Sick steer... what to do?

[cindy_looper]

I love the advice we got for our last question.... and now I've got a new problem with our noisy half-bull. In order to shut him up, we were increasing his feed. We increased grain by about 30%.
He now has very liquid diarrhea, and is being quite and laying around a lot. He's been up more today, but any advice on what we should do? My husband wonders if this is Scours? Is this from increasing ration
to drastically? Interestingly, his pasture buddy is just fine.

Any advice is helpful! Believe it or not, this is our 4th cycle raising steer... I guess we've just been lucky up until now!

 

[cowspider]

I would back off on the grain a little and maybe feed some dry hay. he should be treated for scours if he is really loose. is he young?? a bottle baby?? this can change treatment.

 

[cindy_looper]

He's about a year old, about 700 pounds. And yes, it is really loose. I backed the grain down 2 days ago. I thought about the hay - we're currenltly out, but I think I'll try to get some. Thanks!

 

[Hawk]

Take his temperature. Scours is caused by a bacterial infection that will cause him to run a fever in addition to the diarrhea. If he has a fever, treat with antibiotics. If no fever is present, something else is causing the problem, most likely his rations. Good luck.

 

[milkmaid]

What type of grain is he on? some types of feed - ie, cottonseed - will give animals v e r y loose manure.

 

[Bez]

Does not sound sick to me.

Too much protein - it will cause him to squirt through the eye of a needle at 40 paces. Take him off and get him on hay or grass and leave him be for a couple of days.

Ever eat too much of something and get the runs? Same thing here.

Suspect there is nothing else wrong with him at this time.

Bez

 

[cindy_looper]

I love this board! Everyone answers sooo quickly! Thanks everyone! Cow seems better this evening - mooing again and up more. I don't have anything here to check his temp with, but will get something soon. I was leaning toward the too much food theory... my husband was more worried about something drastic.

Thanks again!

 

[msscamp]

I love the advice we got for our last question.... and now I've got a new problem with our noisy half-bull. In order to shut him up, we were increasing his feed. We increased grain by about 30%.
He now has very liquid diarrhea, and is being quite and laying around a lot. He's been up more today, but any advice on what we should do? My husband wonders if this is Scours? Is this from increasing ration
to drastically? Interestingly, his pasture buddy is just fine.

Any advice is helpful! Believe it or not, this is our 4th cycle raising steer... I guess we've just been lucky up until now!

We had this problem with one of our young bulls when he was removed from grain to quickly. We took him to the vet and he had acidosis. We had to give him Probios every other day, but he recovered. It takes a little while for the bacteria that digests the grain to build up enough to handle increases or die off after decreases. If you suddenly start, increase, or remove grain they can get sick - diarrhea, bloating, lethargic, etc. You may want to discuss this with your vet.

 

[Farminlund]

Yes true, but most all just work their way thru it without intervention - IMO the easiest plan is to monitor carefully & react if behavior inidcates problems (lathargic, head down, ears drooped, eyes less than "bright", slow to move, off by them selves, off feed, high temp, etc.). When high protein feed is available, loose stool results - but this is not necessarily bad.

 

[msscamp]

Yes true, but most all just work their way thru it without intervention - IMO the easiest plan is to monitor carefully & react if behavior inidcates problems (lathargic, head down, ears drooped, eyes less than "bright", slow to move, off by them selves, off feed, high temp, etc.). When high protein feed is available, loose stool results - but this is not necessarily bad.

I don't think I was quite clear enough, and I apologize. Our young bull was lethargic, head down, ears drooping, very bad diarrhea, etc, as opposed to him getting in to the yucca plant pods which will result in diarrhea, but no other symptoms. Based on the original post, I was under the impression that lethargy, etc was the case here as well, but I seem to be mistaken. It's been a long day, and I apologize for any confusion I have caused.

 

[Medic24]

Any change of feed should take place over a period of time measured in days, not hours. always try to work your amounts of fed grain up slowly as well.

The cow unlike us is not so able to eat so many different types of food without first developing the a substantial amount of corresponding digestive bacteria in the gut to handle same.

Slow is the word when adding or changing feeds, minerials, and pasture types, especially 'hotter' feeds such as higher protein grains. :cboy: