Coccidiosis - need advice

[Kim A]

Hi,
I have a bull calf who at 18 days old was starting to pass blood in his stool. The vet I spoke to thought it was probably coccidiosis. I pre-treated the 4 cows (his mamma included) I have with Corid about 2 weeks before he was born so I wouldn't have this problem. He seems otherwise healthy. Nurses and is very energetic. The vet told me to watch for scours and treat him if that started. That brings me to my question. The blood seemed to stop on day 23 and his manure was brownish green. They are loose but not completely liquid. They seem to be mostly small 50 cent size piles here and there and he is straining now and then without much coming out. In the a.m I usually find 1 or 2 about the size of my palm. This morning I saw another small bit with some blood in it. This would be day 26.
What do I need to do? Drench with Corid or is it too late? Probios? If so how long do I treat with that? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[OK Jeanne]

We use Basic H in their drinking water -- 1 oz per 10 gallons
of water & continue that dilution for about 3 days.

 

[Kim A]

I've never heard of Basic H. I am putting Corid in their water again but I don't know how much the baby is consuming.
What is Basic H?

 

[milkmaid]

I had to double check... but the "bug" that causes coccidiosis IS a protozoa, is present in all cattle (normal), but heavy infestations (ie, overcrowding pens) will cause clinical signs to show up. Also, its incubation period is 17-21 days.

The Merck Vet Manual says this about coccidiosis... "Coccidiosis is commonly a disease of young cattle (1-2 mo to 1 yr) and usually is sporadic during the wet seasons of the year. The most typical syndrome is chronic or subclinical disease in groups of growing animals. Calves may appear unthrifty and have fecal-stained perineal areas. In light infections, cattle appear healthy and oocysts are present in normally formed feces, but feed efficiency is reduced. The most characteristic sign of clinical coccidiosis is watery feces, with little or no blood, and the animal shows only slight discomfort for a few days."

Put that in simpler terms... I highly doubt you're dealing with coccidiosis. There are no absolutes with animals, but it's very unlikely that it's coccidosis given the age of the calf. Chances are you're just dealing with scours, which means you aren't treating this calf correctly. Put the Corid back on the shelf and go get some antibiotics for the calf.

 

[Kim A]

I thought his age was a little too young also but I have received the coccidiosis theory from 2 different bovine vets. Their thoughts were that the treatment would be more stressful than the disease itself, so just watch and wait. I have only seen pictures of what calves look like with scours not what it looks like in person. My little guy isn't covered with manure. It doesn't seem like he makes very much manure. Just little piles here and there.
I feel as though I should be doing something rather than waiting for things to possibly get worse. I think I will try the sulfa boluses. I see there is also a DiMethox soluble powder you can use as a drench.
Our local vet clinic that employs our three bovine vets have decided they are not going to deal with small farms any longer. Not even for emergencies. They're concentrating on the larger dairies in the area so I feel like I'm on my own from now on. Kind of scary.
Thanks people for your input!

 

[milkmaid]

Scours is only a term that means diarrhea... by any cause. We usually mean diarrhea caused by bacteria or viruses when we say "scours", but technically it can include coccidiosis. If we were talking about a mature animal, the word "scours" could even be used to describe Johnes disease.

OK, so about what most people mean when they talk about calf scours; bacteria or viruses attack the intestinal tract and instead of absorbing fluids and nutrients, the calf passes everything right through. Calves with scours may or may not have manure on them; esp calves running with their dams usually don't have more than a little on their tail or hocks. It can be any color from yellow to brown. Also, they may be very active but have everything running right through them, or they may be very depressed, semi-bloated, and may or may not have watery diarrhea. Some calves actively nurse, others won't drink. There's not really a "one size fits all" standard for scours. Some bacteria and viruses cause a lot of fluid loss, others don't. Some don't affect the calf's attitude, others will take a calf down for days.

Just because a vet says something doesn't mean they're right. It's a hard concept for a lot of folks, but especially if the vet has not seen the animal or doesn't know all the information they need to know, it's just as easy for them to make a wrong diagnosis as it would be for anyone online to make a wrong diagnosis. Make sense?

Personally, I'd treat the calf for scours given its age, not coccidiosis, but there's JMO. Your decisions are only as good as the information you base them on. I'd suggest you go to http://www.merckvetmanual.com and type in coccidiosis, then go back and run a search for scours in calves or ecoli in calves, and see what it brings up. Do a little reading, get a little more information, and make your decision. Best of luck!

 

[milkmaid]

Also, while I'm thinking of it, there's a few folks on this forum that you just have to kind of mark and ignore. You'll learn who they are in time. For right now...

...sulfas are hard on an animal's kidneys and very hard on a dehydrated animal. Signs of dehydration aren't evident until an animal loses around 6% of their body weight in fluids, if I remember right, so I'd automatically assume a scouring calf - whether it's from coccidiosis or ecoli or rotavirus - is dehydrated, and unless you're pumping fluids into that calf, sulfas wouldn't be my drug of choice.

Secondly, sulfas will not and do not claim to stop up a scouring animal of any age. If you want something that will do that, use something like Kaolin Pectin, which absorbs toxins from the gut and will usually slow fluid loss a little.

There are times I'll use sulfas on scouring calves... personally I like the SMZ/TMP sulfa and LA200 or Nuflor combo, but at the same time they have to have plenty of fluids going into them and you have to dose them correctly. Most of the Sustain III boluses are labeled for animals over 400lbs.

 

[hillsdown]

This might help in the future as a preventative.Calves like to put anything in their mouths they eat dirt,suck on anything,so put diatomaceous earth out for them.They really like it and usually will go to that instead of the dirt on the ground.I had problems with coccidiosis in the past and after using the earth it was greatly reduced;Besides changing my calving situation.

I do agree with the vets to not stress the calves anymore than you have to so treat with an antibiotic so they don't prolapse and keep them hydrated it should work it's way through their system.However the oocysts will still be in the soil so you need to stop other calves from getting it hence the diatomaceous earth.

 

[larryshoat]

It does not sound to me like this calf is scouring.You describe the manure in good detail.I would be worried if you said you did not see any,as usually this means it is so watery that it is missed.You say the calf is nursing and energetic,as long as this is the case I would take a watch and see attitude.As far as the blood I think milkmaid has the right idea with the Kao-Pectin.If the blood worsens thats a different story.Keep us posted.

Larry

 

[cowlady1]

I don't think thats your problem. If your calf is still going use sulmet its for coccidi as well but I've had luck with it. Follow instructions exact but 1/2 dose two times.

 

[Kim A]

Everything seems to be back to normal. His manure looks normal to me. I took Milkmaids advice and did a lot of reading about the various bacteria, protozoa etc that could cause his condition. I couldn't seem to find any diseases that really matched up with the duration of the blood in the manure so all I did was give him Probios for a few days. He seems a little thin but I guess that's to be expected. I want to thank you all for your help.

 

[cowlady1]

Enterotoxemia also has blood in diarrhea. It's an overeating deease.I have seen this more. C&D vaccine is the only way to get rid of it.