Weanling scour after weaning

cacs

I have the same problem every year after weaning. My weanlings manure is quite soft. I have 72 dmd silage and I feed around 1-2 kg of a high maize nut per animal 16% protein. I can’t feed any more as it will scour them. I put it down to stomachs changing from milk and grass to silage and nuts. Generally I find it takes six to eight weeks for them to settle down and I think it is their stomachs adjusting to change in diet. The coop I buy the nuts off thinks it’s not the nuts it’s something else. They said could I feed more maybe they are right. I have coccidea in the shed could this be a factor. Whats your thoughts am I missing something

Buford T. Justice XIX

Maybe a dose for coccidiosis to half them and see if there's a difference with the others?

Good loser

My guess would be Coccidiosis or stomach worms.

patsy_mccabe

I had one weanling scouring like hell this year. They were all done twice for worms during the year. I reckon the only difference between him and the rest was he was that bit older and the mother's milk had gone completely. Similar to what you are saying. Cocidiosis is very obvious when you see it. It comes out like pure water. His scour wasn't that bad.

Lady Haywire

How soft is soft? You don't specify in your post if the calves are eating the ration before weaning or go on it straight after. If the latter, that could be the issue.

The man in red and black

Try to get to the bottom of this problem especially if it happens every year. Some common and less common causes of scour in weanlings would be:
Worms, Coccidiosis, Copper deficiency(Often secondary to high molybdenum), Salmonella, lack of fibre/acidosis/lush watery grass, rumen fluke, BVD(Can still be lurking!)

That is not an exhaustive list just some general causes of scour. I encourage all people to have their vet investigate recurrent problems. Dung sampling 10%+ of the group for worms/fluke/coccida as individual numbered dung samples taken fresh from the animal is a good starting point for such an investigation + adding free choice straw to the diet even while on grass. Don't fall into the trap of just dung sampling one animal out of 60 and hoping that animal represents the whole group.

Discuss with your vet starting an investigation. No point waiting for it to happen each year, its costing you money in missed weight gain. Best of luck, hope you solve it.

cacs

The man in red and black wrote: »

Try to get to the bottom of this problem especially if it happens every year. Some common and less common causes of scour in weanlings would be:
Worms, Coccidiosis, Copper deficiency(Often secondary to high molybdenum), Salmonella, lack of fibre/acidosis/lush watery grass, rumen fluke, BVD(Can still be lurking!)

That is not an exhaustive list just some general causes of scour. I encourage all people to have their vet investigate recurrent problems. Dung sampling 10%+ of the group for worms/fluke/coccida as individual numbered dung samples taken fresh from the animal is a good starting point for such an investigation + adding free choice straw to the diet even while on grass. Don't fall into the trap of just dung sampling one animal out of 60 and hoping that animal represents the whole group.

Discuss with your vet starting an investigation. No point waiting for it to happen each year, its costing you money in missed weight gain. Best of luck, hope you solve it.

Thanks lads for the info some great stuff there. They seemed to have dried up a bit in the last week. It I have taken dung samples and sent them away. Next thing after that is blood. We have a lot of iron in our soil so copper is definitely something to consider I will post again when I get the results back from the dung samples
Thanks again

TL17

Hi OP
Did you get the dung samples back. I have same problem at moment. Mine are weaned about 3 weeks but only in last 10 days have they developed very bad scour. I had them dosed before weaning so wondering how you got on

_Brian

I wonder is this a fibre problem. Weaning creates a considerable change in diet increasing grass consumption to compensate, grass is awful sappy at the moment and likely to run through them.