Vaccine for scour

Bigbird1

Just wondering does anyone here vaccinate for scour,if so is it worth it and does it work well??

A lot of calves got scour last year, which caused a lot of hassle,so im thinking prevention is better than cure

Thanks

Bizzum

We use Rotavec corona, and find it good.
Using it also has the benefit of making you pay more attention to your calves getting plenty of beastings.
It costs us around €55 per bottle to inject 5 cows, which you dont be long spending on a calf with scour!

dvet

Prevention's a lot better than cure alright! The vaccine can work well BUT only if your beastings routine & hygiene are good. e.g. getting enough beastings into to them all ASAP when they're calved (3+ litres within the first 6 hours), and disinfecting pens between calves/groups of calves. Keeping the calving pen clean and moving them out as soon as you can also helps. Sometimes small things like the nipples on buckets can spread scour bugs around if you're not careful about washing them out as well.

It also depends on what kind of scour your calves were getting. The Rotavec Corona vaccine works against rota, coronavirus, & e.coli.

So if your problem was something like coxy (coccidiosis), it might not make much difference. Your best bet with coxy is to completely disinfect your calving pen & calf sheds now, before you have to start using them again. If you only wash them out and not disinfect, the bug stays in the shed and the calves will get it all over again this year. Also you can use something like vecoxan or baycox as a preventative in the 2-3 week old calves.

If you don't pay attention to this sort of thing, the vaccine is a waste of money, but if you do it can be definitely worth your while.

whelan1

we use rotavec corona and vecoxan as dvet said routine and cleanliness are most important also.... we use oocide disenfectant regularly

Bigbird1

Thanks for that guys,Routine has always been the same with plenty of straw and the calf getting fed ASAP,saying that i must disinfect the shed it was done during the summer but once more would be no harm. The scour last year was an E.Coli one and 1 calf got coxy whitch was more of a problem the previous year. I AI"ed about 12 cows within 5 days and there due end of feb so would prob want to start doing them now for it.

snowman707

dvet wrote: »

Prevention's a lot better than cure alright! The vaccine can work well BUT only if your beastings routine & hygiene are good. e.g. getting enough beastings into to them all ASAP when they're calved (3+ litres within the first 6 hours), and disinfecting pens between calves/groups of calves. Keeping the calving pen clean and moving them out as soon as you can also helps. Sometimes small things like the nipples on buckets can spread scour bugs around if you're not careful about washing them out as well.

It also depends on what kind of scour your calves were getting. The Rotavec Corona vaccine works against rota, coronavirus, & e.coli.

So if your problem was something like coxy (coccidiosis), it might not make much difference. Your best bet with coxy is to completely disinfect your calving pen & calf sheds now, before you have to start using them again. If you only wash them out and not disinfect, the bug stays in the shed and the calves will get it all over again this year. Also you can use something like vecoxan or baycox as a preventative in the 2-3 week old calves.

If you don't pay attention to this sort of thing, the vaccine is a waste of money, but if you do it can be definitely worth your while.

there is another thread about spraying navels,

IMO the biggest risk of a calf getting infection is via the mouth either from dirty cow/bottle teats , dirty bedding or dirty FARMERS , good hygiene, good pre calving management and a good intake of beastings in the first few hours will go a long way of ensuring trouble free calf rearing

reilig

Don't forget that the simplest and cheapest way to disinfect is to sprinkle a bit of lime in the pens once a week. A bag for EUR 8 goes a long way.

Feargal as Luimneach

An wise old fella told me once:
"The biggest enemy of a calf is another calf"
Increase the stocking rate more illness, decrease the stocking rate less illness. Alot of calves in a pen the greater the risk of scour......

whelan1

will lime kill cyrpto and coccidiosis?

dvet

whelan1 wrote: »

will lime kill cyrpto and coccidiosis?

As far as I know these 2 are some of the hardest bugs to kill in the environment, so a strong disinfectant - as you were saying there earlier, an oocide disinfectant - and plenty of elbow grease are the only way to clear it out of a place.

But lime is a good follow up, & will help with a lot of bugs.

whelan1

was just wondering was i wasting my time with oocide , thanks

snowman707

whelan1 wrote: »

will lime kill cyrpto and coccidiosis?

don't know, but we never use anything different , IMO disinfectants kill more good bugs than bad

dar31

whelan1 wrote: »

will lime kill cyrpto and coccidiosis?

no
cyrpo is very hard to get rid off, dont think that any of the disinfectants will kill it, a few might help control it but not kill.

LostCovey

dar31 wrote: »

no
cyrpo is very hard to get rid off, dont think that any of the disinfectants will kill it, a few might help control it but not kill.

Antec Oocide kills it alright. The only one that does.

LostCovey

whelan1 wrote: »

was just wondering was i wasting my time with oocide , thanks

I don't think you were wasting your time at all, it is excellent for Crypto but where do you buy it???

I was told it was gone off the market the last time I looked for it (spring 2010).

LC

whelan1

i got it in my local vets... bought some during the summer

whelan1

got a bucket of number 1 oocide today in local vets

dar31

whelan1 wrote: »

got a bucket of number 1 oocide today in local vets

what exactly is oocide

whelan1

it is a disenfectant that comes in 2 parts one activates the other and it is supposed to kill cryptosporidium (sp);)

LostCovey

whelan1 wrote: »

got a bucket of number 1 oocide today in local vets

Great news I assumed the situation hadn't changed, will try again for it, thanks for the info.

LC

Dickie10

thinking of vaccinating for scour this year , is it worth it? have good hygene but still spend a lot of time running after calves with milk scour (white scour) my calves have a lie back area that is always really well bedded and alwaays bed calving pens well and lime them after each cow, majority of the calves get up and suck the cow within 15 mins as i keep an eye on them so i dont go milking the cow to feed exactly 3 litres but they get their fill themselves then lie don and sleep , should i leave them at it in these cases?