Calves have diarrhea and blooddy discharge

[jochygomez]

We have 2 bottle-fed calves (1 week old) that have diarrhea with blooddy discharge at the end. They're hardly eating and now and are very lethargic. We've started them on penicillin, electrolytes and microbiotics. Is there anything else we can do to save them?

 

[dun]

Have you had the stool checked by the vet for a problem?

 

[Alice]

What Dun says...and also...do NOT stop feeding them milk replacer! Keep the electrolytes going...but DO NOT stop feeding them milk replacer.

Get a vet! Make him prescribe you some antibiotics...and put some Probios down them.

And again, what dun says.

Alice

 

[Bez>]

We have 2 bottle-fed calves (1 week old) that have diarrhea with blooddy discharge at the end. They're hardly eating and now and are very lethargic. We've started them on penicillin, electrolytes and microbiotics. Is there anything else we can do to save them?

Seems it is a veterinarian or a bullet - soonest.

Bez>

 

[coolpop]

I've had a few over the years with a little bloody discharge - that doesn't worry me as much as the "hardly" eating part -- make sure you have a vry good milk replacer with oxytetracycline & neomycin in it. Some of the cheaper versions of milk replacer have only traces of oxcytet. in them.

 

[milkmaid]

I've had a few over the years with a little bloody discharge - that doesn't worry me as much as the "hardly" eating part -- make sure you have a vry good milk replacer with oxytetracycline & neomycin in it. Some of the cheaper versions of milk replacer have only traces of oxcytet. in them.

None of the milk replacers out there have enough antibiotics in them to do more than make the bacteria resistant to antibiotics.

I'd rather have a milk replacer without, and then when the calf needs treating, I'll pump him full of enough antibiotics to completely kill the scour-causing pathogens.

 

[jochygomez]

Well, we lost one, and saved one (I hope). Gave them the probiotics, medicated milk replacer, electrolytes and fed him a few times a day since he wouldn't drink the milk all at once. The other one just wouldn't eat. Continuing with the antibiotics for another week, and hopefully he will be OK. Thanks EVERYONE for your help and suggestions!

 

[Alice]

Well, we lost one, and saved one (I hope). Gave them the probiotics, medicated milk replacer, electrolytes and fed him a few times a day since he wouldn't drink the milk all at once. The other one just wouldn't eat. Continuing with the antibiotics for another week, and hopefully he will be OK. Thanks EVERYONE for your help and suggestions!

As long as one will keep eating on his own, you've won more than half the battle. Keep going...it's worth the effort in the long run, if for no other reason than personal satisfaction.

Alice

 

[Rangenerd]

If I was a betting man, I would say that you have a dose of the overeating scours. Overeating is caused by a clostridial bacteria. Put simply, it acts like food poisoning. If you examine the gut of a calf that died from overeating, you will find an ulser like leasion somewhere in the intestine. Vacinating your calves with a 7 or 8 way will help but not prevent another outbreak.
The electolites will do far more to help a calf with overeating than antibiotics will.

 

[kiwimoo]

Could it be rotavirus?

 

[Alice]

Could it be rotavirus?

It could...

Alice

 

[icandoit]

Try this:

http://www.merckvetmanual.com/mvm/index ... =rotavirus

Good Luck
Dick