Coccidiosis???

[Silver]

I can say that since we've been giving Toltrazuril at birth our calves have performed better and we have treated for very little. There has been the odd scouring calf but nothing that screamed coccidiosis.
Replacement heifers get about 3-4 pounds of feed with Rumensin in it.

 

[Boot Jack Bulls]

No. Birds play no role. Either your vet is ill-informed or he's just tired of arguing with clients who've been told, through the years, that birds are to blame.
Coccidia species that infect birds do not infect cattle, and vice-versa. The coccidia parasites are VERY host-species specific... even goat species cannot cross-infect cattle.

Virtually all cattle have coccidia infection at some point in time during their lives. Majority of infected calves are asymptomatic... but even those calves that don't develop diarrhea or bloody stools may have sufficient levels of infection to have an adverse impact on overall performance.

Lucky, our vet ran some tests on some females for us this summer that looked like poor doers for no obvious reason and said they were infected with a protozoa that looks similar to Cocci and is acquired by ingesting unclean water. Vet said that particular protozoa itself did not generally kill the host, but stole their intake, so that if the host becomes ill or run-down from nursing, for example, they cannot take in enough calories to get ahead and basically starve to death. These were cows and heifers of varying ages, from coming yearlings to cows with calves at side and even some of the spring born calves. These cattle had been on various rental pastures over the last 2 years or so, with natural water sources (ponds, creeks, low springs, ect). Treatment advised was Corrid for 5 days and water access limited to clean auto waterers. Seemed to have worked like a charm. Have you every seen anything like this or know exactly what parasite he was referring to???

 

[Bright Raven]

Cryptosporidium is very similar to coccidia. You also treat it with amprolium.

 

[TCRanch]

As always, Lucky P, thank you for your input! I'm glad we didn't get that misinformation from our vet. We ordered Corrid crumbles through one of our local CoOp's and the distributor said it was spread by birds, was a huge problem that year from southern KS through OK.

 

[ccr]

guess i was mistaken about the vet saying that