Coccidiosis and Growth

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angus9259

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I had a heifer calf this last year that got hit with Coccidia pretty bad. Fine now.

I've heard varying reports re the ability of such a calf to grow out well and flourish due to potential damage to intestinal tract. Any truth to that?
 
My first battle with coccidiosis was this winter. Early, when they were confined to the feed pad. Conditions were ripe for an explosion of oocysts. The calves were already broke to creep feed so I mixed amprolium in the feed and knocked it right out.

As parasites of the intracellular area of the intestinal lining, it would be logical that severe infections left untreated would do permanent damage if it didn't kill them.
 
Maybe? I had a group of 10 replacement heifers come down with it but we caught it early. None of them acted sick or went off feed and that group just had their 3rd calves this year, they probably average 1400 lbs and no significant health issues (one abscess and one wonky foot). BUT I had a steer get hit pretty hard last year and even though we treated it aggressively he didn't do as well as his mamas previous calves.
 
I've had experience with it.. Calves do well on milk and fall apart when they gotta work for their food
First heifer in this video had it bad..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=302gPBc6qoQ
Here's how she looked before she had it


Then after the winter, she just looked lousy and I shipped her


If they had a slight run in with it, it's not too bad and they recover well with no lasting effects.
Here's a full sister at the same age who just had a slight bout of it.. she's good and full and looks far better




Your mileage may vary, but that's my experience.. won't keep anything that's had a bad infection of it anymore
 
Yeah usually I don't notice much in the calves. They probably get it a little and work through it without me noticing. This heifer got so she was straining to pass little bits of blood. Oddly, she never got "sick" but when I noticed her straining I pulled her and her momma off and tubed her with fluids and corrid. If you look at her now she seems like a normal weaned heifer and her rate of gain is a little lower but consistent with my other first calf heifer raised calves.

But that doesn't mean she'll be able to digest her feed well enough to grow and raise a calf in the future either...
 
When my calves have had it, they did slow down and get tired quicker, but they never just laid out flat to die like bacterial scours make them do.. they'd still get up to nurse, albeit with a reduced appetite.

If you have any other heifers that are close in quality I'd chose those first.. sucks keeping an animal over winter to find out it ain't doing squat for you
 
"cocci" can be brutal if you live in a damp climate and among goats,
maybe they are just more susceptible than calves. Have diligently treated goats under vet supervision in wet climates and they still died, and others were poor "do-oers" the vet said due to the internal scarring of the intestines which effected food being absorbed.
Never under estimate what coccidiosis can do, especially in damp climates it, seems to love the damp coastal type weather. Haven't seen it in years and hope never to see it again..
 
Coccidiosis is really easy to treat though. Corid (or a generic Amprolium) only takes 5 days to treat it. Also, feeding a feed with rumensin/bovatec will improve efficiency, and help develop a resistance to coccidiosis, because it is a weak antibiotic. We feed all of our cattle a 10% protein, 3.4 % fat feed with bovatec, have not had a problem with coccidiosis since.
 

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