Calf poop

[gailbelanger]

Hi y'all.
I have a month old calf that we got about 2 weeks ago. Everything was doing great.

The last week it's been in the upper 90s but feels like over 100, yesterday was 102 feels like 108.

She eats 2 bottles of milk replacer morning and night, drinks water, eats hay, and grazes a little. No interest in calf starter.

When we let her out in the yard she's runs around, kicking up her heels for a few. She does have lots of shade.

My concern is that her stool was slightly softer than normal. It still sits on top of the hay, but yesterday it was a little greenish gray and appeared to have trace blood in it. Not very much though but I am concerned. Someone we know who raises cattle said that the medicines could cause that.

We have been giving her anti-diarrhea bolus and some kaolin pectin suspension that I read was OK to mix in her milk.

I don't really know what "normal" calf poop is supposed to look like. So I don't know if we're treating her unneededly or not.
I just want to prevent all blown out scours.
She only poops maybe 2-3 times a day.

We do have a 3 month old calf with her who is weaned whose doing great.

 

[Hereford2]

Sounds like it may be Coccidiosis. It generally shows up when they are a month old. When I see blood in poop with a month old calf I will give them Corid in their bottle. It's at most farm stores for around $20. Follow the directions on the bottle. Also ask your vet. Have you been giving her the scour medicine since you bought her? Or just since her poop changed?

 

[gailbelanger]

Hi y'all.
I have a month old calf that we got about 2 weeks ago. Everything was doing great.

The last week it's been in the upper 90s but feels like over 100, yesterday was 102 feels like 108.

She eats 2 bottles of milk replacer morning and night, drinks water, eats hay, and grazes a little. No interest in calf starter.

When we let her out in the yard she's runs around, kicking up her heels for a few. She does have lots of shade.

My concern is that her stool was slightly softer than normal. It still sits on top of the hay, but yesterday it was a little greenish gray and appeared to have trace blood in it. Not very much though but I am concerned. Someone we know who raises cattle said that the medicines could cause that.

We have been giving her anti-diarrhea bolus and some kaolin pectin suspension that I read was OK to mix in her milk.

I don't really know what "normal" calf poop is supposed to look like. So I don't know if we're treating her unneededly or not.
I just want to prevent all blown out scours.
She only poops maybe 2-3 times a day.

We do have a 3 month old calf with her who is weaned whose doing great.

Update: now the older one's poop is soft, no form

 

[gailbelanger]

Sounds like it may be Coccidiosis. It generally shows up when they are a month old. When I see blood in poop with a month old calf I will give them Corid in their bottle. It's at most farm stores for around $20. Follow the directions on the bottle. Also ask your vet. Have you been giving her the scour medicine since you bought her? Or just since her poop changed?

Since the poop changed. She was doing really well when we first got her.

I do have Corid. I use it for chickens too.
I was actually thinking about using it.

We did give them some probiotics this morning too.

Also now the 3 month old has soft poop. Most have started overnight. It's not liquidy but it's form us gone and she did go more then she had been, smaller piles.

So we gave her the works like the other.
Also I just remembered that the lady we had gotten the older calf from gave us a oxy500 pill. So we were going to try that but we only have one. So we're going to run down to our feed store which carries a whole bunch of stuff to see if they have any or something else we can try. They are pretty knowledgeable.

I think we'll do the corid also after we see if it's not too much different stuff too quickly.

Thank you for your quick response. I think I should take something too. This heat is getting a little too much too fast. I'm longing for September.

 

[TCRanch]

 

[Hereford2]

Coccidiosis has been bad in my area this year. It wouldn't surprise me if both calves had it, thankfully it's generally easy to treat. Do you have a vet in your area?

 

[gailbelanger]

Coccidiosis has been bad in my area this year. It wouldn't surprise me if both calves had it, thankfully it's generally easy to treat. Do you have a vet in your area?

I do have to find one that's knowledgeable for cows.
If it's coccidiosis I believe I could treat with Corid.

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

I would NOT treat with antibiotics - just Corid at this time. Probias is perfect - daily, while they are being treated. Coccidiosis is the logical diagnoses at this time. They generally don't 'act" sick until they get really run down.
If you are going to have bovine, you need to get with a vet.
Have you taken their TEMPERATURE.? That is number one thing to do before any treatment with antibiotics. I am not against meds - use all the time when needed.

 

[gailbelanger]

View attachment 18232

Thank you for the images. I did look on line for what a normal poop in a calf that young whose basically only real food is milk. But I couldn't find any.
Fortunately it doesn't look like any of those. It's just soft poop.

 

[Hereford2]

Ok. Yes coccidiosis is easily treated with Corid. Don't dump antibiotics in a animal without a vets recommendation. If you're planning on having Calves/ cattle long term a vet is a must. In my opinion.

 

[TCRanch]

How 'bout a little graphic Coronavirus poo after copious amounts of Pro Bios, Nursemate ASAP, electrolytes and Resflor Gold (he did have a temp). Kept texting pics to my vet with updates. Almost lost him but he made a full recovery. Eweeee!!

 

[MurraysMutts]

Has the stool just suddenly gotten softer after you've let them graze the yard?

If so, that's perfectly normal IF they have been eating hay and feed THEN get a belly full of lush green grass.

But I agree, definitely treat their water with corid. Won't hurt. And see if the blood disappears

 

[Travlr]

I've seen a lot of first-timers overthink everything... or neglect to think. Either extreme is not uncommon.

The best advice I've seen so far is to get a good vet so you can mine them for knowledge.

You can pamper a calf to death. I've seen it done with the best of intentions.

 

[gailbelanger]

Ok. Yes coccidiosis is easily treated with Corid. Don't dump antibiotics in a animal without a vets recommendation. If you're planning on having Calves/ cattle long term a vet is a must. In my opinion.

Do you know how much corid to a 2 quart bottle?
We researched and tried to figure it out so we used a tsp to a 2 quart bottle. I'm hoping that's good. We also picked up oxy500 but didn't use it yet. And cellarator turbo.

There's a cattleman vet in the next town. That'll be Monday if nothing improves before than.

 

[Hereford2]

I used 2 tablespoons of the Corid powder once a day for 3 days. And that cleared it up

 

[MurraysMutts]

I've always treated the entire stock tank.

 

[gailbelanger]

Has the stool just suddenly gotten softer after you've let them graze the yard?

If so, that's perfectly normal IF they have been eating hay and feed THEN get a belly full of lush green grass.

But I agree, definitely treat their water with corid. Won't hurt. And see if the blood disappears

The older calf was grazing before we got her. The younger one was from a dairy she was 2 weeks old And we picked her up at 3 weeks.she did have colostrum so that's not an issue. Her's started when a friend who raises beefmaster said I should do 3 bottles a day and add an egg to the milk. I did that once she wouldn't take the night time bottle and then her poop got soft but not bad.
(Is poop OK to use? The same people are always "correcting" my terminology.)

I was thinking maybe the grass turned her poop greenish. We also got new hay last week and they love it but I have been careful to not let them pig out on it. I don't know if cows overeat.

 

[gailbelanger]

I used 2 tablespoons of the Corid powder once a day for 3 days. And that cleared it up

In how much water/milk? I have the liquid form but it's easy enough to get the powder.

 

[gailbelanger]

I used 2 tablespoons of the Corid powder once a day for 3 days. And that cleared it up

I have the liquid. How much fluid do you put 2 tbsp into?

 

[MurraysMutts]

3 bottles a day is more than sufficient
I've heard some folks are doing 3 bottles tho.
I've always done 2 bottles a day.
And feed of coarse. .
Diet change is critical in baby calves. GRADUAL CHANGES ARE BEST
This makes sense as to why her poop got soft. Pictures would help.

I imagine she was very full, that's why she didn't want the 3rd.

The egg (old wives tale imo) MAY have well introduced coccidiosis
And yes. Grass makes green poop!