Coccidiosis Treatment

[Chuckie]

Today will be the 5th for treating the bull that had a light infestation of coccidiosis. He also showed up to have BVD, but the vet said he was not a PI. I stood behind him this afternoon, until something passed. It is still loose, but has more consistancy to it. It still contains too much water.

After todays 5th treatment, and IF this is what is causing his scours, when would the Corid crumbles make a difference where I could see it?

I am waiting for a call from the man at the farm for the test numbers, for the bull when they certified him before he was sold. I do hope they held on to the papers.

The Probiotics should be here today, then I will test for the Johnes disease.
Chuckie

 

[preston39]

Today will be the 5th for treating the bull that had a light infestation of coccidiosis. He also showed up to have BVD, but the vet said he was not a PI. I stood behind him this afternoon, until something passed. It is still loose, but has more consistancy to it. It still contains too much water.

After todays 5th treatment, and IF this is what is causing his scours, when would the Corid crumbles make a difference where I could see it?

I am waiting for a call from the man at the farm for the test numbers, for the bull when they certified him before he was sold. I do hope they held on to the papers.

The Probiotics should be here today, then I will test for the Johnes disease.
Chuckie

====================
Chuckie,
What symptoms and for how long?

 

[TheBullLady]

Is he breeding age? My experience with Coccidiosis is it doesn't have much of an effect on older cattle... mostly under yearling age. It's fairly easy to treat with a drench. I can't recall having one that didn't respond quickly to the treatment. Hope it's not Johnes.. that's a nasty nasty disease.

 

[Chuckie]

After 6 days of treatment, he's a little less runny, but it is still not worth reporting about.

Bull Lady, it looks like it is time to get a worm egg count before I worm him, just as Lucky P suggested that I do. I think I have waited long enough after the coccidiosis treatment, to get a different result. I will worm him in the next day or two when the thunderstorms stop.
He is a three year old this summer.
It looks like he might be a good candidate for Johne's Disease. I have been feeding him Probios every day.

I am in no hurry for the thunderstorms to go away. After the 4th, the rain is not that frequent.
Chuckie

 

[KNERSIE]

If it was here I would have suspected conical fluke. I've never seen coccidiosis that isn't dealt with after 4 consequtive days of treatment with Norodine (the prefered option) or Disulfox (over the counter)

 

[Lucky_P]

Liver flukes are not a problem where Chuckie is located.
Johne's Disease is.

 

[KNERSIE]

Liver flukes are not a problem where Chuckie is located.
Johne's Disease is.

That is why I said if it was here....

Conical fluke isn't exactly the same as a liverfluke, and a lot harder to treat.

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

When you do a fecal exam, I "believe" coccidiosis will always show up to a degree. I understand it that cocc is ALWAYS present in cattle, but it gets out of control after stress or a huge overload in environment. Not sure if that is quite accurate, but that's how it was explained to me.
I agree that it is uncommon for a grown animal to exhibit severe dirhear from it.
Johnes is looking more likely. sorry, but better to find out PDQ.

 

[preston39]

Liver flukes are not a problem where Chuckie is located.
Johne's Disease is.

========
Dr.

How prevelant is Johne's in the west ky area/Paducah actually?

I have never thought to asked the question of area docs.

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

This isn't Lucky - but, from what I've been told - it's all over the USA. Pretty much "nothing" is area specific any more - other than things that can't survive the extreme cold or extreme heat - with the way we move cattle around. Not nearly as prevalent in beef herds as it is in Dairy herds.
I've got cattle shipping out Monday (finally!!!) to Alberta Canada.

 

[Lucky_P]

As Jeanne said, Johne's Disease is pretty widely distributed around the nation.
Certainly more prevalent in dairy herds, due to closer confinement and greater, more constant exposure to manure in high concentrations - you have to regard ALL manure as potentially infective, especially on a dairy.
It is present in beef herds - and has been for many years; particularly in beef herds that may have been present on farms that also housed a dairy herd, beef herds 'bred up' from dairy stock - and in recent years, due to embryo recipients in the form of cull Holstein cows/heifers that folks didn't think about testing for Johne's before they implanted embryos - or purchased them carrying embryo calves.

 

[djinwa]

Most diseases are a contest between the immune system and the number of pathogens. There is an infective dose for each. With many diseases, a few won't hurt, but many will if there isn't much immunity. And immunity depends on prior exposure and lack of stress.

Older animals can get coccidiosis if they lack immunity (haven't had much exposure) and are then exposed to significant numbers of coccidia.

I had a 4 year old cow and her 2 year old daughter get coccidiosis – many coccidia in stool and diarrhea shooting out like a water hose. My error was I kept feeding them on the ground as the snow melted – moisture protects the coccidia. They sure weren't stressed – spoiled rotten.

I wonder if this bull had such exposure – eating off the wet ground or somehow manure contaminating the feed. If not, wouldn't think as much of cocccidiosis. Yes, coccidia are common in stool samples, not necessarily a cause of disease in low numbers.

Once diarrhea develops (late stage of coccidia life cycle), Corid doesn't do much for treatment – cattle usually get better on their own and are immune. Corid is best used for the other cattle before they get sick on the assumption they were exposed in the same way.

http://www.merckvetmanual.com/mvm/index ... /21202.htm

Coccidiosis is a self-limiting disease, and spontaneous recovery without specific treatment is common when the multiplication stage of the coccidia has passed. The chemotherapeutic agents in common use for clinical coccidiosis are unlikely to have any effect on the late stages of the coccidia. Most of the coccidiostats have a depressant effect on the early, first-stage schizonts and are used for control.

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

Thanks for posting that djinwa - I didn't know that.

 

[Chuckie]

djinwa,
This bull is fed out of a bunk feeder. I have put a few range cubes on the ground, twice, just to coax him to cross a line where the electric fence had been moved. But it was only a few cubes. His water has always been clean. There is one thing that I had thought how he might have got coccidiosis, and I had forgot about this; an orphaned calf was brought in to put on a mama cow that lost her calf. That could have been his infestation ticket. But he had scours before the calf arrived.

The vet did send in the sample and it did come back as coccidiosis.
Chuckie

 

[Amo]

So what do you use instead of Corid?

 

[angus9259]

If Corrid doesn't work, it's probably not what's making him sick.

I'd try putting it in the water instead of the feed - that's just me.

Check for Johnes. Don't wait. All our cows have been tested. Ironically, Dairy's keep it under control because they don't tend to let the calf nurse. As has been mentioned, coccidiosis is commonly found in cattle - they just develop an immunity to it. That's why it's more rare to see in adults. Johnes, on the other hand, won't tend to surface till about age 3 or 4.

Also, my cattle are loose as a goose out the backend right now and they're fine. Green pasture poop will pass through a screen door and not leave a mark.

 

[Chuckie]

Amo, I used Corid water treatment the first time; second time I used Albon; and the last time I used Corid feed crumbles as the very young vet suggested. I am not a fan of Corid, but he seemed to think the feed crumbles was the way to go this last time. I was in hope that he would give me something there from the office.
As I told in my BVD thread, the bull was going to the same spot each time, laying in mud to stay cool, where he and the other cows were pooping and keeping it wet. It was in part of the barn where no sun could reach it; since then, I have shut them out completely. They have all kind of shade trees, but the cool mud felt better. I feel that was the breeding ground for the parasite.
Chuckie.