HELP!

[syork]

A friend of mine called and said that he got a calf at a market tonite and he didnt want it cause he didnt realize how sick it was. He said if i didnt want it he was gonna shoot it. Well knowing me I am not gonna let anyone do that. When I first saw him he was standing he had his head down I knew he was sick but didnt realize how sick he was till i got him home in the barn. I have him away from all the cows and the bottle baby im feeding now. There are three things I am worried about.

1. He has a snot nose and a wheeze when he breathes.

2. He has the scours and God it stinks to high heaven. There is some blood it looks like blood.

3. The possiblility of shipping fever. Do I need to worry about my daughter catching it if he does have shipping fever or possibly pnuemonia?


His nose is really hot to touch and he ate about 4 pints almost better than I thought he would. I cant git to a feed store of course it is 1 am as I am typing this. I know I need resorb. I know I need to git something else for him not sure what yet.

I went ahead and gave him 6 ccs of La 200 I hope it helps its all I have and he needs something now for this infection he has. What can I give him to give him a chance to beat this thing. He weighs 70 pounds hes a holstien. Any help before I go to the feed store would be a God send. :help:

 

[dun]

The LA200 may be enough to keep him alive till you can get some real antibiotics. Get some serious antibiotics tomorrow from the vet and hit him with those. If he's eating, that's at least a good sign. As a stop gap, give him a couple of table spoons of pepto bismol to hopefully slow down the squirts.

 

[msscamp]

1. He has a snot nose and a wheeze when he breathes.

Sounds like he has pneumonia - lose the LA200 as it is pretty much worthless against this type of illness. I would go with 10 cc's of long acting penicillin - Baytril would be better if he weighs enough to be able to use it. I'm not familiar with Excenel, Draxxin, or Micotil so I don't know if the dosage is by the pound vs x # of cc's/100 lbs. I hope that makes sense.

2. He has the scours and God it stinks to high heaven. There is some blood it looks like blood.

Someone else will have to help you out here - it's been too long since I've had to deal with stinky scours to remember the cause. Sorry.

3. The possiblility of shipping fever. Do I need to worry about my daughter catching it if he does have shipping fever or possibly pnuemonia?

No, you don't. If in doubt - keep your daughter away from the calf.


His nose is really hot to touch and he ate about 4 pints almost better than I thought he would.

Get a temperature - that will help a whole lot as far as helping you to determine what all is wrong with this calf. Unfortunately, you probably just compounded the problem by giving him that much milk replacer at one sitting - 1 pint every 2 hours is much better than 4 pints at once with an already sick, scouring calf. You might try mixing a couple of teaspoons of baking soda, a teaspoon of salt, and a package of yeast in a quart of warm water and tubing him - the baking soda will help settle his stomach, as well as reduce acidity, the salt does something that I can't remember, and the yeast provides microbes. The water has to be warm, though, to activate the yeast. Sorry I couldn't be of more help.

 

[jilleroo]

Powdered ginger, a good slug of it, about two or three tablespoons, out of the kitchen cupboard, will help with that scours and not do him any harm. A couple of eggs never hurt a calf that is too sick to drink, (maybe not him, as you said he did drink milk) just crack them out of the shell and slide them down. It keeps something in their stomach without upsetting it any further.
Half an aspirin twice a day will help the temperature. Good strong antibiotics is what will save him though. Good luck, he doesn't sound good.

 

[larryshoat]

A shot of Draxxin and Dexamethasone .Ask your vet about getting some lactated ringers, it can go under the skin in the neck . Continue with the resorb between meals .

Larry

 

[dyates]

Scours sounds like coccidiosis. Larger animal would get sulfa bolus. Not sure about a small calf. Maybe half a bolus.

 

[syork]

He wont eat at all this morning. There is more blood in his stool than their was yesterday. His nose is still running and now i cant git this piece of crap car of mine going so i can go git his meds. What can I do for that blood in his stool? Does anyone here know how to tube feed so i can tube feed him?

 

[bandit80]

The blood in his stool it either a hemmorraghed blood vessel from the scours, or more than likely coccidiosis. (sp?) The only thing that will help him with that is some medication. Can't remember what you give him, but your vet should. You need to get him some antibiotics pronto. Never had to tube a calf, sorry.

 

[spinandslide]

A friend of mine called and said that he got a calf at a market tonite and he didnt want it cause he didnt realize how sick it was. He said if i didnt want it he was gonna shoot it. Well knowing me I am not gonna let anyone do that. When I first saw him he was standing he had his head down I knew he was sick but didnt realize how sick he was till i got him home in the barn. I have him away from all the cows and the bottle baby im feeding now. There are three things I am worried about.

1. He has a snot nose and a wheeze when he breathes.

2. He has the scours and God it stinks to high heaven. There is some blood it looks like blood.

3. The possiblility of shipping fever. Do I need to worry about my daughter catching it if he does have shipping fever or possibly pnuemonia?


His nose is really hot to touch and he ate about 4 pints almost better than I thought he would. I cant git to a feed store of course it is 1 am as I am typing this. I know I need resorb. I know I need to git something else for him not sure what yet.

I went ahead and gave him 6 ccs of La 200 I hope it helps its all I have and he needs something now for this infection he has. What can I give him to give him a chance to beat this thing. He weighs 70 pounds hes a holstien. Any help before I go to the feed store would be a God send. :help:

Wow, what a mess!
I dont know anything about shipping fever or pnemounia. But I will tell you, for my calfs bloody scours(which stunk too) my vet gave me lots of stuff.
Corrid for Coccsyidalious..Diluted..1 oz per 100 pounds per day for 5 days. Dont mix it in the milk, syringe it up, grab his tounge and syringe it down his throat. It tastes awful
Excenel...once per day for three days..I cant remember the dosage, my vet drew the shots up for me..2 or 2 1/2 CC's?
Probotic product..I gave it every day. There is a great paste called BP-1. it is suppossed to have more cultures in it then probios.
Resorb of course..the dir4ections are on the back.
I put lactated ringers in mine as well, we are over 100 degrees here.
You have GOT to keep him Hydrated.
As far as tubing, Ive never done it, and did not with my calf, as I didnt feel I was knowledgable enough to do it safely.

 

[syork]

I dont know what else to do he wont eat. I am to scared to try to tube him i have never done it before. He just lays there his eyes are running and he has the bloody scours. I dont know whether to shoot him and put him out of his misery and mine. I cant get noone to help me by taking me to the feed store and there is no vet avaiable today nowhere I called everywhere it is Friday I dont find a vet today then hes history this weekend. I am prob gonna have to shoot him this evening cause I cant do no more than what im doing im sitting here my blood pressure is prob thru the roof where I am so mad so aggravated cause I cant do a blasted thing with no car no help no vet. What else am I to do?

 

[Wild Cattle]

Your are in a bad spot with this calf. I would call your "friend" and have him pick the calf up. He needs to get the calf some meds or put him down. A lesson to all I hope, don't mess with calves unless you have all the drugs on hand you might need.

 

[ALACOWMAN]

Your are in a bad spot with this calf. I would call your "friend" and have him pick the calf up. He needs to get the calf some meds or put him down. A lesson to all I hope, don't mess with calves unless you have all the drugs on hand you might need.

thats for sure.. never left the sale barn with out having a hardhitter on hand

 

[syork]

i am on my way to the store as soon as this person shows up i cant find a vet so I need to know what kind of antibotic will help him it might not be as good as what the vet has but at least its something. I am gonna git some scour tablets to help this bloody stool and just hope for the best. I am gonna see if i can find someone to tube him for me so he can git some kind of fluids in him. I wish I knew how to do the iv thing.

 

[Wild Cattle]

Banamine will help with scours and make him feel better so he may drink.
Instead of an IV you can give him Dextrose(sugar water) SQ, about 10cc.
Corrid for coccidiosis.
Long acting penn. If you can't get the good stuff.

 

[alabama]

That free calf may well turn out to be the most expensive calf you will ever have. If he makes any of your other cattle sick you will be sorry.
Never bring a sick calf onto your farm.

 

[ROB]

not that it is what you should do- but if it were my calf i would start out with 3 Sustain sulfur boluses, drench with a calf bottle full of Corid (once a day for 5 days), and a shot of nuflor (6cc/100#) to get the fever down.

ROB

 

[syork]

Who ever had this poor calf before just absolutely didnt give a crap for it. :devil2: I was wondering why he was so listless today and I took a rag and went over there to look around on his behind area and oh my God there are like a bazillion on top of bazillion fly eggs. :shock: :shock: This poor thing has everything against it. I think it went from market to market and it just did it in. The only good news is that he ate two pints. Now I got to figure out how to kill these eggs and quick to before they turn into a nite mare. I use turpentine on a rag it burns like fire but at least it kills the eggs but my only worry is from whre he is already weak and already stressed it might make him not eat and he dont need that so I used an old timey recipe where I mixed alot of lard with the turnpentine since the lard takes the sting out and it helped alot. The eggs were just falling off I am gonna put more on it later on I cannot believe how bad whoever had him treated him. At least i got him to eat I gave him two ccs of penicillian and i noticed he is just a newborn almost he still has his umblicial cord.

 

[rockridgecattle]

I do not think it is a question of how bad the previous owner treated this calf. This calf was probably born to a momma that had no milk or died sometime during calving or post calving somehow.
When a calf gets shipped to market it is incredibly stressful on it's system. Think, anywhere from 1/2 hour to 6 hours in a truck, depending on how far the farmer lived from the sale barn, an overnight stay in the sale barn with no momma, no milk, and more than likely nothing more than water. Then through the ring, in a pen, back on a truck to a new home where it finally got some milk. That is an incredible amount of stress, and it does not take long for scours or pnemonia to set in especially if the calf did not recieve timely colostrum.
Then the calf got shipped to you. So in all how much time did that calf spend in changed enviroments, trucks, no food before he got treated?
It's buyer beware when it comes to any animal especially bottle calves. You really have to know what you are doing before you get the calf. You have to have all drug on hand if you are going to take on this type of job. It is a must.
Buying calves...have on hand before they arrive on the yard...
nuflor
anafin..an non steriodal anti inflam
draxin/excede or one of the like for pnemonia
Calf span for scours
sulfa injectable for scours
epinephrine incase of shock or anaphylatic shock
revibe or some sort of electrolytes
needles
thermometer
drench tube with the knowledge of how to use it.
Virkon for disenfectant so you are not contaminating the rest of your farm
A vet on speed dial while you are learning

Getting a bottle baby from a sale barn or other place requires several things in place before they arrive!

oh yeah the flies on the butt are not why he is sick, but there because he is so sick.

 

[MikeC]

Go ahead and spend a few hundred dollars on him before he dies. (Call a vet)

That way your education will be more complete............ ;-)

 

[angie1]

Never bring a sick calf onto your farm.

That is the best piece of advice so far. It does not help you now of course and I appreciate your intentions, but next time don't even go look at it. I have tried sometimes with calves or injured rehab animals that have gotten like this. Money and time ~ then they die. I would have done it so much better to have it shot ~ was not fair or right of me to prolong what was inevitable, the thing suffers to much ~ there are things worse than death. Something to think about.