Weanling with round bellies

doyleshill

I have a few weanlings ready to sell,my concern is that they roundy bellies on them.Any advise on how deal with the problem.

Lady Haywire

doyleshill wrote: »

I have a few weanlings ready to sell,my concern is that they roundy bellies on them.Any advise on how deal with the problem.

When were they last wormed/were they ever wormed?

Few days inside on hay or straw will be a big help to them either way.

Welding Rod

It's a bit of a problem this year I find. My calves well wormed and so on but scuttery back ends and bit too much of a gut for my liking. Several of them got blood scour in July which didn't help. And grass in the main this year in the west is little more than green water.
Testing them tomorrow for sale in a couple of weeks hopefully. Probably keep them inside or maybe in a bare paddock with a round bale of hay for four or five days before sale. Great to tighten them up in the gut and the rear door for that matter.

pedigree 6

This is going to sound terrible and the op will probably take this the wrong way but if they were fed properly they wouldn't have the potbellies.
It's the same condition that you see the starving children in Africa with on tv.
It's a nutritional problem.

Now that that's out of the way. Phew. Several things could have caused it.
Worm burdens, quality of forage, protein intake, etc.

Don't really know how to remedy the problem fast though.
Address the causes first I suppose and give it a few weeks.

charolais0153

pedigree 6 wrote: »

This is going to sound terrible and the op will probably take this the wrong way but if they were fed properly they wouldn't have the potbellies.
It's the same condition that you see the starving children in Africa with on tv.
It's a nutritional problem.

Now that that's out of the way. Phew. Several things could have caused it.
Worm burdens, quality of forage, protein intake, etc.

Don't really know how to remedy the problem fast though.
Address the causes first I suppose and give it a few weeks.

I'm presuming too little protein

Sam Kade

pedigree 6 wrote: »

This is going to sound terrible and the op will probably take this the wrong way but if they were fed properly they wouldn't have the potbellies.
It's the same condition that you see the starving children in Africa with on tv.
It's a nutritional problem.

Now that that's out of the way. Phew. Several things could have caused it.
Worm burdens, quality of forage, protein intake, etc.

Don't really know how to remedy the problem fast though.
Address the causes first I suppose and give it a few weeks.

You are correct and yes it does sound terrible
When the calf isn't getting enough concentrate they eat too much roughage which gives them pot bellies. OP give them extra concentrates built up gradually with good quality forage or grass.

Muckit

I think if an animal gets a bad doing in the first few months of its life, that's it. Bought a few weanlings like that down through years and they never lost it and were always pot-bellied. They can have digestive problems and be more prone ro bloat etc.

Sam Kade

Muckit wrote: »

I think if an animal gets a bad doing in the first few months of its life, that's it. Bought a few weanlings like that down through years and they never lost it and were always pot-bellied. They can have digestive problems and be more prone ro bloat etc.

They don't thrive very well when they get pot bellies but I'd still think they could be turned around with good feeding.

Welding Rod

pedigree 6 wrote: »

This is going to sound terrible and the op will probably take this the wrong way but if they were fed properly they wouldn't have the potbellies.
It's the same condition that you see the starving children in Africa with on tv.
It's a nutritional problem.

Now that that's out of the way. Phew. Several things could have caused it.
Worm burdens, quality of forage, protein intake, etc.

Don't really know how to remedy the problem fast though.
Address the causes first I suppose and give it a few weeks.

That's true and certainly true for bucket fed stock.
My suckler calves on 17% creep feed since late July. Also creep grazed in front of the cows. Not wanting for anything I can assure you. Jan / Feb calves. Avg 330 kgs.

However they are certainly a good bit more "gutty" than I would like and compared to prior years.

Just saying like...

Never wrestle with pigs

Grass didn't have the same bang this year that's for sure. Allot if rain and not as much dm in it as other years. Cold start to the year and bad grass for a while may have stunted a few of them.

I notice the dec/jan calves are very good for their age, but the feb born calves just didn't take off like they should have.

Lizard_Moon

Welding Rod wrote: »

That's true and certainly true for bucket fed stock.
My suckler calves on 17% creep feed since late July. Also creep grazed in front of the cows. Not wanting for anything I can assure you. Jan / Feb calves. Avg 330 kgs.

However they are certainly a good bit more "gutty" than I would like and compared to prior years.

Just saying like...

Good idea to do some faecal sampling. We are seeing more Rumen Fluke this year. If your bloody scour was from coccidiosis check with your vet regarding controlling the problem in next years stock.
'Gutty Belly' usually due to lack of protein us in your case probably could be gut damage from bloody scour leading to less absorption after digestion.

pedigree 6

Welding Rod wrote: »

That's true and certainly true for bucket fed stock.
My suckler calves on 17% creep feed since late July. Also creep grazed in front of the cows. Not wanting for anything I can assure you. Jan / Feb calves. Avg 330 kgs.

However they are certainly a good bit more "gutty" than I would like and compared to prior years.

Just saying like...

Yea the year is affecting the forage and maybe allowing more worms on wet forage.

The east just didn't get the bad weather that the west got this year.

It's tough answering a post like this. You want to tell them what the problem is while still getting a solution for them and hope they don't take it as a slight on them.

crackcrack30

I have mine on good grass and have been giving them approx a kg of milk/mate nuts each daily......what would you recommend & how much for feb/march weanings...

pedigree 6

crackcrack30 wrote: »

I have mine on good grass and have been giving them approx a kg of milk/mate nuts each daily......what would you recommend & how much for feb/march weanings...

Keep shifting them every few days on fresh grass and don't have them on the same bit of ground or field the whole year. Move them around the whole farm.

The meal - read the label on the bag. It should give the feeding rate.

Irish Beef

I have twin heifers, had slightly rounded bellies and not doing nearly what the rest of the calves were doing but since I started creep feeding meal the last 5/6 weeks there starting to come round, they're the first to the trough every day and are starting to take off. Even do I was creep grazing all year they just needed the bit of meal.

patsy_mccabe

I had to get rid of a few cows this year that went down with TB. The calves were around the 3 month mark when the cows went. All these calves while thriving a lot better than I thought they would, all have pot bellies.
The other calves, getting plenty of milk, are all tight-gutted.
Plenty of meal will sort the problem OP, but you need to feed continuously over a long time.