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gerardplauche

gerardplauche

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I am going pick up several calves this week from the sale barn. I am giving Ivomec for worms. I want the best for respiratory and anitbiotics. I already lost 2 calves to respiratory illness, so I don't want to make that mistake again. What do you guys find works the best for these 2 precautions?
 
how big of calves?

For stocker calves in the fall(450-550lbs) as soon as we get them off the truck we give them, dectomax wormer, pyramid, 7 way, and 20CC of LA (oxytytriceclene) and they get branded. They go straight to a small pasture for the first week on grass and some alfalfa and then into the feedlot. Death loss hovers around 1.5-2%

Calves will do real well on a grass pasture even if you are supplementing versus the feelot situation. If we run out of room in the pasture, calves that go straight to the feedlot get free choice quality grass hay.

I am sure there will be alot of opinions on this, this is just hwo we do it.
 
When I used to bring in calves we hit them with Nuflor as they came off the trailer. Worked for us
 
Well, I asked this question before and I received a lot of replies about how everyone's operations works. But what I am interested in is product results.
 
Didn;t have any get sick but we only brought in a half dozen at a time. All picked up as singles at the evil salebarn.
 
gerardplauche":yldewvjb said:
Well, I asked this question before and I received a lot of replies about how everyone's operations works. But what I am interested in is product results.
Click to expand...

Our ranch calves never get sick, but when purchasing from the sale barn and there are 10 different sellers on a reciept for a load of cattle, we get just about everything under the sun for sickness.

Performance is gonna depend on where they came from, what they already have, quality of cattle etc, although todays shots can fix alot of problems.

If you arent buying to many try and find the seller, if the seller had a good to decent program then you shouldnt need to do much.
 
Thanks Traks. Very hard to tell where these calves are coming from. There may be over 100 sellers at this auction. I assume nothing when it comes to these calves. This way, I give the doses and I sleep at night... :nod:
 
OK, after a little research, I decided on Ivomec, Nuflor, & LA200. Is there anything wrong with me giving each calf all three shots on the same day? :|
 
dun":1igjsliy said:
Why Nuflor AND LA200?
Click to expand...

Agree, you neednt give them both LA and Nuflor(actually may may have a very negative affect if given both). If you think the calves are healthy and dont need a shot you dont need to give anything besides wormer or whatever you have planned. If you get them home and for some reason his ears are a little low or he isnt quite actin right then I would just recommend one shot of LA. If you get him home and for some reason you think he looks not so good then you might want to go with nuflor, but if you are at the sale I doubt you are gonna buy sick calves to staart with. Either you think the calves look fine and will be ok or you are a little worried about them in which case I would just shoot them with LA on top of wormer etc.

Not sure about where you have to keep them but these calves seem to usually do much better in pastures even if they have nothing to eat and you are supplementing. We hardly ever doctor calves in pastures feeding situations versus when they are in the feedlot. If you have the chance to run them on some type of clean pasture of some sort thats not muddy I would highly recommend this if only for a few days to give them a good start.
 
We backround around 150 head of calves a year and they all come from the sailbarn and from who knows where. We get them in and vaccinate them give them a shot of Draxin and pour with ivomec and check temps. Treat if one is sick. Then after 2 weeks we re vaccinate and give them a shot of Exceed and a shot of colostrum to keep them from building up toxins if they over eat. With 10calves i would go with out the Draxin and exceed seeing as they are really expensive. We use Bovi Sheild Gold 5 for a vaccine but ask your vet.
 
You got a lot of good info here on what antibiotics to give them, The only other thing I would do is keep them away from your other cattle( if you have any ) for at least 2-4 weeks until you know everything is okay.
 
Lots of good advice here. I also buy salebarn calves throughout the year of various sizes from 150# up tp 550#. My health program includes blackleg & respiratory vaccines along with worming, Ralgro implant along with a shot of Excede antibiotic. I normally wait until the 5th day after purchase (sale day is day 1) before processing and giving the Excede. If I have a sick one before day 5, the whole group will be processed immediately. The reason for the 5 day delay is the bacterial respiratory infections usually occur after viral infections weaken the immune system, allowing the bacteria to invade. With fresh calves (only been thru 1 sale), most respiratory infections do not present themselves for 10-14 days after purchase. Excede and Draxxin are supposed to provide therapy for 7 days and if given too early will be gone before the bacterial infection presents. This 5 day delay treatment was recommended by a highly experienced stocker calf vet.

I have been using this program for over a year now with excellent results. I started out using Draxxin but switched to Excede about 6 months ago due to the reduced cost. Results with Excede have been comparable to Draxxin with a 40% cost savings. Since starting this program less than 3% of calves have required any additional treatment.

In the past, I have used several other mass treatment prevention programs with expensive but mixed results. Based on that experience, I would only recommend Excede or Draxxin for preventive treatment. Just my 2 cents worth.
 
In the sale cattle we've been using Vista Once SQ, Vision 7 Somnus, Pour Ivomec, Encore Implant, Draxxin, repeat vaccines only in 14 days. Been the best program I've ever had, also the most expensive.

Larry
 
We buy a few lightweights, 150-200 pound range. One thing our vet suggested is a Pasturella shot, we use Respishield HM. There is another one he suggests but don't recall the name right now. We have done Nuflor or LA200 on arrival also. We try to watch them close for a few days. Then retreat if needed. We also use Nasalgen or TSV-2 on arrival. We then let them get over the stress before we worm or vaccinate. So far since doing this we have been lucky.
 
I background 800-1000 head of cattle yearly and have found that adding a pinkeye vac. to your list of shots given to incoming cattle is money well spent. On incoming cattle I'll wait till Fri. or Sat. to work the calves that seems to give the buyers plenty of time to get them all to the farm. I give the calves TSV-2, ultrabac7/somubac,oneshot, bovishield gold 5,ocu-guard MB-1 (for pinkeye), wormer always a pour on but I change brands a couple times a year and agrimycin witch is a generic form of LA-200 that has a withdrawal for slaughter my death loss is around 1.5-2% annually.
 
Good posts guys. Thanks. Anyone have an idea of how long LA200 will last. If I treat on Day 1, is it likely to fade away before a respiratory illness starts?
 
The most important thing to remember with these calves is you want to keep them happy. Stress kills and the quicker you can handle them, get them on fresh water and feed the better off they are going to be. The shot of LA will last 72 hours or about 3 days.

The reason why some people including us vaccinate as soon as they get off the truck is because if you pen them up and realize in a day or two they are sick its probably to late and even if you dont loose that calf your margines on that calf are tightning. Thus you vaccinate early as a pre-caughtion to help them get on fresh feed and water as quickly as possible.

Here is another tip, annually we run about 3000 stocker calves, 2000 of which are in a feedlot. Calves are stupid, when you put them in a pen it may take them a day or two to find where the feed and water is if they are just left alone. When we pen the cattle up they all seem to always go to the back except for the ones who found the ration in the bunk. These calves are stressed and in a new environment and just wonna stand around and ....well....whine. We ride the pens on horse and will push the calves up to the bunk and to the water trough so they know where it is(this does get them on feed quicker). We have noticed that with MOST sick calves that when we bring them out into the alley the first thing they do is go to the feed bunk, which means they havent been getting feed. When they get sick in the back of the pen they dont have enough heart to get up and go to the feed bunk. Even in smaller holding pens where you might keep a couple calves for a night, when you put them in there just walk them around really quietly and make sure they find the feed and water. Just work with your cattle be around them and they will tell you what they need. Even if you are bored someday get on your horse or just go stand in the middle of them and let them come acustom to you, you just might be amazed.

Hope some of this helps, good feed and water and mineral with the proper shots and you shouldnt have a problem.
 

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