lack of enough colostrum, he will be sick in a couple of days again. a vicious cycle.

jmo

jt

 

[Hippie Rancher]

Concerning gentimicin this may be of interest: http://www.vetmed.vt.edu/engagement/ext ... fall03.pdf

seems to have an affinity for the kidneys
if it was just a meat animal for me I wouldn't worry about it (I don't eat kidneys anyway) especially after a year or more

poster might want to pass that info back to their vet though - might save some commercial outfit some trouble, not to mention the general public