? on bottle calves

Anonymous-0 · Apr 22, 2013

Needing some advise from you guys with knowledge on holstein calves. What is the best way to control scours. Have three and two of them have scours. They drink the bottle good and now are just starting to eat a little grain. Have been told to use raw eggs,pepto-bismal,baking soda and the list goes on and on. Looking for some solid advise from you guys on this forum. Thanks in advance!

rrlund · Apr 22, 2013

MASSIVE amounts of Pepto Bismal. I'm talking a 60cc syringe in the back of the throat every two hours for 6-8 doses. I've practically brought them back from the dead with that.

petetx · Apr 22, 2013

dad used to give them real ripe bannas

Dick L · Apr 22, 2013

check this
Here

Dick L · Apr 22, 2013

Scours in calve is very contagious.

In a large calf operation ever calf is tested and are rejected if they carry the bug when the truck comes in so it does not go thru all of them.

rrlund · Apr 22, 2013

Number 8 on that list works great. My wife has finally gotten so she can do that herself. There's a concoction that the vet told her to give them. It includes baking soda,I remember that much.
I had one that I thought was dead before the vet got here one time. It's eyes were all sunk in,real shallow breathing. He gave it an IV and within ten minutes that calf was up and sucking a bottle. That was the first time I'd seen it done. Works miracles.

Nate V. IA · Apr 22, 2013

As long as he is still active, alert and hungry I wouldn't worry about it especially if hes old enough to start eating grain. You can offer some electrolytes in addition to milk if you are worried about dehydration.

More often than not my calves got scours but very few got sick or died because of it. I weaned my calves at about 45 days. You don't need to feed them milk for six months like the cow does.

Make sure the water they have doesn't get milk in it. I took the water away while I was feeding them, gave it back about a half an hour or so later, its all about the esophageal groove. Read up on it to give you a better understanding of why.

Nate

rrlund · Apr 22, 2013

We've pretty much elimentated it. I give an E-coli oral nnalert within the first 12 hours after they're born. Costs about $8 a calf,and I have to risk my life to get to the calf,but it prevents it,no question about it. It's called Bovine ecolizer from Novartis. I get it from Valley Vet Supply.

Kerry50 · Apr 22, 2013

When a calf hits the ground here I tag, give a multi-min shot and they get a tribrissen pill. I started giving tribrissen last year to new born calves on the advice of my veterinarian. Have not had any scours since. Not even the nasty milk scours that you will see new borns have. Checked my brothers cows one day last week for him. He had a new born, the only thing he does is tag his new borns. This calf had the milk scours pretty bad. I tagged it and gave it a tribrissen pill. The next day he was cleared up.

charlespretzer · Apr 22, 2013

Sulfa bollisus (how ever you spell pills the size of your little finger) 2 should do it .

caseyc · Apr 22, 2013

I add a packet of geliten to the milk if I get a bad one. Otherwise there is a lot of good advise here. Try a few and see what works for you.

Casey in SD

LonM · Apr 22, 2013

If it is just dietary (milk) scours and not from a microbe, you can add a product to the milk that will make their stools firmer. I do not recall the name of it, as is has been several years since I was around it, but a feed store or veterinarian may be able to help you locate something along that line...
Good Luck,
Lon

M Nut · Apr 22, 2013

Good advice already given. I use the pills at birth and they really help. If I get one with scours later, the next thing I use is the oral bolus (3 of them), the jell-o packet is good, and the massive amount of pepto bismal (60 cc at a time) multiple times a day often works well too.

donjr · Apr 22, 2013

Mine also get a dose of 'Calf-guard', a navel dip, 2cc's of BOSE and about 40ml of Bovi Sera and a tag. It really bugs me when one dies and I don't know which cow to take to auction....

M Nut · Apr 22, 2013

Forgot to mention, I would treat sooner than later. I prefer to error on the side of early treatment rather than letting them get weak before starting treatment. As soon as I see the squirts, they get treatment.

Dave from MN · Apr 22, 2013

I always used a half dozen raw eggs admn"d through an old coke bottle, twice a day. right or wrong it worked and eggs are cheap

Milty · Apr 22, 2013

I use v-lytes twice a day for a day unless its real bad then 2 days. I've tried the sulfa bolus' with mixed success. turns the manure jet black but doesn't seem to thicken up overly quick

Whichester1 · Apr 22, 2013

It has been a long time (25 years) since I raised bottle calves, but I always used large tablets about the size of your thumb. Any farm store will have them. It is also much easier to purchase a plastic tube to inject the pill down the calves throat. Once this is complete rub the animals throat to ensure the pill goes down.

Keeping the pen clean will reduce problems with scours.

GregCO · Apr 22, 2013

Just curious here. I don't know squat about calf's. I'm a dairy goat guy. When I see this in kid goats and I am feeding milk and not replacer I start them on a sulfa drug. Cocci seems to be a common problem in the spring if it has been wet. Same with calf's?

Greg

Texasmark1 · Apr 23, 2013

Something else it to watch nature at work. Calf hits mama every couple of hours. In a dairy bull calf operation, you do it twice a day with a large dose of milk.

I know it would be a pain, but feeding more often in smaller amounts may help also. I couldn't at the time as I had a town job.

I don't remember what I did for them otherwise. I'm thinking I used antibiotics to kill the bug. Course the question is how do they get the bug in the first place? Is it from eating too much too seldom?

Sorry,
Mark

Bill in IL · Apr 23, 2013

Used to do bottle calves just didn't have a market for them. Terramycin scours tablets seemed to work the best for me. Just give them at the first sign of problems. Have used electrolytes if they started getting weak. There are all sorts of meds out there for it you just have to find one that works for you.

First thing I should have said is to keep the calves clean. Clean bottles, buckets, pens.

formenwhogrow · Apr 23, 2013

As was said before, clean, clean, clean. Also, are you getting them good grass hay to go with their grain? Calves need some dry matter to help get their rumen going, this will help with prevention. Feed store electrolyte powder to mix with milk replacer works good for controlling them.

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