week old calf in distress

[Anonymous]

Came home this afternoon and found that I have a week old calf that is sick. The calf was standing with its mother, but was wobbling as it tried to follow her. I had four calves born last 2 weeks and had been checking them at 5 am and 4 pm everyday. Everything seemed ok with the new calves yesterday afternoon so I skipped this morning. So I don't know how long the calf has been showing symptoms which are wheezing and weakness. I called the Vet when I discovered the calf and he said come in and pick up some batril. Before I left to go to the Vet the calf could stand and would try to fight me whenever i touched it. I felt of the calf all over and he did not feel hot as to have fever. The calf did not look hollow gutted nor dehydrated. No signs of diarrea. I went to pickup batril and the vet said it would not hurt to give him a quart of electrolytes. The vet said it sounded like pnuemonia to him. Returned home; gone about 45 min. The calf was alot weaker; would not fight or try to get up, but was sitting in calf fashion with head on forelegs. I gave him the batril and electrolytes. I watched him for about 10 min and he seemed to perk up and was sitting with head up. I left for about 1 hour, when I got back the calf was laying on his side with head stretched out and laboring to breathe. His legs were cool to the touch. I don't think he is going to make it. I had been paying close attention to him because he was born last wed. night in a storm to a simx heifer that I bought in december. I had watched the calf suck everyday just for my peace of mind. Anybody ever seen anything jump on a calf this fast?

 

[Bama]

I'm watching this closely because I can't figure out what would have caused it either. It does sound like pnuemonia but it sure hit him fast and hard. I have seen calves go down this fast but not not one a week old that was not showing any other signs of trouble.

 

[Anonymous]

I just checked on him again. No change. I thought he would be dead by now. If he is still around in the morning I will give more electrolytes. Don't know what else to do now.

 

[cherokeeruby]

Why not go ahead and give him the electrolytes tonight?

 

[jerry27150]

2 or 3 years ago i had some calves that were fine at night & the next morning they would hardly be able to get up. seems it was some type of clostridium that caused scours & weakness, with stomach bulging. gave some electrolytes for a couple of days , plus meds & all made it. lot of guys in the area lost a lot to this

 

[Farmer Kevin]

We had some calves do the same thing. The vets called it quick pnuemonia and it could be cured if given a shot of penicillin as quick as possible. Maybe give him around 6 cc's to as much as 8 that is all I got for you. Hope it is not too late....

 

[ChrisB]

We had some bigger calves that went from looking healthy to dead within 18 hours. Like the post above, vet called it sudden-onset pneumonia. We had to watch them really close for a couple weeks and treated them at first signs with Nuflor and it knocked it out of them pretty fast. Good luck.

 

[sidney411]

Gosh, that really scares me. For a calf to be fine one day and dead the next day from pneumonia! Is there precautions you can do to prevent this? This really bothers me due to the fact we aren't able to check our cattle on a daily basis, usually only on the weekends. This could hit my calves and I would never even know what happened :shock:

 

[la4angus]

Gosh, that really scares me. For a calf to be fine one day and dead the next day from pneumonia! Is there precautions you can do to prevent this? This really bothers me due to the fact we aren't able to check our cattle on a daily basis, usually only on the weekends. This could hit my calves and I would never even know what happened :shock:

I understand that there is a new strain of Pneumonia out, that; the animal will look fine today and dead tomorrow, without any earlier symptoms showing. I don't know if this is factual. Has anyone else heard of this.

 

[dun]

We had a month old come down with what we thought was pnemonia and probably was. Gave him Nuflor, black junk started pouring out of his nose and he died in less then an hour. Vet wacked him open and said it looked like pnemonia just couldn;t figure out what the black junk in the lungs was.

dun

 

[SPRINGER FARMS MURRAY GRE]

We had a month old come down with what we thought was pnemonia and probably was. Gave him Nuflor, black junk started pouring out of his nose and he died in less then an hour. Vet wacked him open and said it looked like pnemonia just couldn;t figure out what the black junk in the lungs was.

dun

Was he a smoker?? .... :lol: :cboy: ;-)

 

[Anonymous]

4 am this morning the calf was dead. Took him to the livestock diagnostic lab. Called this afternoon to follow up and was told that there was no sign of infectious desease in the preliminary tests. They took some tissue samples and the in house test results would be ready in 10 days. Other samples were sent to Auburn for further testing and should here from them in 30 days. Thanks for everyones input. Have never seen anything other than a bullet kill a calf this fast. Will be watching everything very close until I get the test results. I will post the results as soon as I get them.

 

[Campground Cattle]

4 am this morning the calf was dead. Took him to the livestock diagnostic lab. Called this afternoon to follow up and was told that there was no sign of infectious desease in the preliminary tests. They took some tissue samples and the in house test results would be ready in 10 days. Other samples were sent to Auburn for further testing and should here from them in 30 days. Thanks for everyones input. Have never seen anything other than a bullet kill a calf this fast. Will be watching everything very close until I get the test results. I will post the results as soon as I get them.

Thanks would like to know

 

[Anonymous]

Here is a picture that was taken of the pair on saturday.

 

[TheBullLady]

That's a shame about losing the calf Tim, but thanks for keeping us all up to date on the status! And I think it's great you took him in to be posted... there is nothing more frustrating than having something like that happen and never knowing the cause!

There has been a lot of pnuemonia here this winter.. this area is very big on stocker cattle on oat and wheat pastures, and I know a lot of guys that have pretty substantial loses. I haven't heard of anything that hits that fast however.

Hopefully it was just an isolated case. Let us know when you find out!

 

[myersfarm]

i had a calf in the field laying down his mother was with the bulls i have 2 bulls...i drove over and the calf didn't get up i touched the calf and he got up.. but made me think he was sleepy and he just walked away to his mother.....thought i need to give him a shot of nuflor...so i when to the back field to chech the others gone 15 minutes...came back found the calf died........in 15 minutes i just figured the bul mounting the cow while it was sucking must broke its back but there were no marks on calf....after that i lost 2 more that year just found in field died like 300 pounders...must been what we had then niebors also lost some the same way...running one day died the next...theses didn't even chofe

 

[sidney411]

I'm sorry you lost the calf, he sure was good looking in the picture Please don't forget about us, let us know what the test results are. Hopefully your unfortunate situation could help someone else in diagnosing a problem or stoping a problem before it is defastating.

 

[Farmhand]

We have lost week old calves to quich pneumonia. Usually in the spring when day temps get really warm and night temps get really cool. The drastic change in temps is pretty much the culprit. Through in some rain and wind and can really bring it on. Kills within 12 - 24 hrs from onset. Pay close attention to calves with weather like this. We bump up the number of daily checks with this weather. Have to get something into the calf asap for any hope of saving it. Even at that it's pretty hard to do.