I am new to raising dairy calves in Arizona and I am having a problem with calves dying. They do ok for the first week but after that they get diarrhea and die. Out of 20 maybe 12 survive the diarrhea and make it. I need to have a lower mortality rate to make some money. Any advice will be appreciated and tank you for reading my post.
dairy calves ?
- Thread starter DPANTOJA
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The seond rule of raising calves is sanitation. Too often I see bottles inadequately washed. Leaves a wonderful environment for bacteria. Third rule is keep them out of drafts. Better for them to be in a draft free cold environemnt then a drafty one or a closed in one so there isn;t any air circulating.
dun
dun
DPANTOJA
Well-known member
Sorry I don't know if they do. I tried to get help from a dairy farm but the person that raises the calves has a high mortality rate to. I guess I need to try the best calf scour product out on the market.
That's a start. There's three groups of medicines you need to combat scours.
1) Electrolytes/Probiotics -- very important. An electrolyte imbalance can kill a calf as fast as anything, and good bacteria need to be replenished with probiotics to help stop the scours.
2) Antibiotics -- to fight bacterial infections that cause scours. Look for brand names like LA200 (aka Biomycin, Agrimycin, etc), Nuflor, Spectam, Penicillin, etc.
3) Anti-diarrheal solutions such as Kao-Pec, Bismu-Kote, activated charcoal, etc. Works to soothe the inflamed gut and absorb toxins produced by the bacteria.
Next, there's three main ways a calf can die due to scours.
1) Dehydration -- you MUST keep them hydrated, by tubing or IVing if neccessary. Dehydration does not become evident until a calf has lost 6% of its body weight in fluids.
2) Electrolyte imbalance as mentioned before -- scours cause an animal to go into a state of acidosis, in which case they need sodium bicarbonate to counteract it. They also need dextrose to keep the blood sugar levels up, as well as sodium chloride (salt). Look for an electrolyte mix at your local feed store that contains sodium bicarb, sodium chloride, and dextrose.
3) Toxins -- toxins produced by the bacteria can also kill the calf, which is the reason for using something like KaoPec or activated charcoal.
Hope that gives you something to work with... and hope your calves start doing better!
DPANTOJA":hayo7pyp said:
I overheard my vet talking to someone about scours the other day (30 minute conversation, BTW), and he said something worth repeating. There is no one "best" treatment or drug out there. What works for one person may not work for another, and what works on one calf may not work for another calf.
My own rule of thumb is two treatments max. with each drug unless it's obviously working or I have a good reason for sticking with it. Otherwise, I try something different until I find something that works.
vbd
Well-known member
Where are you getting your calves? What breed? How do you house them? What are you feeding them, how much, how often?
Lots of info missing to offer specifics...Milkmaid always has excellent advise...
Raising bottle babies is tough...period!
Good luck!
Van
Lots of info missing to offer specifics...Milkmaid always has excellent advise...
Raising bottle babies is tough...period!
Good luck!
Van
DPANTOJA
Well-known member
I raise Holstein calves and they are in 4X2 sections of wire. I buy them from two dairy farms and I feed them milk that I buy from the dairy farm. I feed them twice a day 1 litter of milk. I have grain for them, so they can eat it when they want to.
Don't over feed them. No all calves can handle the same amount of liquid.
I don't know what kind of milk replacer you are using, but it has to be at least 20% fat and 20% protein and made from milk and milk by products.
Give them probios at each feeding. Don't cut out the replacer when they scour...just make sure they get electrolytes about 2 hours after they've had the milk replacer.
Put out calf feed when they've been there for 3 days. Cutting out the excessive liquid with the milk replacer will keep them a touch hungry and looking for water...and, for some reason, when they drink water, they begin nosing around in, then eating the calf feed.
I have had good luck feeding baby calves a full complement of replacer to 3 pints or less of water, depending on the calf's size. They get the nutrition they need, but their guts don't get so full.
In recent years, some farmers who routinely feed milk replacer have changed their formulation from 500 g of milk powder in 4 L water to 500 g powder in 2L of water. They have found this reduction in fluid volume, to provide the same quantity of milk nutrients to calves, has 2 beneficial effects. Firstly, it stimulates their appetite for concentrates at a younger age, because there is less distension in their abomasum after milk feeding. Secondly, it reduces scour problems, presumably because of reduced likelihood of undigested milk escaping into the intestine. This was taken from the following link...I really, really like this article. Read the entire thing. You'll be glad you did.
http://www.dse.vic.gov.au/dpi/nreninf.n ... EA00273B5A
I don't know what kind of milk replacer you are using, but it has to be at least 20% fat and 20% protein and made from milk and milk by products.
Give them probios at each feeding. Don't cut out the replacer when they scour...just make sure they get electrolytes about 2 hours after they've had the milk replacer.
Put out calf feed when they've been there for 3 days. Cutting out the excessive liquid with the milk replacer will keep them a touch hungry and looking for water...and, for some reason, when they drink water, they begin nosing around in, then eating the calf feed.
I have had good luck feeding baby calves a full complement of replacer to 3 pints or less of water, depending on the calf's size. They get the nutrition they need, but their guts don't get so full.
In recent years, some farmers who routinely feed milk replacer have changed their formulation from 500 g of milk powder in 4 L water to 500 g powder in 2L of water. They have found this reduction in fluid volume, to provide the same quantity of milk nutrients to calves, has 2 beneficial effects. Firstly, it stimulates their appetite for concentrates at a younger age, because there is less distension in their abomasum after milk feeding. Secondly, it reduces scour problems, presumably because of reduced likelihood of undigested milk escaping into the intestine. This was taken from the following link...I really, really like this article. Read the entire thing. You'll be glad you did.
http://www.dse.vic.gov.au/dpi/nreninf.n ... EA00273B5A
DPANTOJA":1qoriuv1 said:
I'm assuming that you are bottle feeding baby holstein bull calves, the most fickle, hardest to keep alive baby calves. And, I would just bet, you are told that the calves are getting colostrum from their mothers before you pick them up. Don't you bet on it!
Ask whomever you are buying them from to give you the colostrum that is milked out of the cow to continue to give the babies. And, if you get more than you need, freeze it. It'll come in handy. Also, you are most likely getting trash milk with who knows what kind of contaminants in it.
Sometimes I think it's better to use the milk replacer if you aren't certain about the sanitary conditions of the place you are buying the milk from.
And like Dun said, sanitize, sanitize, sanitize. Never, ever use the same nipple on different calves. I used to take a cooler full of hot soapy water with bleach in it if I had to reuse nipples to wash them off in. And, if I was using bottle racks, and didn't have enough, I'd dip them in the bleach water.
Also, the holes in those nipples need to be pretty small. Even if it appears the calf is taking awhile to finish the bottle, oh well. Big nipple holes on baby calves is asking for big trouble.
Keep the calves separated from one another so that they can't touch noses...and move their hutches regularly. If the ground gets contaminated, dig it down and burn it off before you put more calves on that ground. And wash out the hutches between calves, turn them over, and let the sun get to them.
Alice
DPANTOJA":3qnhu72p said:
Then, you are starting out with the biggest problem right there. Snag the calves within hours of birth, get the colostrum, and feed it to the calves right away.
Just because these folks have a lot of cows to handle every day and night is their problem, and doesn't need to be handed off to you. You are paying good money for those calves...they aren't doing you a great big favor by "letting" you buy them. Right now especially, they are saving the commission at the auction, 'cause they won't be getting much for them there.
Alice
I just read that you are keeping them in 2 x 4 feed pens. That's not anywhere big enough to raise a baby calf. The calf can hardly turn around in a pen that size, much less be able to get away from it's own mess. That is not good!
Alice
Alice
I've never cared for those vealer style contraptions. Seems that the calves are just generally not as healthy. Just because someone has a lot of cows, unless they sperate the calves at the instant of birth, the calf should have adequate time to get at least one nursing of colostrum from it's dam. If these dairys are having a poor success rate themselves with calves, might be time to find another source of calves.
dun
dun
