Shadscale":11eiwvj1 said:
Thanks for the info. I'm glad to learn it is referred to by different names. I hope they will get it under control. The owner just doesn't want to do anything because he can't sell them as natural. I believe I'd rather have live calves come weaning time. Natural of not.
Seems that most people can only think of drugs as a way to control disease. I know drugs are fun, but they are the least effective means of controlling this.
If we are talking about coccidiosis, natural means of control are most effective. You seem to be focused on drug therapy, but once an animal is showing signs of illness (diarrhea, etc) it is too late to treat the coccidiosis. Drugs are only good for secondary bacterial infection in severe cases. Corid is effective for prevention for other animals that are not yet showing signs of illness, but it is too late in the life cycle of the parasite for it to help those already sick.
The sick animals are passing thousands of the organism out in their feces, so wherever the feces ends up is going to be contaminated. In addition, the organism survives best in moist areas. Then it needs to be ingested to cause other animals to become ill.
So someone needs to find these moist areas with crap and see how they are getting it back into their mouths. For example, I once fed hay on wet ground after the spring thaw and got a lot of coccidiosis cases. And if cows are laying in contaminated corrals, and calves then nurse on the cows dirty udders, or lick dirty hides, that's another way to get it. Need to get animals out on dry and clean ground - spread them out.
I mean, if daycare centers let kids crap all over and then had them eating off the floor, and then they just routinely used drug therapy to get the diarrhea under control, we would consider them nuts.