Watch out! It's poop!

[pauline]

I have pics of poops from calves which I found puzzling. Calf A is nine weeks old, and she pooped right next to me. It is kind of solid with wrinkles and looks good to me. Calf B is eight weeks old. The poop was runny and it hit the ground with splashing noises.

Calf C is three weeks old. She is the one that I talked about in the post titled "Swollen teats" http://cattletoday.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=44113
In short, her mother had swollen hard-as-rock teats, and we suspected that she got none or little colostrum from her mom. Her poop was black and smeared with some orange liquid on the outside. She also excreted a few drops of orange liquid after the poop. She strained a little poop out, walked a few steps, and strained a little poop out again, so on and so forth.

All these calves have access to mother milk, short grass, hay and water.
I am worried about calf C in particular because of the circumstances she had been in. But then again, she is very active, running around the field with her tail up. Very alert, and very cute too.

Looking at these poops, please tell me why they look different?

..

Thank you so very much
Pauline

 

[Susie David]

Agree with baxter78....a change in diet, eating more than normal, change in mama's diet, alot of things influence the color and texture of the flop. It is a good thing that you are keeping a close eye on the back end of your calves, that is where you will first notice any trouble.
As long as it forms a patty and isn't odd colored you are pretty much safe...if it becomes real loose and watery or has signs of blood then you have trouble.
Do a search on "claf scours", alot of good past posts on the subject.
Good luck to you....DMc

 

[pauline]

I read somewhere that a cattle's poop should be brown, not black. If it is black, there is blood in it. True? When she was 1 week old, I saw her poop with an unmistakable red on it. I was thinking "blood" and miserably looking for a place to bury her. But she just grew up to three weeks now and very active. I am just worried if there are wounds in her intestine.

Thanks
Pauline