help problem with thin calfs just after calving

valtra2

my prob is that for week or two after calving the calfs look thin and the milk goes right through them and they start getting scour the calfs seem bright and everything just very thin lookin, the cows are not vacinated never had problem before

5live

Get your vet to take a sample and get it to the lab ASAP. Take them off milk or reduce milk to half milk half electrolyte until you find out what is causing it. It could be anything from crypto to BVD or anything in between. Are they sick or just scouring

whelan1

could be anything but sounds like crypto or coccidiosis , get vet advice asap

whelan1

5live wrote: »

Get your vet to take a sample and get it to the lab ASAP. Take them off milk or reduce milk to half milk half electrolyte until you find out what is causing it. It could be anything from crypto to BVD or anything in between. Are they sick or just scouring

our vet told us you either give the calf electrolyte OR you give them milk , there is no halves , as they are not getting the benefit of either ... the electrolyte is to give them more energy , what use is it if it is watered down with milk, it does make sense when you think about it. Also if it is one of these diseases the calf needs energy to overcome it, this is just from my experience , has taken me about 5 years to get to the bottom of our problem , also clean sheds are a must , not just clean but powerwashed and disenfected regularly:cool:

sh1tstirrer

It's calves Valtra2 not calfs

5live

When a pen of calves here start getting scour but arent sick, i dilute the milk with electrolytes 50:50 for 2 days unless the calves are sick. It seems to take the pressure off the stomach by not overloading with milk solids leaking into the wrong stomach afaik. If they are sick, they go on electrolytes for 2 days then 50:50 for 2 days before going back on 80% milk for 2 days then 100%. Wasnt the advice to put them on 50% milk after 2 days on electrolytes to maintain nutrition of the intestine and provide nutrition for the gut bacteria which would be effected if no milk for more than 2 days?

whelan1

tbh it made a hell of a difference when i stopped doing it 50-50 ... but different folks different strokes

5live

what difference whelan1? I will try anything to make life easier/better/cheaper

whelan1

thet are getting all the energy they need rather than a half dose... i have tried everything at this stage , thats the big problem with buying in stock (cows) you buy in disease too , we have coccidiosis, crypto , rotavirus here , we do everything we can to prevent it, if a calf starts to go down hill , the first thing it needs is energy , so i give it a lectade with a multivitamin powder in it, once a day for 2 days the other feed is milk . Our routine is , we vaccinate all dry cows with rotavec corona, all calves stay on cow for a week... when calf is born it gets 12 ml of halocur for 3 days , at 7 days it gets vecoxan.. When calf comes off cow after a week it still gets the rotavec biestings for another week to 10 days ... every shed is cleaned out , powerwashed and disenfected with oocide every 2 weeks . This is the way it has to be here and thats it. I have had the claves that go down hill after a week or ten days and will just waste away , this has stopped , thank god . I do all the work with the calves myself as i have lost too many over the years and know all the signs now,i might sound excessive but my calves are great this year for the first time in years , touch wood. There is no cheap way around it sorry , do your calves have a smelly white pasty dung ?

5live

No thank god. Scours for me afaik caused by a calf going off milk for a feed but being ok the next. My calves are in batches of 10 useing JFC 10 teat feeders. The rest seem to react badly to getting 10 % more milk in a feed so i give them a 50:50 mix for 2 days to take the pressure off. I know it can cause difficulties in getting the milk to curdle in the stomach but it seems to work here:). i have crypto too and give 8ccs for 7 days according to the blurb on the packet. Why only 3 days? And the only bad disease problems i seem to have is about 2/3 of the way through calving when a bunch of heifer calves (always heifers for some reason:mad:) seem to be missing a piece of gut and just fade away at 7 days old. My vet said BVD but no PIs and all came back negative from the lab so i am a bit lost with nothing showing up

whelan1

yes i do for the 3 days with halocur ,thats what my vet has said, he seems to at last have my problems nearly sorted, the gut problems , is that coccidiosis? the biestings is so important , i was only giving them the rotavec milk for a week after birth as it says on the leaflet , the vet said to leave them on it longer , it makes a massive difference , if a calf misses a feed , stomach tube it

5live

its normally about 3 weeks old when it hits. I individually feed for 3 days then a small group (3 or 4) for 3 days before grouping in 9 or 10s so i imagine all antibodies are well gone by 2 weeks. The vet did a post mortem(back when it was still legal, the good ol' days) and said there was a gap in the gut. Really p****d off because some very good heifers gone every year. I may have to try different treatments to see if any work and work back from that:eek:

vanderbadger

whelan1 wrote: »

thet are getting all the energy they need rather than a half dose... i have tried everything at this stage , thats the big problem with buying in stock (cows) you buy in disease too , we have coccidiosis, crypto , rotavirus here , we do everything we can to prevent it, if a calf starts to go down hill , the first thing it needs is energy , so i give it a lectade with a multivitamin powder in it, once a day for 2 days the other feed is milk . Our routine is , we vaccinate all dry cows with rotavec corona, all calves stay on cow for a week... when calf is born it gets 12 ml of halocur for 3 days , at 7 days it gets vecoxan.. When calf comes off cow after a week it still gets the rotavec biestings for another week to 10 days ... every shed is cleaned out , powerwashed and disenfected with oocide every 2 weeks . This is the way it has to be here and thats it. I have had the claves that go down hill after a week or ten days and will just waste away , this has stopped , thank god . I do all the work with the calves myself as i have lost too many over the years and know all the signs now,i might sound excessive but my calves are great this year for the first time in years , touch wood. There is no cheap way around it sorry , do your calves have a smelly white pasty dung ?

where do you get that oocide whelan? have a sept calf this morning that i noticed has coccidiosis, he would have gotten vecoxan as a calf but it always seems to come back, he is a big strong calf but he has the filthy brown scoury arse today and a horrible smell, next comes the blood, i dosed
him again today but all my calves seem to pick it up

whelan1

i get the oocide from my vet , it is a 2 part disenfectant

whelan1

vanderbadger wrote: »

where do you get that oocide whelan? have a sept calf this morning that i noticed has coccidiosis, he would have gotten vecoxan as a calf but it always seems to come back, he is a big strong calf but he has the filthy brown scoury arse today and a horrible smell, next comes the blood, i dosed
him again today but all my calves seem to pick it up

when do you give the vecoxan? at birth is a waste of money as coccidiosis is an infection they meet , they are not born with it. i give at day 7 and around day 20 and if they need another they get it

vanderbadger

whelan1 wrote: »

when do you give the vecoxan? at birth is a waste of money as coccidiosis is an infection they meet , they are not born with it. i give at day 7 and around day 20 and if they need another they get it

no they would be a month anyway before i give it to them, but i find unless they actually have it im not sure there is much point dosing them, i dont think it works as a preventative but like i say my calves seem to get a 2nd run of it when stronger anyway

pakalasa

Coccidiosis - that's the scour with blood and the stomach lining in it isn't it.
I found that sulphur powders cured that on it's own. I think they pick it up from dirty houses, water troughs etc.

vanderbadger

pakalasa wrote: »

Coccidiosis - that's the scour with blood and the stomach lining in it isn't it.
I found that sulphur powders cured that on it's own. I think they pick it up from dirty houses, water troughs etc.

once the fcuking thing gets into a place it seems impossible to get rid of it, this oocide might have some effect but normal disinfectants wont work on it apparently