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Crypto

paudie051

Hi,

First time posting here but we are being hounded with Crypto for the past few years. Probably in the last 3 years we have had 50 calf deaths with it. This year it is at 10 but we have another 4 not great.

We give the calves Halocur for 12 days after birith at the recomended dose, we have started using milkshake an additive into the milk replacer to help battle the damn disease.

Our vet has advised that we take the calf off the cow immediately after calving and bag the calf 4 litres of Colustrum. Then start the halocur treatment straight after. We are kinda against this as we like to leave the calf on the cow for a few days. Anyone else given this advice?

Also said if the calf is sick with it give them eggs as a source of energy- anyone else do this?

I have a full time job and do not have much spare time and I do the milking in the evenings which kill most of the time.. The sheds are not as clean as i would like them but I am trying my best to increase the number of times I clear out the bedding etc.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated as i am really sick of the calves dying.

Regards
Padraic

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patsy_mccabe

Once they start scouring, how do you treat them? Do you get electrolyte into them?
Could you move the calves outside into smaller batches? That would stop it spreading.

kevthegaff

Lots and lots of fluids 3-4 times daily when sick

Mooooo

If you have crypto and leave the calves under the cows it's likely they will pick it up off the cows udder as well. If possible for the rest of the cows calve them somewhere else. Pull the calf straight away, I try and feed the calves with the teat as opposed to tube them. Make sure you use separate tubes for newborns and those that are sick. It's a fcuker and unfortunately the more time you give the better the chance. Use effydral as well to try and stop acidosis. Multiple feeds a day of milk and electrolytes. Can you get someone in to help for the few weeks

whelan2

I leave the calves on the cow. I clean and powerwash very often and disinfect. Try and calve outside if I can. . Very few losses this year. Touch wood. Have a calf here with scour at the minute but it's not crypto.

paudie051

Hi Patsy,

Once we see them losing a bit of weight we give them life aid Xtra straight away along with normal milk feed 3 time a day. Then when they scour we give them a different satchet(cant remember the name but it is meant to be better for scouring calves) twice on one day then back onto life aid xtra to keep them hydrated. As advised by the vet today i am also going to throw some eggs down there throat. The guys that are sick today show no signs of sickness yesterday at all. So disheartening.

Yes, the older stronger calves have been moved out. The newer calves are still in and learning to drink/they are very hard to drink - the milkshake additive doesnt seem attractive for them. So we have 2 batches of about 6 each that are iffy drinkers. We have 4 sick so them 4 are now moved to our "sick pen".

yet all our suckler calves are keeping well. Completely sickening.

patsy_mccabe

whelan2 wrote: »

I leave the calves on the cow. I clean and powerwash very often and disinfect. Try and calve outside if I can. . Very few losses this year. Touch wood. Have a calf here with scour at the minute but it's not crypto.

There's a special type of disinfectant that only works on crypto, isn't there.

paudie051

Hi Moo, Whelan,

Yes we are going to pull the calves off the cows immediately from now on from the milking cows. The vet we have reckons it is from the cows. We recently moved vets practice due to a falling out so this is the first time we have been advised of this. Our suckler calves are thriving at the minute so i dont understand this(Touch wood it remains the same.)

Yes, i have purchased a new tube. Our vet recommended to tube them on the first feed. I am not confident tube feeding so dad will do this.

We dont use effendryl at the moment - used it last year didnt find it any assistance. But must try again.

At the moment my sisters help on the farm a good bit. So between them and dad they do there best to get the milk replacer and any hydration that is required into them.

Whelan, hope your good season of calving continues.

whelan2

patsy_mccabe wrote: »

There's a special type of disinfectant that only works on crypto, isn't there.

I use interkokask. Get it from vet. I give 12ml of halocur for 3 days. When the container goes below a certain level. I use a dosing syringe as I found it doesnt give out the right dose sometimes. First feed is extremely important. This might be were your problem is

patsy_mccabe

Are all the dairy cows home bred? Their colostrum doesn't seem to be as good as the suckler cows.
I had crypto here only once. All sucklers here. It was a calf that was born in the cubicle shed and was covered in sh1te when I found him. So kinda backs up the theory of them getting it from cow dung directly when very young.

paudie051

Hi Whelan,

Yes i used interkokask to disinfect the shed last autumn with this. Our current vet says it is a waste of time. He is fairly sure that the cows are the problem and the calves are getting the disease from them. This is not happening the sucklers tho!

Our vet recommends it for 12 days so we are dosing them for 12 days trying to be safe- its obviously not working.

Thanks

paudie051

Hi Patsy,

60% home bred 40% bought in. I am blaming the bought in animals as we never had it before 2014. That is what the vet has told me that the colustrum is not the same quality as the sucklers and that occlytes coming from cows started this years **** - All cows were done with Rotovec Corona also. So apart from taking calves immediately from Cows and cleaning the sheds more often i dont see anything else to be done.

Thanks for all the advice

blackdog1

paudie051 wrote:

First time posting here but we are being hounded with Crypto for the past few years. Probably in the last 3 years we have had 50 calf deaths with it. This year it is at 10 but we have another 4 not great.

paudie051 wrote:

We give the calves Halocur for 12 days after birith at the recomended dose, we have started using milkshake an additive into the milk replacer to help battle the damn disease.

paudie051 wrote:

Our vet has advised that we take the calf off the cow immediately after calving and bag the calf 4 litres of Colustrum. Then start the halocur treatment straight after. We are kinda against this as we like to leave the calf on the cow for a few days. Anyone else given this advice?

paudie051 wrote:

I have a full time job and do not have much spare time and I do the milking in the evenings which kill most of the time.. The sheds are not as clean as i would like them but I am trying my best to increase the number of times I clear out the bedding etc.

paudie051 wrote:

Any advice would be greatly appreciated as i am really sick of the calves dying.

paudie051 wrote:

Also said if the calf is sick with it give them eggs as a source of energy- anyone else do this?

paudie051 wrote:

Regards Padraic

I think the very first question is what disenfectants are you using?. I was pasteurising beistings and found it great. I'm now experimenting with parafor and stopping pasteurising on the last 10 calves. Will have results in a week or so. Get the right disenfectant . Disenfect calving pen and calf shed. Wear gloves and clean clothing. Continue using halacour and get some parafor off your vet. If they don't have it pm me. Curse of a disease. Also get some vitalife sachets. They'll save your calves.

Mooooo

I'd say going forward power wash and disinfect all sheds including cow sheds when cattle go out and leave them dry while clean during the summer and then give another blast of disinfectant at end of summer before housing. Used stuff called cyclex here seemed to work. It's a sickener but go in with effydral as soon as a hint of scour in calf between milk feeds.

paudie051

I am using interkokask to disinfect the shed. Not cleaning it enough though.

Vitalife are the satchets i am using alright just for one day, Should i use this for more than one day. Our vet recommended going back to life aid after one day.

Never used parafor I will try to source this and give it a go.

Does anyone use the Milkshake C Guard additive? - is it beneficial?

Thanks Moo, Will do it twice this year to try. Also moving any new calves into a different housing in the hope they avoid the disease.

pedigree 6

I hope this doesn't sound like bragging (touch wood nothing happens now) but this is the first year that we have had no cases of scour in calves zero.
I know I wouldn't have a big herd of cows. But this has been the best ever year for calf health here.

Now what changes is there from other years?

The biggest change I suspect is that yearling heifers used to be housed under the one roof as the calves and this year the yearling heifers were put in a different shed with a big yard between them and the calves (so no air or bugs coming from the heifers to the calves). No cows in this shed either and a good bit away from the cow shed too.
The heifers will never be going back into the same shed as the calves again.

Other things i'm doing is take the calf away from the cow when it is born and licked and get the cow in and milk enough beastings for the calf and feed 3 to 4 litres (depends on appetite and size of calf) within 1 hour of birth preferably if not 2 with the bottle. They'll take the bottle at 20 minutes from birth.

I keep the calves in the same pens from when they go into the shed till they go out of the shed. No mixing around. Oh and have no drafts in the shed and plenty of straw.

Another one I heard is of people from other farms coming in and bringing bugs from one farm to someone else's calf shed. So try and limit or eliminate that.
We're odd people here so no one visits us.:pac:

I think that's all.:)

blackdog1

Mooooo wrote:

I'd say going forward power wash and disinfect all sheds including cow sheds when cattle go out and leave them dry while clean during the summer and then give another blast of disinfectant at end of summer before housing. Used stuff called cyclex here seemed to work. It's a sickener but go in with effydral as soon as a hint of scour in calf between milk feeds.

In France they are adding a product to dry cow diets called emx to reduce crypto from the cow with good enough results. I'm using an excellent milk replacer from France with it added in. Seeing a great effect on the calves with it they are all shining. I had 1 or 2 still get sick but have them vitalife and they recovered very quick. Also recommend putting a calf jacket on sick calves as the lose body heat quickly.

blackdog1

paudie051 wrote:

Vitalife are the satchets i am using alright just for one day, Should i use this for more than one day. Our vet recommended going back to life aid after one day.

paudie051 wrote:

Never used parafor I will try to source this and give it a go.

paudie051 wrote:

Does anyone use the Milkshake C Guard additive? - is it beneficial?

Calf usually drinks for me by itself after 2 doses of vitalife. I'd go in again with it if you have to....parafor kills crypto. Halacour is a preventative.

C Guard is a gut protector...it will decrease the effect crypto has on calves hopefully.

paudie051

Hi Blackdog,

That milk replacer sounds great. Can i ask where you source it from?Or its name to see if it can be available here. or even shipped here. Never used a calf jacket, another investment I need to make.

I thought there was no licenced killer of crypto and that Halocur was the only licenced treatment.

The calved certainly dont like drinking the C Guard all i know.

Thanks everyone

whelan2

paudie051 wrote: »

I am using interkokask to disinfect the shed. Not cleaning it enough though.

Vitalife are the satchets i am using alright just for one day, Should i use this for more than one day. Our vet recommended going back to life aid after one day.

Never used parafor I will try to source this and give it a go.

Does anyone use the Milkshake C Guard additive? - is it beneficial?

Thanks Moo, Will do it twice this year to try. Also moving any new calves into a different housing in the hope they avoid the disease.

I have cleaned out calving sheds about 4times since calving started. This means powerwashing and disenfecting each time

The part time boy

Crypto is a awfull fecker of a thing. I had a few bad years of it in the past. It can be very disheartening to see so many calves die . Make sure to look after yer selves as well as the calves as the head can easily drop

whelan2

paudie051 wrote: »

Hi Blackdog,

That milk replacer sounds great. Can i ask where you source it from?Or its name to see if it can be available here. or even shipped here. Never used a calf jacket, another investment I need to make.

I thought there was no licenced killer of crypto and that Halocur was the only licenced treatment.

The calved certainly dont like drinking the C Guard all i know.

Thanks everyone

Tge calves have to get the rotavec biestings for at least 12 days after birth.

paudie051

you must be sick of cleaning Whelan. Its awkward for us no full time farmer. Dad is kicking the arse of 80 so its not great.

your last post i dont understand . What do you mean?

whelan2

paudie051 wrote: »

you must be sick of cleaning Whelan. Its awkward for us no full time farmer. Dad is kicking the arse of 80 so its not great.

your last post i dont understand . What do you mean?

The newborn calves must get the rotavec biestings from the treated cows for the first 12 days of life for it to cover them

paudie051

Ok, that doesnt happen with us. We normally take calves of the cows @ 3 days. Now it will be immediately as per the vets advice.

Im guessing i need to get a new dose for the calves

whelan2

paudie051 wrote: »

Ok, that doesnt happen with us. We normally take calves of the cows @ 3 days. Now it will be immediately as per the vets advice.

Im guessing i need to get a new dose for the calves

You could keep the cows milk and feed it to the calves. Rotavec is very expensive. It needs to be used right.

cute geoge

Do any of your cows drink rain water collected off a roof ,this seems to cause crypto i heard

paudie051

Thanks Whelan for this advice. Wouldn't have known. Shows my involvement in the farming, spend €10 per cow and then dont take advantage of the dose.

Hopefully starting the green cert soon and hopefully my knowledge will be increased.

Thanks Whelan.

paudie051

Cute George,

Nope all comes from the mains.

Thanks for suggestion.

whelan2

paudie051 wrote: »

Thanks Whelan for this advice. Wouldn't have known. Shows my involvement in the farming, spend €10 per cow and then dont take advantage of the dose.

Hopefully starting the green cert soon and hopefully my knowledge will be increased.

Thanks Whelan.

I only found out a few years after using it. Its on the leaflet that no one reads in the box

paudie051

We were only really using it for crypto.

I have taken note. God it will be so hard to change a routine!