randiliana
Well-known member
Here's a weird one for you all. We have approx 50 head of weaned heifer calves. Most born here, but we did buy 16 head. Our own calves were weaned Oct 24, the ones we bought came in on Nov 4,7 and 14. Our own calves were pre-vaccinated about Oct 1 and 10 of the 16 we bought were as well. Not totally shocking, we started treating a few calves about the 23 of Nov, temping them and treating if necessary. Of course, the day we pulled a bunch of them was Sunday, and of course couldn't get any high powered drugs and had to use Oxytetracycine.
So here's the symptoms..... Not eating grain with the rest of the calves.... we feed grain (about 3 lbs/head) and they all come in to eat at the trough. Once they are all in, and mostly at the troughs, we will watch for a few minutes to see which ones aren't bellying up to the trough. The first day we picked out 3, sorted them and ran them down the chute. Temps were from 105-107.7 F.... Gave them all Noromycin LA because we had no other drugs (Sunday). Monday I went to town to get Resflor... Anyways, keeping an eye on the 3 calves, they looked to be getting better. Thursday morning 2 heifers didn't come in for grain, in fact they were at the far side of the pasture about 1/4 mile from the corrals, we went out and trailed them in. No coughing, no wheezing, no noticeable breathing difficulties, but they didn't kick up their heels at all either... Got them in and temped them, had temps of just over 102-103 F. So gave them Normycin as well, since it seemed to be making the original ones better. Friday morning we kicked the original 3 back out with the others. But again watching them as they came in for grain, we pulled 1 of those 3 back in, both the ones treated Thurs morning and a couple new ones. Gave the original calf some Resflor, as she was still running a 106 temp, then gave the Thursday pair Resflor as their temps were now over 105, and didn't have enough to give the last one, which was also running a 105 temp.... So headed back over to the vet for something (figured maybe Draxxin or something)
So, now at the vet, told her the symptoms, Not eating grain, a little tough looking, although still full looking (eating hay), no obvious respiratory issues (coughing, wheezing etc), but running pretty good temps, mostly between 105 and 107. So she gives me more Resflor, tells me we should pull the whole works in and temp them, treat the sick ones with Resflor, and give the rest Noromycin.... So on way home, I'm thinking, yeah, treat the sick ones, but what's the point using Noromycin, we did that and it didn't help any of the ones we gave it to. I get home, convince DH we should do this (he loves running cattle down the chute... :roll: )
Now the very first 5 calves down the chute ALL have temps, mostly in the 102.3-103.5 range. But the very first calf down the chute is running 105+, I temped her twice. Big calf, 700+ lbs been weaned over a month. Never noticed a problem with her, she was still eating well.... So we give her Resflor, which now, I'm thinking...should have got a couple more bottles of the stuff.... But since we didn't, we use 104 as our magic #, anything over that got Resflor, anything under Noromycin. So, next group down are also ALL over 102.3... in the end, EVERY SINGLE CALF was running a temp. Most were under 104, but we used a whole 250 ml bottle of Resflor, and there was a calf that should have gotten it which didn't.
So this was all done on Sat (Nov 29) we haven't pulled any more at this point, but I would have never guessed that those calves were sick. There was a little bit of coughing going on, but not enough to worry us. No other real signs that they were sick, they came running in for grain every morning and generally acted like they felt pretty good. They were all eating well, both on hay and grain, except for the handful we pulled in that were noticeably sick. Knock-on-wood that we caught that bug and we don't lose any....
So here's the symptoms..... Not eating grain with the rest of the calves.... we feed grain (about 3 lbs/head) and they all come in to eat at the trough. Once they are all in, and mostly at the troughs, we will watch for a few minutes to see which ones aren't bellying up to the trough. The first day we picked out 3, sorted them and ran them down the chute. Temps were from 105-107.7 F.... Gave them all Noromycin LA because we had no other drugs (Sunday). Monday I went to town to get Resflor... Anyways, keeping an eye on the 3 calves, they looked to be getting better. Thursday morning 2 heifers didn't come in for grain, in fact they were at the far side of the pasture about 1/4 mile from the corrals, we went out and trailed them in. No coughing, no wheezing, no noticeable breathing difficulties, but they didn't kick up their heels at all either... Got them in and temped them, had temps of just over 102-103 F. So gave them Normycin as well, since it seemed to be making the original ones better. Friday morning we kicked the original 3 back out with the others. But again watching them as they came in for grain, we pulled 1 of those 3 back in, both the ones treated Thurs morning and a couple new ones. Gave the original calf some Resflor, as she was still running a 106 temp, then gave the Thursday pair Resflor as their temps were now over 105, and didn't have enough to give the last one, which was also running a 105 temp.... So headed back over to the vet for something (figured maybe Draxxin or something)
So, now at the vet, told her the symptoms, Not eating grain, a little tough looking, although still full looking (eating hay), no obvious respiratory issues (coughing, wheezing etc), but running pretty good temps, mostly between 105 and 107. So she gives me more Resflor, tells me we should pull the whole works in and temp them, treat the sick ones with Resflor, and give the rest Noromycin.... So on way home, I'm thinking, yeah, treat the sick ones, but what's the point using Noromycin, we did that and it didn't help any of the ones we gave it to. I get home, convince DH we should do this (he loves running cattle down the chute... :roll: )
Now the very first 5 calves down the chute ALL have temps, mostly in the 102.3-103.5 range. But the very first calf down the chute is running 105+, I temped her twice. Big calf, 700+ lbs been weaned over a month. Never noticed a problem with her, she was still eating well.... So we give her Resflor, which now, I'm thinking...should have got a couple more bottles of the stuff.... But since we didn't, we use 104 as our magic #, anything over that got Resflor, anything under Noromycin. So, next group down are also ALL over 102.3... in the end, EVERY SINGLE CALF was running a temp. Most were under 104, but we used a whole 250 ml bottle of Resflor, and there was a calf that should have gotten it which didn't.
So this was all done on Sat (Nov 29) we haven't pulled any more at this point, but I would have never guessed that those calves were sick. There was a little bit of coughing going on, but not enough to worry us. No other real signs that they were sick, they came running in for grain every morning and generally acted like they felt pretty good. They were all eating well, both on hay and grain, except for the handful we pulled in that were noticeably sick. Knock-on-wood that we caught that bug and we don't lose any....
