suck calves dying for no reason in the past week??

rahin man

Has anyboby here had suck calves dying in the past week for no apparent reason?

Ive had six aax bucket reared calves this week literally lie down and die.

They were all april born calves, vaccinated, dosed , multivit , passed for bvd etc etc.

I was blaming heat exhaustion/heat stroke for the start of the week but the vet is at a loss.

They were in a well sheltered field with water shade ect.

I only buy in from 2 herds never near a mart...they were all from the same herd .

On a lighter note did anybody have troubles with solenoids in 60 series/ older tm newhollands during the "heatwave"

1chippy

Is there a car battery lying in a ditch anywhere. are they done for blackleg. what vaccinations did they get. mouldy meal. I feel your pain i had the same last year and it isnt nice.

rahin man

did them with covaxinate which covers pretty much everthing. its a field with 2 rows of wire around it with a decent shock and no batteries etc so lead poisoning would be out of the question aswell.

There in a bunch of 23 from 2 herds and the calves from the other herd are completely unaffected..and they would have all gotten the same treatment.

id say im just in bad luck or "piseogues" are making a comeback around here better start looking for eggs under bales of hay etc!!!

bbam

Has the vet mentioned a PM yet.

Last year we lost two lovely 8 month old heifers and the dog in a week and the vet wanted a PM.

Last heifer died of white muscle disease of the heart (result of PM) selenium diffenciecy.

Found her sitting unable to stand at seven and by half eight she was streached out dead.

It may be bad luck your having, but it sounds like something more sinister.

locky76

Car battery, old paint cans or spilt oil would be my first guess.
It might be worth doing a PM on one just to try and establish what is going on and if there are any underlying issues, i did one a few years ago at the local DVO lab.
Awful news although as long as it stays outside the door...

whelan1

are they sick before they die? have they been done for coccidiosis.... if they are dying suddenly it could be botulism , get a pm done

aidanki

pneumonia ????

pakalasa

Long shot but, because they are all from the one herd, it could be genetic? Are they all from the one bull?
Get a PM done.

Farmer Pudsey

I would get a PM done. Strange that they got to that stage and all start to die togeather and from the one herd. At twelve weeks you would thing that they would be strong enough to battle most infections.

Have you done for worms latly and if so with what. Any coughing. Any chance that they got silent peunomia. I presume Vet checked the rest.

mahoney_j

I would find out if they had access to hay and critically some of the imported stuff that came in this spring .i know of 2 lads that lost calves something simillar to you and it was ragworth poisoning and it was put down to imported hay.sickening to loose calves at this stage of the year

whelan1

mahoney_j wrote: »

I would find out if they had access to hay and critically some of the imported stuff that came in this spring .i know of 2 lads that lost calves something simillar to you and it was ragworth poisoning and it was put down to imported hay.sickening to loose calves at this stage of the year

ragworth posioning is a very slow and painful death, i am surely the op would have noticed them ill before this if it was ragworth posioning

leg wax

rsv or p13 souds like to me,same thing happened here,dead calves, only way i could spot a sick one was let them into a new paddock ,the sick ones lay down soon after but still grazed away as they lay down, no signs of heavy breathing , but bring them in and take temp :eek::eek:. but as lads have already said pm needed, as to why the vet has not done it by now may be he needs one done as well:pac:.

bob charles

leg wax wrote: »

rsv or p13 souds like to me

wouldnt be a quick to kill though. I find RSV is a slow killer

leg wax

bob charles wrote: »

wouldnt be a quick to kill though. I find RSV is a slow killer

i only found them dead and as far as i was aware they were healthy the night before, as i said to look at the calf not 1 thing wrong with them as the vet said 1 day going into the shed with 1 calf in it, where is the sick 1.:rolleyes:

whelan1

had a problem a few years ago bought a hol/fr stock bull 90% of his calves died around 6 weeks of age while calves from other breeding where fine, vet was baffled too, did pm found nothing, explained to me that as all other calves where fine that it had to be something in the bull, he said breeding is like very fine china , it can break down very quickly, bull went to factory that evening, very expensive bull

RaggyDays

Maybe they were neglected, if it was pneumonia and left untreated then it would kill them fairly quickly

rahin man

I can only think its genetic and/or viral.

The fact that calves come from 2 herds and only calves from one herd died...together...unless its some kind of calf/moonie cult mass suicide?

as for the pm i work shift...its been hot...vet lab accepts on a friday not looked at till monday id say only the bluebottles would benefit

bob charles

leg wax wrote: »

i only found them dead and as far as i was aware they were healthy the night before, as i said to look at the calf not 1 thing wrong with them as the vet said 1 day going into the shed with 1 calf in it, where is the sick 1.:rolleyes:

on saying that I have two gone by the wayside this week with RSV. one was vaccinated for it and the other one was just vaccinated for IBR. Always found RSV easy ish to treat till this year where nothing seems to work, deaths this year most be correlated in some way to last winter

greysides

Clostridial diseases will kill quick. Are these covered by your vaccinations?

rahin man

Ya . as far as i know covaxinate covers the clostridials. They were also treated with bimistat when they were in the shed on the bucket. that as far as i know gives the clostridials a run for their money.

Theres another theory that calves from the dairy herd that do not get enough colostrum in the first few days after birth can be very susceptible later on in the season..so did the heat stress trigger something?

All i know is im out E2.5k plus and im feeling sore..good thing the tuborg is e3.40 a pint in my local

whelan1

do they have to get 2 shots of covexin 8, dont buy calves off that guy next year

greysides

rahin man wrote: »

Ya . as far as i know covaxinate covers the clostridials.

Should do once they've had time to respond to the second injection.

They were also treated with bimistat when they were in the shed on the bucket. that as far as i know gives the clostridials a run for their money.

Only while they're getting it.........

Theres another theory that calves from the dairy herd that do not get enough colostrum in the first few days after birth can be very susceptible later on in the season..so did the heat stress trigger something?

Pneumonia, as per suggestions above, is a good candidate.

The PM advice is also good.

whelan1

did anymore die?