Calves down

[Vanna108]

I'm new to the site but I've had cows for awhile.

My family and I have been raising bottle fed calves for a couple years now and haven't had any problems with any of them.
We got a couple of calves last fall and started bottle feeding them and were doing fine until one died of unknown causes. Now lately we have been losing calf after calf and we have no idea whats going on. They are a couple months old already, weaned, eating hay and drinking water just fine.

We can't figure out what reacts so fast because they will be fine one day and then laying down and pretty much dead the next day and they are dead that day or the next day.

Please, if you have any ideas, I'd really like to know.

 

[inyati13]

Have you checked with a vet in your area? He would know what diseases are most prevalent in your area. There are infectious organisms that attach cattle and can put them down in short order. Bottle calves are not getting antibodies from the mothers milk are very susceptable to infectious disease. If you haven't called a vet, I suggest you start there and he can look at your operation to get a hint on what is causing it and the pathway.

 

[chippie]

Yes, I would contact a vet ASAP and get one posted.
It is very hard for someone here to help you when they can not see how you are keeping them or where you are located.

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

"They are a couple months old already, weaned, eating hay and drinking water just fine."
I would say they are probably staving to death. There is no hay alone that will provide a 2 month old calf with the nutrition it needs.

 

[dun]

have they been vaccinated for clostridial diseases with the required boosters?

 

[glacierridge]

Do you supplement any kind of feed? I would agree with Jeanne here. If that's all they're getting they are lacking, even with vaccines. Vaccines do their best with good nutrition to back it up.
Heartbreaking to lose animals.

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

Vanna may have forgotten to mention the grain?
Dun hit a good point - could be blackleg.

 

[cmay]

A lot of times bottle feeding works great the first year, good the second year, then it goes downhill from there when the sickness causing pathogens build up in the pen you are using. People who do well are very strick on cleanliness. Between sets of calves they powerwash every surface they can. They also clean out all the manure regularly and change the bedding (not just add bedding). I don't know if any of this applied to you, but it has a familiar ring to me.

 

[dun]

A lot of times bottle feeding works great the first year, good the second year, then it goes downhill from there when the sickness causing pathogens build up in the pen you are using. People who do well are very strick on cleanliness. Between sets of calves they powerwash every surface they can. They also clean out all the manure regularly and change the bedding (not just add bedding). I don't know if any of this applied to you, but it has a familiar ring to me.

When we raised a couple of hundred dairy calves a year (a long time ago) rather then a power washerm which I had never heard of at the time, we hosed down all of the calf huts with a mixture of bleach and water. Never had health issues.

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

I think we scared the OP away :shock:
Hopefully not - we ALL learn from the outcomes - please post & let us know what's going on.

 

[Beefy]

could be blackleg or clostridial of some kind. can be quite fast acting.