bloody scours?

[ousoonerfan22]

Have a five week old heifer calf that had been coughing and now has dark bloody scours.I gave her a shot of nuflor on saturday and a couple of the small blue sulfur pills yesterday.How often do you give the sulfur pills if the calf still has the scours?

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

You have to read the box. Your blue sulfa pills may be Sustain III - which I believe is every 48 hours - but there are soooo many different products of all meds these days - wouldn't want to guess what you gave.
Bloody scours is "generally" an indication of Coccidiosis. Sulfa is a treatment for that.

 

[ousoonerfan22]

The pills are Sustain III.

 

[3waycross]

The pills are Sustain III.

HOw is she?

 

[denvermartinfarms]

I have very good luck with primor dog pills.

 

[ousoonerfan22]

She still has a loose stool but not liquid like water,I gave her two more pills.The calf is eating good and doesn't seem to be weak.
Now a bull calf the same age as the heifer has a loose stool and I'm out of pills,the feed store should be open tomorrow.While the cows are in the corral eating pellets I've been giving the calves some 12% sweet feed.....I wonder if that is giving them the scours?
This sweet feed has molasses and pellets but not much grain.

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

How much are you feeding? Any change in diet can give them scours.

 

[Nesikep]

I just had a 5 month old bull calf get Coccidiosis...(really pretty on the snow) and have had many 6-8 week old calves get it... I've given them antibiotics in most shapes and sizes and found that it never helped for me... they've all gotten over it on their own, though lost some growing time perhaps

I'd like to know if there's any preventative for Coccidiosis

 

[snake67]

I just had a 5 month old bull calf get Coccidiosis...(really pretty on the snow) and have had many 6-8 week old calves get it... I've given them antibiotics in most shapes and sizes and found that it never helped for me... they've all gotten over it on their own, though lost some growing time perhaps

I'd like to know if there's any preventative for Coccidiosis

Rumensin helps - we also use it in sheep

Decox (sp?) helps - we have used it in sheep - never in cows - I am not sure if it can or cannot be used for cattle right this minute - your local feed specialist would know - if s/he does not then get a new one. Your local mill might not want to mix this without a note from your veterinarian.

9% Amproline in the water can help or cure depending upon the dosage

Not all cocci is visible - there is a subclinical cocci - we have had it in the sheep - but not in the cows

Some cases will clear on their own and some will kill the animal

Depends on the age, weight, initial health, severity of attack and so on

Lots of folks change feed and go to a higher protein and think their cow has a problem because it schittes loose on the feed change - and will often declare cocci - but increasing protein can often create a runny schitte - which will clear on its own.

The only real way to declare cocci - in my opinion - is through a fecal sample

Too many other things can cause a runny schitte

We ALWAYS treat cocci when we find it

Most important to note the withdrawal times on some of these drugs and feed additives - prevents embarrassing moments! LOL

Best to all

Bez

 

[regolith]

I just had a 5 month old bull calf get Coccidiosis...(really pretty on the snow) and have had many 6-8 week old calves get it... I've given them antibiotics in most shapes and sizes and found that it never helped for me... they've all gotten over it on their own, though lost some growing time perhaps

I'd like to know if there's any preventative for Coccidiosis

rumensin or bovatec. Most antibiotics do nothing for coccidiosis. There's one called Tribrissen that has fixed calves for me.
Product called Baycox - I've got an old container here it's 25grams/litre Toltrazuril. When I had calves on a property that had coccidiosis I was using a 50 ml dose directly down the throat of the affected calf, once. It was an offlabel use for cattle at the time (chicken med) but I think is now on-label and can also be used as a preventative by treating the whole calf mob.
My main preventative is feeding a calf meal containing bovatec. As they get larger they need it at higher rates than I usually feed it, so I don't know if that would be enough on a property that got a lot of it, but I haven't seen coccidiosis apart from that one farm that I had calves on from 2003 - 2005. I've got a container of bovatec from that time with instructions to give 1 gram/100 kg/day down the throat daily for three days as a preventative - I had 50 calves at the time and you can be sure I complained bitterly to the vet about those instructions, feeding them meal is much easier.
None of these preventative options will be available to organic cattle, the certifiers prefer them to get sick first.

 

[Nesikep]

That's where I'm at... a couple years back I had the first case... 2 heifers... last year, 3 calves.. usually all around the 6-10 week age mark.. but now I have a 5 month old with it, and I'm wondering what this spring will be like... And being organic I don't like to medicate unneccessarily, but I do vaccinate the cows with Scourgard. We are a closed herd, once every 5 years or so we buy a bull, but otherwise we don't have a revolving door of cattle on our place which should be a good thing for "biosecurity". I am starting the cattle on a higher copper mineral mix, and since copper is important in the immune system, that might help... the 5 month old who's just getting over it now is from the 1 cow I did get blood work done on and she was REALLY low on copper... and she didn't like the minerals, it was misery to try and get her to eat them.. if I sprinkled them on grain, she wouldn't eat the grain... Finally I found something she can't resist, even with the minerals.. (sunflower cake)

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

CORID is the treatment for cocci - and sulfa.
All cattle have "some" cocci in their system. Stress makes it take over. The more exposure to manure, the more cocci is in their system & the faster it will show up & be harder to clear up.
Rumensen & Bovitec are the "go to" preventative. We have it in our loose mineral 24/7/12.
Antibiotics do not clear it up - they may help them if they get a secondary respiratory problem due to being "run down".

 

[ousoonerfan22]

Both of these calves are doing good....full of energy but the heifer did lose a little weight.Two rounds of the blue pills must have helped.

 

[denvermartinfarms]

Good deal!

 

[Nesikep]

When I had 2 heifers calves with coccidiosis, one was tame and would eat the sulfa pills out of my hand like candy, the other I couldn't get within 50 feet of... from what I saw, they both got better at the same rate... I may get some corid for the vet cabinet just in case

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

If your farm has had a problem with cocci - corid can be used as a preventative. It is put in their drinking water at times of stress. Or it can be used a treatment at a higher dose.

 

[Nesikep]

We're organic, so that's not going to work for us... All my cases have cleared up OK on their own... though they may have lost a weeks worth of growth... My bull calf is fine and eating well again.. though his butt is still dirty.

I just noticed in the first post it was said that that calf had a cough.. None of my animals have had coughs when they had cocci.. (if it's really what I had)

 

[gcreekrch]

We're organic, so that's not going to work for us... All my cases have cleared up OK on their own... though they may have lost a weeks worth of growth... My bull calf is fine and eating well again.. though his butt is still dirty.

I just noticed in the first post it was said that that calf had a cough.. None of my animals have had coughs when they had cocci.. (if it's really what I had)

I have a question to ask. If you are just selling your calves through the sale barn, why are you concerned with the organic bit? Unless you are selling directly to another organic producer I will guarantee that most if not all of your calves are going to a feedlot for the commodity beef chain.

If you do actually have cocci, it is now in the ground and will likely never go away. Bovatec in our mineral works the best for us as we do not have a controlled water source. Amprol is great if you do provide water in tanks. Treat them now, you will be glad you did.

In the early 80's I witnessed what uncontrolled cocci is capable of. A neighboring ranch had weaned 1500 calves in November. No prevention protocol for cocci and it had been starting to occur for a few years. One cold day about 2 weeks post-weaning and they drug 90 deads to the bone pile.

 

[regolith]

I don't think many of Nesi's organic calves end up in feedlots.

No, none of mine had coughs either. The Baycox worked miraculously on the first one, but then at least twice vets gave me the runaround when I called them and said I had a calf with coccidiosis, could they put some out for me to pick up. I suspected the ones I was given antibiotics for (three calves on two different occasions) got better in spite of the treatment and not because... but that first calf went from healthy to dehydrated and almost too weak to walk so quickly the symptoms scared me too much not to try and get something effective into them asap.

An interesting and completely offtopic (except so far as it relates to scours) piece of information I learned a few days ago. This being my second year on this farm, I've been worming the calves every four weeks, five at the most, since birth. Never had to worm that often on any other farm, and there are always dirty tails that clear up after treatment. We're not organic any more, a new owner took over in November. Heard the other day that the previous owner I originally leased the farm from had been attempting to breed worm resistant sheep on the property.

 

[regolith]

Nesi - check out the last paragraph for an organic alternative.
Pure luck, I thought I'd try Corid n google to see what it was (I don't know if we have it in NZ). Can't copy/paste so hope i type it right.

http://www.sheepandgoat.com/articles/co ... s2011.html