Dead calf, hard lesson learned

[TCRanch]

The condensed version: after searching for 10 hours yesterday we finally found a missing calf. She was breathing a little hard but stood up, looked perky. No signs of illness, no messy behind, no snotty nose, no droopy ears . . . but clearly something was wrong because her mama had been bellowing for her all day - but had not checked on her & was a mile away. Decided to take her to the barn & she was bunky enough we had to use the Calf Catch to catch/load her. She was dead by the time we got to the barn, which takes all of 10 minutes.

We did not have the vet do a necropsy (and by this time it was almost dark & raining) but he believes she died from a Clostridial Disease, specifically Clostridum perfringes Type D. She was a heifer calf, one month old but already a good 200 lbs and comes from a lineage of enormous cows (we just sold her Grandma who clocked in at 2055 lbs). Type D is rare in cattle but definitely found in well nourished (primarily) beef calves nursing high-producing cows grazing lush pasture. We calved a little later this year & were blessed with a very mild winter/early Spring - and a lot of lush, green grass. We typically don't give the calves their first vaccinations until they are around 3 months old (also contingent on the spread of the calving season) but our vet recommended vaccinating them asap. Learned this one the hard way.

 

[TennesseeTuxedo]

Well,that stinks.

 

[True Grit Farms]

That stinks for sure. You don't think it could of been stress related? It seems kind of odd that it's only one calf.

 

[Williamsv]

That is terrible. I am so sorry. I appreciate you explaining what the vet said. I had never heard of that. Sounds a lot like what happened to two of my calves about the same age as yours and their mothers were on lush green rye. It happened fast, too.
Things like this make you sick. I keep a careful check on mine twice a day and these two were fine and went overnight a week apart in January. Sure got my year off to a bad start.

 

[Kingfisher]

By not doing a Nep your just guessing.

 

[cowgirl8]

We had one last year. Just happened to see her fall down out our living room window while drinking our morning coffee as the sun was coming up. Went out and saw that she was in distress. Scooped her up and headed to the vet. She was not looking good when we got there and thought she was dead. Our vet examined her and went into action with antibiotics everywhere...Sent us home with more to give her and amazingly she survived. He explained that even though we vaccinated, this calf was the youngest of the group and just was too young to except the vaccination......this was last year and i may not get the whole thing exactly right, but its close.
We were not the norm in getting a calf to survive....but she did and went on to make it to selling time. We just got lucky and saw her very very early...She did eventually poop lots of blood, may have had bloody poop when we took her to the vet that morning, but i dont remember. She was in horrid pain, bless her heart....I think she was back out in the pasture after a few days...

 

[TCRanch]

Kingfisher, agree, it's just an educated guess based on the most likely scenario, the other one being possibly a fast-acting pneumonia. But I trust my vet's opinion because he's very familiar with our operation (and the ranch).

Cowgirl8, I had always been under the impression that vaccines prior to 2 - 3 months were essentially ineffective because they were protected by passive immunity - basically what your vet said; she was too young. Evidently that is not always the case.

True Grit, I don't think stress was a factor. The weather (temp) has been fairly consistent and we haven't moved or worked them yet. She was playful, healthy, hanging with the other calves. We check our cattle, as in a full inventory, every day. Wed morning she was with her mama, not away from the herd, and looked/acted/seemed fine.

 

[cowgirl8]

What i was told was that if the grass gets grazed down low, there is more of a chance of them picking it up. Lives in the dirt and can for 70 years...........i think this is the information i got at the vet at the time, but i was not paying attention like i should have been probably..lol We had grass, but it was low in the pasture they were in.
Our calf was fine, walking with the other calves as we watched out our window, then staggered and fell over...was very sudden. She was in terrible pain at that point and as vet said, was just minutes from death when we got her to the clinic...

 

[Stocker Steve]

Cowgirl8, I had always been under the impression that vaccines prior to 2 - 3 months were essentially ineffective because they were protected by passive immunity - basically what your vet said; she was too young.

One sees a lot of Enforce 3 and scour vac recommended for new borns.
When to you vac with 8 way?

 

[Koffi Babone]

Addtional reading info....if interested:

http://www.merckvetmanual.com/mvm/gener ... ens&alt=sh

 

[cowgirl8]

Cowgirl8, I had always been under the impression that vaccines prior to 2 - 3 months were essentially ineffective because they were protected by passive immunity - basically what your vet said; she was too young.

One sees a lot of Enforce 3 and scour vac recommended for new borns.
When to you vac with 8 way?

We vac at around 3 to 4 months, when the weather allows...It just so happened that we had a Uh Oh who was bred after breeding season so she calved later so her calf was younger when we vaccinated, probably a month younger than the last calves.....We use a 8 way vaccine.. It was the time given to this one calf that it didnt have time to take effect or whatever the vet said that made her susceptible to it. I did worry about the rest of the calves so i asked if we could have more, but he said if they were older they should be protected....

 

[TCRanch]

Cowgirl8, I had always been under the impression that vaccines prior to 2 - 3 months were essentially ineffective because they were protected by passive immunity - basically what your vet said; she was too young.

One sees a lot of Enforce 3 and scour vac recommended for new borns.
When to you vac with 8 way?

We give a First Defense bolus within 12 hours of calving which has made a huge difference in scours - treated 1 calf, 6 weeks old for coccidosis this year, zero "regular" scours except for the normal transitioning from hay to green grass. In the Spring we don't generally vaccinate with the 8 way, Pinkeye & Ivermectin until appx 3 months old (ranges 2 - 4 months, depending on how tight the calving season is that year). The stragglers & Fall calves usually get worked earlier, only because it seems to work out that way.

 

[TCRanch]

Addtional reading info....if interested:

http://www.merckvetmanual.com/mvm/gener ... ens&alt=sh

Spent quality time on that site last night. Looks like calf enterotoxemia from type B&C is very similar to type D; I suspect my vet zeroed in on D because of her lineage of giant cows that definitely never missed a meal - D is also known as the overeating disease.