True Grit Farms
Well-known member
milkmaid":n0nqks9s said:mightyarrowsfarm":n0nqks9s said:milkmaid":n0nqks9s said:He looks kinda ugly in the first pictures... but ugly is not a disease or reason to give antibiotics. He might just need some decent feed...what is he eating at your place?
really not sure how that helped, but thanks for your wisdom.
Oh my....... simple simple simple then....
1. Some calves are born ugly (poor conformation, genetics), some calves become ugly (chronic illness, poor feed, etc).
2. Ugly calves tend to catch people's eyes... "he looks off/sick/something isn't right with that animal."
3. Ugly calves are not necessarily sick and sick calves are not necessarily ugly.
4. Ugly calves do tend to get treated more than pretty calves.
5. Ugly is not a disease.
6. Calves do not necessarily stay ugly - good feed and management will make most of them look okay in the end.
7. When you treat a calf with antibiotics you should be treating a *disease* - i.e. the calf has _________ and the antibiotic _______ is labeled to cure that. I don't read that in any of your posts.
8. I am - and all cattlemen should be - very much against the unnecessary use of antibiotics. It costs money, can lead to antibiotic resistance, and will eventually result in increased restrictions on our/your use of it (over the counter and prescription medications) - just look at the recent VFD.
9. You cannot treat your way out of bad genetics.
10. You cannot treat your way out of a management problem.
Treat sick calves. Not ugly ones. And learn everything you can about feed and management...
Excellent post, sure nice to see you around again Milkmaid.