Wait, what?!? Caught me off guard.

[TCRanch]

I always give First Defense boluses to newborns but ran out and ended up buying the First Defense Tri-Shield gel for the calves from my first calf heifers. First one calved yesterday, mama did great, calf is healthy and bunky. All good, right? Until I went out today and saw her butt. What the what?!? Proceeded by a moment of panic until logic kicked in. The boluses are blue, and I've never seen anything other than normal yellow colostrum poo on newborns. Well, the gel is also blue, but it's a larger dose. And blue & yellow make green. But at least it's festive, matches her tag, and she's ready for St. Patty's Day!

Action shot nursing

Just because she's cute and you can see it's truly the color of her tag. Yikes!

Action shot peeing.

 

[Ky hills]

The same thing happened to us a few years ago. Gave that blue paste to a calf and then had a major shock when I saw the very green manure.

 

[coachg]

Beats red or black any day ! That’s funny

 

[TCRanch]

Yeah, that was NOT on the diarrhea timeline:

 

[branxchar&charx]

Thats definitely something to remember

 

[TCRanch]

Thats definitely something to remember

I'm still a little traumatized!

 

[chaded]

I looked at the pictures before I read the post and immediately thought alien calf. Glad it’s not that..

 

[Logan52]

I had the same thing happen to me this year. A January calf born in a less than sanitary barn was a sort of "dummy" calf, real large and slow to nurse. I gave him this gel you mentioned. After turning him out with the cow I noticed this green on his rear end and sort of panicked until i decided this was the result of the treatment.
Is this treatment worthwhile for you all? I usually never catch a calf at all before late spring herd work.
I have had scours in the calves during muddy wet weather but rotation to a clean pasture and a day or two of sun has always cleared it up. Only rarely have i had pneumonia in the calves, and then it was usually on the first real hot days of the year.
Hope I am not jinxing myself but I usually work on a "if it is not broke, do not fix it" plan.

 

[Son of Butch]

Yeah, that was NOT on the diarrhea timeline:
View attachment 27622

Good posting

 

[TCRanch]

I had the same thing happen to me this year. A January calf born in a less than sanitary barn was a sort of "dummy" calf, real large and slow to nurse. I gave him this gel you mentioned. After turning him out with the cow I noticed this green on his rear end and sort of panicked until i decided this was the result of the treatment.
Is this treatment worthwhile for you all? I usually never catch a calf at all before late spring herd work.
I have had scours in the calves during muddy wet weather but rotation to a clean pasture and a day or two of sun has always cleared it up. Only rarely have i had pneumonia in the calves, and then it was usually on the first real hot days of the year.
Hope I am not jinxing myself but I usually work on a "if it is not broke, do not fix it" plan.

We used to vaccinate the cows with Scour Bos prior to calving but it became a logistical nightmare, so switched to First Defense. The boluses were all that was produced at the time. I tag calves day 1, so giving a bolus (preferably within the first 12 hours) isn't a big deal, plus I also give them Inforce 3 (intranasal respiratory). I rarely have a calf with scours; the exception is "fresh, green pasture butt" and I don't worry about that unless the calf is looking/acting punky.