Viral scours

[jensen ranch]

Hello I'm new to the page and have a 125 head commercial cattle herd of limo angus cross. For the last 3 years we have been battling viral scours (acidosis). The only treatment we have found that works is tubing baking sofa water and a powerful antibiotic. This year it seems to have changed it is now a very runny yellow colour and then turning to a white pasty. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[jensen ranch]

Hello I'm new to the page and have a 125 head commercial cattle herd of limo angus cross. For the last 3 years we have been battling viral scours (acidosis). The only treatment we have found that works is tubing baking sofa water and a powerful antibiotic. This year it seems to have changed it is now a very runny yellow colour and then turning to a white pasty. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

I should say the calves are ranging from 25-45 days old

 

[Buck Randall]

How do you know that you're dealing with viral scours? Have you sent samples to a diagnostic lab? Once you know specifically what you're dealing with, you can work with your vet to find specific treatments/vaccines that can help. As always with scours, hygiene is the biggest factor.

 

[jensen ranch]

How do you know that you're dealing with viral scours? Have you sent samples to a diagnostic lab? Once you know specifically what you're dealing with, you can work with your vet to find specific treatments/vaccines that can help. As always with scours, hygiene is the biggest factor.

Last year we had sample sent in. Our vet suggested newflor with baking soda water. We have them in 160 acre pasture and try and feed in a different area every day

 

[Buck Randall]

Last year we had sample sent in. Our vet suggested newflor with baking soda water. We have them in 160 acre pasture and try and feed in a different area every day

I'd suggest getting a second (non-internet) opinion.

 

[TCRanch]

Do your calves get anything like First Defense when they're born, or do you vaccinate your cows prior to calving with Scour Bos? Assuming you have a vaccination protocol already established in conjunction with your vet. Third year in a row - something's not working.

I've had one brutal case of viral/Coronavirus and the calf pulled through with supportive therapy of electrolytes, Resflor Gold, Sustain boluses, Pro Bios & Nursemate ASAP.

 

[wbvs58]

Did you actually have the vet out to investigate the problem or just take a random bit of $hit in to be tested? There is a big difference in just talking to the vet in their office to actually having them involved on the ground.

Ken

 

[faster horses]

You might check out mineral that has BioMoss as an ingredient. That would be for next year,
probably too late for this year, depending on how old your calves are. Starting it 3 weeks before calving and feeding it for 4-6 weeks after, gives you the best results. It has been an amazing product for controlling scours.

 

[jensen ranch]

Did you actually have the vet out to investigate the problem or just take a random bit of $hit in to be tested? There is a big difference in just talking to the vet in their office to actually having them involved on the ground.

Ken

We had the vet out and he watched a sick calf $hit and he bagged and tagged.

 

[Nesikep]

We had the vet out and he watched a sick calf $hit and he bagged and tagged.

30 years ago when we started, the first year went fine, then the second year we had scours in nearly every calf, lost a couple, had the garage full of half dead calves we were tubing electrolytes to. Since then we've given the cows ScourGard vaccine about 6 weeks before calving, and since then we might have had a case every couple of years. Been a godsend for us

 

[wbvs58]

We had the vet out and he watched a sick calf $hit and he bagged and tagged.

As Buck suggested it might be time for a 2nd opinion.

Ken

 

[moses388]

Last year we had sample sent in.

Did you run any tests this year?

This year it seems to have changed it is now a very runny yellow colour and then turning to a white pasty.

I have seen the same thing. I lost some to scours and others pull through. I sent a couple samples to a VDL. Both positive for Rotavirus Group A.

I agree with other comments - The best way to prevent scours is vaccinating the dam during pregnancy. I try to, but it does not always get done. Nesikep recommended ScourGuard and I prefer that over ScourBos. ScourBos is thicker and harder to inject. My understanding is with either vaccine you need to be in a window. Too early in the pregnancy and you might lose effectiveness. Too late and you may cause premature birth. When I put the vaccine window over my calving window of 90 days, things do not always line up. When I have a chance to do shots, it ends up being too early or too late for some cows.

I vaccinate newborns with Zoetis Calf Guard, but it seems like it did nothing this year. I was reading I can use Calf Guard on the dam within 30 days of calving. I have a backup plan next calving season. Springing cows that did not receive ScourGuard/ScourBos will get Calf Guard.

 

[TexasRancher]

@Nesikep Hmm, 30 years ago...are you saying that bottle...that cattle had a vaccine for corona...virus long before we did?

 

[Lucky_P]

Uh... yeah, they've been around a long time. Canine coronavirus vaccine has been around since the '80s, too.
I was using on my own, and client herds, Calf-Guard oral live attenuated rota/corona virus vaccine in baby calves and ScourGuard in the cows... as far back as 1985, and they weren't 'new' even then.

I've not looked at the label recommendations on the bottle of ScourGuard in years, but investigations into immune responses in more recent times... like the last decade... suggest that colostral antibody levels are 'set' by 5 weeks pre-calving - vaccines given later than that are probably not going to have optimum effect.
So... in order to maximize colostral antibody production, it would be advisable to give doses of rota/corona virus vaccines and/or annual boosters of anything you want antibodies against in colostrum at least 8 weeks pre-calving to ensure maximum IgA levels at calving.

One other thing to know about those anti-rota/corona antibodies... the ones absorbed from colostrum do not provide protection against rota/coronavirus scours - you need antibodies present in the stomach/gut lumen to fight infection.
Studies done back in the 1980s showed that vaccinated heifers were still secreting detectible levels of anti-rota/corona antibodies (IgA) in their milk at least 28 days post-calving (that's probably as far out as they bothered to check) ... essentially providing an 'antiseptic paint', if you will, to contact and inactivate those viruses the calf might come in contact with from the environment.

As an aside, I posed the question to one of my virology professors... back around 1986... if secretory antibodies (IgA) at the mucosal surface of the gut are what we're going for when we vaccinate baby calves with a live oral rota/corona vaccine... would colostral and milk IgA levels be increased if we gave the COWS a dose of the oral rota/corona vaccine, instead of injecting it? He didn't have an answer, but said (maybe he was just being kind) that it was a reasonable question. No one has done that study, so far as I'm aware. I only had a handful of beef cows at the time, and I did give them all a dose of CalfGuard, orally, prior to calving, as I'd had a run of coronavirus scours in dairy calves we were raising.

 

[moses388]

Had not heard of administering Calf-Guard orally to cows. It is labeled as an IM shot to cows and orally to newborns. Lucky_P, what were the results after orally administering Calf-Guard to your cows?

 

[Nesikep]

this year because of my vet's ineptitude I didn't vaccinate at all, they had none, they could get it in a week or two (it's 3 hours driving round trip to the vet).. gambled and won this time.

I haven't had any problems with lack of effectiveness the way I've been doing it so I don't feel the need to dig into optimizations.

 

[Lannie]

We had the vet out and he watched a sick calf $hit and he bagged and tagged.

And did this vet determine it was viral? And then gave antibiotics? You need a better vet.

Antibiotics kill bacteria. They don't touch viruses. In fact, since antibiotics kill ALL bacteria, they kill the good stuff, too, so the animal has less immune system defense against the virus. I can't believe a vet wouldn't know this. A vaccine for the particular virus involved will help the animal's own immune system to fight it off, but giving an antibiotic for a virus is worse than doing nothing. I don't understand what your vet was thinking. Maybe there was something else going on?

 

[Silver]

Antibiotics are important because with many viral infection it's often a secondary (microbial) infection that does the killing.

 

[sunnyblueskies]

We had scours and coccidiosis bad in our area last year. Didn't take any samples in or anything, neighbours didn't either as far as I know. Anyway, it came fast and hit bad before one even had a chance to do much against it. I'm talking 24 hours and the calf was dead.
Spoke to the Vet about it and they suggested using Toltrazuril capsules to new calves as preventative. Trying it this year.
So far so good. Haven't lost any to scours or cocci.
But once you have scours go through your herd.......... electrolytes, electrolytes, electrolytes and some Kaopectate to cover the stomach lining.

 

[Silver]

We had scours and coccidiosis bad in our area last year. Didn't take any samples in or anything, neighbours didn't either as far as I know. Anyway, it came fast and hit bad before one even had a chance to do much against it. I'm talking 24 hours and the calf was dead.
Spoke to the Vet about it and they suggested using Toltrazuril capsules to new calves as preventative. Trying it this year.
So far so good. Haven't lost any to scours or cocci.
But once you have scours go through your herd.......... electrolytes, electrolytes, electrolytes and some Kaopectate to cover the stomach lining.

We have been using Toltrazuril for several years, and I don't believe we'll quit. My vet says it is not for prevention of scours. He has a lot of producers telling him that since they have been using Toltrazuril that their incidences of scours has dropped significantly. He thinks that perhaps that is because of the improved gut health (guts not having to fight coccidia ) allows the calf to be less susceptible to scours.