I have already lost 3 calves and I'm not sure if Toby is going to make it . My calves loose weight ,cough, loose appatite, get depressed, go down, drool alot after they go down ,have runny noses and rough coat, then die. I have wormed them gave them their respatory and 8 way shots.It's not namonia (bad spelling). I have taken him to the vet 2 times and the vet took lung samples from my other calf that died. They found pasturella bacteria but said it was probly secondary to a virus . Anyways my calves are for the fair (Veal calves)and for me to raise up. I have done this for 3 years but this has never happened before.Also they seem to be allergic to milk every time i give them any even if watered down they scour like you wouldnt believe . So they have been on electrolyte water for 2 weeks and look like walking bones =o( ANY help would be wonderfull!!! thanks

-- SharRon (Turnaquete@aol.com), July 06, 2000

Answers

We too experienced this a few yrs ago raising calves. it turned out to be pnemonia and e-coli. the problem was we purchased these calves at the local auction and they did not get mom's colestrum. We lost a lot that yr. We started raising calves last yr off our goat milk and using a 4 way scour preventive pill which i need to get more of and can't remember the name. Anyway we gave them this and goat milk... they did well. Another suggestion.. give Immuno-G or ID-1 or goat stress.. these formulas are like colestrum but have immunobodies in it. We swear by Immuno_G you can get it by going to http://www.springbriar.com best money we ever spent, use it on goats and calves. Good luck, hope this helps some.

Bernice

-- Bernice (geminigoats@yahoo.com), July 06, 2000.

I second what Bernice said. There is some milk replacer out there that has really good medication in it to prevent scours. Unfortunately, every feed store is different. Start putting an egg in each bottle as well - not sure why, but it does help with the scours. You need medication first though to get the scours under control.

-- beckie (sunshine_horses@yahoo.com), July 07, 2000.

I have heard of people giving calves Peptobismo (spelling?) and another similar one - name escapes me. If you have comfrey read my article on page 66 of the May/June 2000 issue.

-- Ken Scharabok (scharabo@aol.com), July 07, 2000.

Very old fashion notion of taking away all source of milk (the only calories the little guys have) and replacing it with electrolites, yes it stays deydration but not starvation. It is much easier to get your calves back on milk and inject them subq with lactated ringers to keep them from getting deydrated. Their guts at this point have nothing in them to coagulate the milk, hence the diarrhea. You need to reinocculate them with probios, start with the tube and also put the dispersable powder in the milk. Jeffers livestock catalog 1800- jeffers also carries a product called, whole milk fortifier, a great product with natural occuring beneficial bacteria for their gut. I would guess like Bernice that these calves received either very little or no colostrum. The symptoms are very much like pasturella multicidia which has a vaccine. But you could also just be dealing with failure to thrive, from lack of immunity. Don't dilute milk products or dilute milk replacer with water, it changes the fat compostion of the milk. Get them back on a medicated replacer and I would start using spectam scour halt on them, in case it is E-coli. Hope all goes better. Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), July 07, 2000.

Thanks everyone.... here is some more on my calves .....I bought them from a dairy were i use to work ALL of the calves get a gallon of colostrum before they are 3 hours old and I have had them on probios and eggs in milk. I would put them back on medicated milk but the fair is in 30 days and if I do i cant show them as a market animal becuse the slauter withdrawl won't be up.

-- SharRon (Turnaquete@aol.com), July 08, 2000.

Go out and get scours control 2 feed it souly until scour go away 2x daily .If you can get them to take 3 bottles do one of electrolytes made by the same company .You may also add a little of the pink pepto stuff in the bottles .Start with med. grain and you may also want to treat with corid .This is the only thing that has worked for us .If you are worried about infection you can also give antibiotics.E-mail me if you need any more help.

-- Patty Gamble (fodfarms@slic.com), July 09, 2000.

How's everything going ?

-- Patty Gamble (fodfarms@slic.com), July 13, 2000.

Lots of great advice!!Another thing that helps with the scours is pectin---the type you use for making jam. We use a stomach tube and put electrolytes, a whole egg, liquid AD and E and pectin. Right now we are battling a bear who has a taste for calves, it has eaten one, mortally wounded another and one is missing. Farming can be tough! Good Luck and keep us posted...Faith

-- Faith (foureverfaith@hotmail.com), July 13, 2000.

Thank you all again. I have used pectin befor eit seemed to help a little. The scours seem to be going away . I started giving him full strength replacer and gave up on trying to save him and he is getting better. So I got some more antibiotics for him and he is improvin but only about 60% normal. Rite now he kinda has squirts but i think it is from alfalfa....well thanx and if I seem slow in answering its becuse I dont get to the computer much

-- SharRon (Turnaquete@aol.com), July 13, 2000.

Goats milk is the absolute best when raising calves. My calves never did better than when I fed goats milk.

-- Sharon (sirvine@telusplanet.net), April 03, 2001.