Watery Waste ?

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Stocker Steve

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I purchased 3 bred heifers a month ago, wormed and vaccinated them, and then put them in a small pasture separate from the cow herd. Two are putting on weight but one is not. When I looked closer at the thin one I could see that her manure is very watery with small pieces of green in it. Any tips on testing or treatment?
 
If possible, being as it's so watery, why not pick some up in a baggie and take it to the vet and have it analyzed?
 
what did you worm her with?
short of having bloodwork and fecal samples done to rule out johnes and bvd and stuff like that, you might put some amprolium (Corid) in her drinking water and see it that helps. may be coccidiosis.
if its not worms or coccidiosis its probably something pretty bad.
 
Beefy":2htdlmyz said:
what did you worm her with?
short of having bloodwork and fecal samples done to rule out johnes and bvd and stuff like that, you might put some amprolium (Corid) in her drinking water and see it that helps. may be coccidiosis.
if its not worms or coccidiosis its probably something pretty bad.

I followed up on coccidiosis - - sounds like it is very wide spread in feedlots and can also hit cow/calf herds. I think I have had some of this in my stocker calves but just not this severe.

I used generic pour on the first time through, and then injected Ivomec plus oxycycline the second time. It sounds like I should have used sulfa.

Have you used preventive treatments like amprolium in your herd?
 
i used some last year on some calves, heifers and older cows that i suspected of having coccidiosis. i had wormed them with valbazen thinking they had tapeworms (and some of them did i'm sure since ive found them in stool this year) and that had helped some of them a little bit but they were still in poor shape so i figured i'd mix some amprolium in their drinking water and see if it helped anything. i actually lost a bull calf to what i believe to be coccidiosis and his stool was so watery and clear that it looked like vaginal lube a cow puts out getting ready to calve. otheres passed what looked like blobs of mucus in their firmish stool while others had the watery manure. these cows and calves were also on rye grass and just not putting any weight on like they should be. anyway, it could have just been timing, or just taken them that long to get back into gaining weight mode after the worming, but within 2 weeks of the amprolium they were slick and shiney and fattening up. and i'm using it on a calf right now but i havent been using it long enough to really tell if its working on her but she looks a lot perkier. this is the time of year for coccidiosis to flare up. its expensive but if thats your problem it will be worth it. my vets around here arent much good with cows, they usually tell me my cows are just old when i have a problem. so i have to depend on trial and error alot, sometimes at the cows expense.
 
I am going to start treating the drinking water tomorrow. I have two small 100 gallon tanks for 40 pairs so the dose will not be real consistent as they refill...

The directions said to treat for 5 days. How long did you keep at it?
 
i just dumped some in the tank and it took about a week for them to drink it all. i didnt refill it and made sure nobody (read: Dad) ran it over or dumped it out or anything. i should say that there is one heifer in the bunch who got better but didnt drastically improve like the others and i think its b/c she was drinking out of puddles alot...

you cant just treat the poor ones and see if they improve before you give it to everyone?
 
Why mot take a fecal to the vet so you know what you have to treat for rather then using a shotgun approach that may end up just costing money and not doing what is needed?
 
dun":148xwdde said:
Why mot take a fecal to the vet so you know what you have to treat for rather then using a shotgun approach that may end up just costing money and not doing what is needed?

Good general advise, but you have not worked with our local vets. They specialize in vaccinating closed herds and preg checking Holstiens. I usually get better and quicker direction from the board so that is where I start.
 

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