I was given a freebie this morning (week old? Holstein bull calf), scouring and possibly more dead than alive, and over the course of the day learned some new things I thought y'all might be interested in.
After bringing him home, I ran 2000mLs of lactated ringers IV with dextrose, dexamethasone, and vitamin B complex -- and his skin still took 4 seconds to return to normal following tenting even after 2000mLs. I shadow at a local vet clinic on Fridays, so I called and asked if I could bring him with me for the day. So... I took him with me to the clinic and we ran another 1000mLs IV of lactated ringers, then a gallon of distilled water with sodium bicarb IV. Almost 6800mLs of fluid IV. Now he's finally beginning to look hydrated; skin returns to normal in 2 seconds, he drank a half bottle of milk tonight eagerly, and he's standing and walking. Not normal yet, but he's getting there.
The interesting things I learned today -- what a LOT of fluid it took to hydrate that calf! : I'd initially figured 3000mLs max would probably do it, but it took more than double that.
The distilled water w/sodium bicarb was fascinating. I guess I'd always thought water was much too hypotonic and would kill an animal, but mixed with sodium bicarb it seems to be fine. Tap water won't work, but distilled water is close enough to sterile water to run IV. Wonder what else you can mix with distilled water and run IV....? I shall have to ask.
*Note that sodium bicarb is the treatment for acidosis; what this means is that if you have a cow with grain overload who looks really bad, rather than going orally with sodium bicarb, you could potentially run a distilled water/sodium bicarb solution to get a quicker response.*
For running the distilled water w/sodium bicarb, we just cut a top corner off the bag of lactated ringers and poured the distilled water in that way. Not exactly "sterile" technique, but it doesn't seem to be an issue, at least not for calves.
The catheter was the best part; I tried putting a normal IV catheter in and I had no idea how tough it was to use a normal IV catheter! I've always used a regular needle for IVs. We couldn't get a normal IV catheter to stay put, so we ended up using a 14 gauge x1" needle to get in the vein, then ran a 14cm tom cat (urinary) catheter through the needle, taped both together and then taped it all around the calf's neck. Worked REALLY well. I brought home a couple 14 gauge needles and tom cat catheters to keep in my stash at home. Never know when I might need them!
Moral of today's adventure... stay on top of scour problems and keep them from getting so bad the calf has to go on IV fluids, because it's pretty well an all-day task to rehydrate them. Lotta work for a worthless Holstein bull calf, but anytime I learn things like I did today it's well worth the work and the price.
After bringing him home, I ran 2000mLs of lactated ringers IV with dextrose, dexamethasone, and vitamin B complex -- and his skin still took 4 seconds to return to normal following tenting even after 2000mLs. I shadow at a local vet clinic on Fridays, so I called and asked if I could bring him with me for the day. So... I took him with me to the clinic and we ran another 1000mLs IV of lactated ringers, then a gallon of distilled water with sodium bicarb IV. Almost 6800mLs of fluid IV. Now he's finally beginning to look hydrated; skin returns to normal in 2 seconds, he drank a half bottle of milk tonight eagerly, and he's standing and walking. Not normal yet, but he's getting there.
The interesting things I learned today -- what a LOT of fluid it took to hydrate that calf! : I'd initially figured 3000mLs max would probably do it, but it took more than double that.
The distilled water w/sodium bicarb was fascinating. I guess I'd always thought water was much too hypotonic and would kill an animal, but mixed with sodium bicarb it seems to be fine. Tap water won't work, but distilled water is close enough to sterile water to run IV. Wonder what else you can mix with distilled water and run IV....? I shall have to ask.
*Note that sodium bicarb is the treatment for acidosis; what this means is that if you have a cow with grain overload who looks really bad, rather than going orally with sodium bicarb, you could potentially run a distilled water/sodium bicarb solution to get a quicker response.*
For running the distilled water w/sodium bicarb, we just cut a top corner off the bag of lactated ringers and poured the distilled water in that way. Not exactly "sterile" technique, but it doesn't seem to be an issue, at least not for calves.
The catheter was the best part; I tried putting a normal IV catheter in and I had no idea how tough it was to use a normal IV catheter! I've always used a regular needle for IVs. We couldn't get a normal IV catheter to stay put, so we ended up using a 14 gauge x1" needle to get in the vein, then ran a 14cm tom cat (urinary) catheter through the needle, taped both together and then taped it all around the calf's neck. Worked REALLY well. I brought home a couple 14 gauge needles and tom cat catheters to keep in my stash at home. Never know when I might need them!
Moral of today's adventure... stay on top of scour problems and keep them from getting so bad the calf has to go on IV fluids, because it's pretty well an all-day task to rehydrate them. Lotta work for a worthless Holstein bull calf, but anytime I learn things like I did today it's well worth the work and the price.