two week old weak calf, Help

[Shelleyz]

Hello,
I have a bull calf that is two weeks old and we are having many issues with. we had treated for coccidiosis, he was having blood in his poop and he had a slight temp for 1 1/2 days. that seems to have gotten better, now onto other issues, He is a large br. swiss calf and was given 2 bottles in the morning and 2 bottles in the eve. from the original farmer. the day before we got him (about 1 week old) he went down to 1 bottle 2 times a day, he didn't want to eat. Now we have him and we have to tube him. We are giving him milk replacer where as he is was getting milk at the other farm. After the symtoms of Coccidiosis left he seems hungrier but only sucks on the bottle for 1/2min. and then looses suction and the will to try, I have looked for a cleft pallet and he seems fine. Also, through this whole time his back legs are weak, the weakness seems to be getting worse, we also noticed that he seems dull tonight. No fever, still tried to eat for a little bit He does get up on his own but the weakness doesn't let him stand or walk well.
We are giving him Tetra-span 200. Is there something we are missing? He is a large calf and I would hate to loose him. When we have called the local vets in the past we usually get a " yeah, your doing the right thing", around here bull calves don't really mean much you can just replace them easy enough. If they come out they charge an arm and a leg. I am stock piling everything that I am being taught so that I can do this on my own and not ask questions for every little thing.
Thanks for any info that you can help with.

 

[dun]

Might ask your vet about getting some BoSE (selenium) for him

 

[Shelleyz]

I saw that in other posts, I will get on that right away in the morning if it's not to l

 

[dun]

Is he dehydrated? Scours can dehydrate them fast and that can kill them as quick as about anything short of a bullet

 

[Shelleyz]

He doesn't seem to have alot of loose poop now, Also his nose isn't dry ( if that has anything to do with anything). We are giving him a bottle and a half 2 times a day today ( of course thats by tubing him), Should I be giving him some more in between, I remember giving another calf that had a fever last year some electolyts every couple of hours, not a whole bottle but maybe a quart.

 

[hillsdown]

The calf does not need selenium, it was healthy at birth and is on replacer...My guess is the replacer you are feeding him, is it real milk or soy based ? He needs real milk replacer and at least 20 20 20..

The calf has a bacterial infection more than likely, keep him in a clean area ,give him electrolytes an anti inflammatory as well as a sulfa based drug like trivetrin. Just make sure you keep him hydrated, also adding b12 and a&d for a few days will help as well.

BTW a one/two week old with coccidiosis is not very common ,so I doubt the bloody stool was that unless you brought a fecal sample into the lab to be tested.

 

[hillsdown]

He doesn't seem to have alot of loose poop now, Also his nose isn't dry ( if that has anything to do with anything). We are giving him a bottle and a half 2 times a day today ( of course thats by tubing him), Should I be giving him some more in between, I remember giving another calf that had a fever last year some electolyts every couple of hours, not a whole bottle but maybe a quart.

You are over feeding him ..

 

[Shelleyz]

The thing is that He was starting to get weak when we got him ( he was on milk at the time). We had gotten two other calves from the same place and they both were a little wobbly in the back end but they straightened out in a day or two, we were just chalking it up to them being under a week old and having such long legs!
And as for over feeding him, That's what we thought to but that was what all three of the calves were used to from the farmer. The other two are just on 2 quarts two times a day and they are fine. We will cut back then, Could that cause some of our problems?

 

[hillsdown]

Cut them back to 4 pints twice a day for now, milk replacer is not the same as fresh cows milk. Keep giving him supportive therapy and he should bounce back. Make sure your calves have access to a good calf starter ration and fresh water all the time. I also always make sure they have a good leafy high protein hay available to them as well, but if you have good grass that is fine too.

Good luck.

 

[Shelleyz]

We do get the better of the two milk replacers that we can get. He does have access to good hay and sometimes he munches away at that. The two other br. swiss are doing great! A little hyper but great! they do get calf starter, but we hadn't tried the sick one on it. Ill do that tomorrow, I did run out just now and give him a sulfa tablet , still no fever. so we will keep our fingers crossed and see what tomorrow brings, Man, I hate loosing a calf, I just don't get used to it. We usually name them( sirloin, t-bone, bubba (burgers)) but we just didn't get that far yet with this one. one of my boys said upchuck cause of spitting the bottle out all of the time.
Thank you for all of your suggestions.

 

[dun]

The calf does not need selenium

I can;t say that the calf does or doesn;t need selenium, haven;t seen the calf. The selenium (and the vitamins) are part of the supportive treatment. Too often I've seen selenium spunk up an older calf that has been sick and now consider it a good option. Don;t know why it works, but it sometimes does.

 

[Shelleyz]

I actually have a call into a vet right now, The calf is still alive but we couldn't get him up this morning.
We will just have to wait and see what they say I guess. I could spend enough money on medicine to equal the price of just getting the vet out I guess. This little guy has me stumped.

 

[jt]

dont know if this will work, but i had one a while back... you can check the posts... that was wobbly and could not get up either. he/she, cant remember now LOL, had the scours and, i suspected maybe blood poisoning, but am not 100% sure of what all his problems were. tubing alone did not help, so i gave him a shot of penicillin. the timing of the shot made it appear that the penicillin took care of the problem.

as it played out, actually i gave him penicillin for about a week or so. calf is just fine now. 2 days after the first shot the calf was up and walking around. when the first shot was given the calf could not have gotten any weaker without dying.

good luck

jt

 

[hillsdown]

The calf does not need selenium

I can;t say that the calf does or doesn;t need selenium, haven;t seen the calf. The selenium (and the vitamins) are part of the supportive treatment. Too often I've seen selenium spunk up an older calf that has been sick and now consider it a good option. Don;t know why it works, but it sometimes does.

Dun, the reason I say no selenium is that most milk replacers have all the vitamins and minerals in it that a calf will need, and too much selenium can give the same symptoms as not enough.

Good luck with him Shelley, let us know what the vet says.

 

[dun]

The calf does not need selenium

I can;t say that the calf does or doesn;t need selenium, haven;t seen the calf. The selenium (and the vitamins) are part of the supportive treatment. Too often I've seen selenium spunk up an older calf that has been sick and now consider it a good option. Don;t know why it works, but it sometimes does.

Dun, the reason I say no selenium is that most milk replacers have all the vitamins and minerals in it that a calf will need, and too much selenium can give the same symptoms as not enough.

Good luck with him Shelley, let us know what the vet says.

Didn't know about the selenium in MR, Weve just used BoSE on calves on the cow.

 

[DavisBeefmasters]

If the calf doesn't have scours, no temp, and is just weak... it could be an internal issue (something not quite developed correctly)

However, if you're going to give it your best... call your vet and give it a shot of Draxxin, shot of Bo-Se, and it's next feeding give it a bottle of "Kick Start" instead of milk replacer (seems this stuff not only is electrolytes but gives the little buggers some get up and go power)...

...best of luck, keep us posted.

 

[Shelleyz]

Well, the vet called and told us that it's probably a virus by the sounds of things. And that he is dehydrated so, We have him on Electrolytes and am trying to keep him warm, There is a cold wind blowing that finds any opening in the barn it seems. She had told me to stop the tetraspan now because it could worsen the problem if he is acidic from the runs. His lungs are clear and from the tetraspan that shouldn't be the problem. She also said that he will act pretty dumm for a while and dum he is. I keep thinking that he will just lay his head down and that's it! I guess we will just have to see how this goes. Thanks so much for the advice and I will keep you all updated!

 

[DavisBeefmasters]

Try the Kick Start... (should be at your local feed store)

...also something I used to do while tubing a calf was give the full volume of powder but 1/2 the liquid so the calf would get all the nutrition but not so much liquid...

...but if you're little bugger still has the scours, he needs the liquid as well.

 

[dun]

The dehydration may be a real big part of the problem. Went through the dehydrated calf deal a month or so ago. A copule of times I was ready just shoot him. Once he was hydrated he came around within a day or 2 and now you wouldn;t know he had ever been sick. Our problems was from either scours from e coli or (I can;t remember the other guess right off hand). Got the scours stopped but until we got him hydrated he looked like he was at deaths door

 

[Shelleyz]

he still has the scours and I will look to see what the ag store has, I was just there and didn't see anything but I will look at another store.