Sick calf.

[tjb018]

Can anyone help. I have a sick calf, he eats fine no temp, his breathing is very labored. treated him for pnumonia hasnt helped now last night he is having trouble standing. Like his legs are getting weeker. Had another calf do just about the same thing 2 weeks ago and lost it. Also the calf is losing hair under its chin, anyone have any ideas???

 

[jt]

have you talked to your vet? what did you give him for the pneumonia?

jt

 

[Kelly]

How old is the calf? How old is the one that died? Were the symptoms the same? Are these beef calves or bottle calves? What did the vet say about the last one that died? What are they being fed? Are they on new pasture? Have you given any shots or dewormed them? What did you treat them with and how long? Have you made sure he isn't dehydrating? Give some electrolytes & probiotics. Are you in a selenium deficient area? Need a lot more info to help - sorry!

 

[tjb018]

the calf is about a month or so old. the symptoms were the same yes. they are beef calves feed on milk replacer and goats milk. they get grain and good quality hay. They are in the barn not outside and on pasture yet. they grain is medicated. and so is the milk replacer. have not wormed yet. they had gotten a draft about 2 - 3 weeks ago. treated with penn. g for 5 days. Now treated this one the last week with nuflor 1 shot and then another 48 hrs later. they arent dehydrated at all. have given electolytes and probios. yes we are in a selinum deficient area. Did give a shot of bose last night thinking it was maybe selinium. I am new to cows but do have lots of goats. My father in law was a dairy farmer for years but dont have much recollection of how to vet these young guys!
any help is apprectiated

 

[tjb018]

oh yes, did talk to the vet with the one that died. when he was down told the vet that i gave nuflor, banamine and electrolytes. the vet didnt give me any more suggestions told me what i was doing was about as much as i could.

 

[TheBullLady]

If you didn't get any results with the Nuflor, change to Baytril or Mycotil.

 

[Farmer Kevin]

Becareful with the mycotil. Very helpful to animals, but deadly to humans. 5 ccs of tylan 200 added with 20 cc's of LS50 in the vein will help wonders as well.

 

[preston39]

Becareful with the mycotil. Very helpful to animals, but deadly to humans. 5 ccs of tylan 200 added with 20 cc's of LS50 in the vein will help wonders as well.

Farmer Kevin,

Because Mycotil is so deadly to humans..what extra precautions do you take when administering it?

 

[tjb018]

Does anyone think this could be because of selinium deficiency??? We administered BoSe to the calf and last night he seemed better! Just wondering what you guys thought? Just after getting done using nuflor and nothing really helped he seemed to have gotten worse just makes me think it is something different and after reading up on white muscle disease that can cause the calf to look like it has pnumonia and said that antibotics wouldnt help (which they havent seemed to) Still cant figure out why the fur under the chin is gone though. Checked for lice didnt see any. and it is only under the chin.

 

[Farmer Kevin]

preston39,

The only precaution I can think of is to have knowledge of the drug. To have someone know that it is deadly will add extra precaution to the individual using it. For myself I always keep the cap on the needle and place all animals in chute so there is no expected movement that will cause you to stab yourself. that is the only advice I can really give you.

Farmer Kevin

 

[cherokeeruby]

preston39,

The only precaution I can think of is to have knowledge of the drug. To have someone know that it is deadly will add extra precaution to the individual using it. For myself I always keep the cap on the needle and place all animals in chute so there is no expected movement that will cause you to stab yourself. that is the only advice I can really give you.

Farmer Kevin

I have been wondering if you crossed a pinzgauer with a belted galloway what would it look like?

 

[jerry27150]

could be selenium, have seen it kill some. in lambs they will start crawling around on their knees

 

[Double R Ranch]

Does anyone think this could be because of selinium deficiency??? White muscle disease that can cause the calf to look like it has pnumonia and said that antibotics wouldnt help (which they havent seemed to).

When we started in this business, we lost a total of 6 calves due to what appeared to be pnemonia. They were bottle calves. We tryed all kinds of medications and mixing this with a little bit of that. The only vet in our area wouldn't help. We wanted bloodwork and necropsy's done but he didn't have time. We were desperate to find the cause of all the deaths.
We had all the calves in the same pasture at different time's and all seemed to have stunted growth. The calve's that were raised on different pasture did well and had fairly normal growth.
After lots and lots of research (before finding this board) we were able to speek with some vets on line and were told about the white muscle disease. We tryed a selinium additive in there grain and low and behold the calve's started doing better and we didn't loose another calf. The survivers are a little smaller than there heard mate's but are going to have there first breading year this year at 3 years old (they are finally big enough). Weather they take or not is still to be seen but for our own knowledge we wanted to see if they will reproduce and have normal size calves. Up til now they have been in the weaning pasture to teach the weanlings the ropes.
So from our own experiances I would say that it is a very good possibility that this is what we may be dealing with in this case.
Keep your head up and good luck!

 

[TheBullLady]

Selenium deficiency is only a problem in certain areas.. check with the USDA or your vet and find out if it's even a possibility in your area.