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7 way with Somnus

F

Faster horses

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 11, 2005
Messages
30,504
Location
NE WY at the foot of the Big Horn mountains
I learned something new yesterday.

Was looking for vaccine and the salesman told me that
7-way with somnus is very hard on the calves. Causes them
get very hot (he actually said 'sweat') and they will go and lay
down. Takes them a few days to get over it. He mentioned also
that the video sales don't require 7-way anymore. I'm not sure
he is correct, but I guess there is no reason to doubt him as
he was being helpful.

I didn't know about the 7-way/somnus deal so I checked with our Vigortone vet who supported his comment. He did say it wouldn't be as hard on calves that are on a good mineral program. One thing that
will help is to use the 7-way and have the somnus with the other
vaccine. In our instance it would be Ultra 7 with pasturella and
Virashild 6 with somnus.

Vision 7 is our vaccine of choice, but it isn't available with pasturella.

Just thought I should pass this along.
 
I never heard of that either, FH. I gave my calves the straight Vision 7 at birth, then Vision 7 + H. Somnus at branding time. Didn't notice that it set the calves back any. Bought all my vaccines from the vet.

I also use the Virashield (6?) product including the H Somnus in my fall shots. I believe the 7-way + Pasteurella product I use is a Pfizer product. Is that the Ultra 7? That way I get the shots done with only 2 vaccine guns.

I'll have to get my supplies for fall shots soon, and ask the vet about this 7 way/HS link if she is there.
 
That is what we are going to do, John.
Ultra 7 with pasturella and Virashield 6 with somus.
It's tough to find a combination where you only have to give
2 shots. This is what we used last years and it worked okay
as far as we know.

A little bad news, found a dead yearling heifer today. Her
head was really swelled up ant the tip of her tongue was black.
She must have gotten snakebit right on the end of her tongue.
Poor little cow. :cry:
 
Faster horses said:
A little bad news, found a dead yearling heifer today. Her
head was really swelled up ant the tip of her tongue was black.
She must have gotten snakebit right on the end of her tongue.
Poor little cow. :cry:
Click to expand...

And then there are folks who think a rattlesnake should be left alone, because "the aren't hurting anything". :???: :? :shock: There is such a thing as nipping a problem in the bud. Kill the rattlesnakes.

On the subject of 7 way/somnus, we have given it to weaning age calves for several years with no problems. Years ago (back in the late 1980's), at branding time I gave our calves two different vaccinations. One was a 7-way blackleg shot, and the other was Haemophilus (somnus). A big crew was on hand and we were branding right along. We looked out over the calves that had been processed, and they were dropping like flies from shock. About thirty head went down before we got the operation stopped. I dashed to the house and brought back all the epinephrine that we had on hand, besides quickly calling our most local vet (who was still thirty miles away). Back at the herd, we administered epinephrine shots and the vet gave some more when he arrived.

We went on branding, but no longer used the Haemophilus vaccination, and no further shock problems were encountered. Of the thirty or so that went down, only four head died. It was a bad loss, but could have been much worse. I thought probably all of the thirty were goners at one time.

Since then, we've never given Haemophilus (somnus) shots to young calves, but we do give our calves this vaccination in the fall when we pre-condition. We always use Pfizer products, and have had good results with their vaccines.
 
Faster Horses said:
A little bad news, found a dead yearling heifer today. Her
head was really swelled up ant the tip of her tongue was black.
She must have gotten snakebit right on the end of her tongue.
Poor little cow.
Click to expand...
What is gonna take...........one of their kids snake bit before some people on this board get excited about snakes. Heck murders don't bother us so maybe we should leave them alone............yea right
 
You know I have given somnus all the time...................but now I am scared. I think I better have a talk with the vet.
 
What do they consider young? We always treat our calves in the fall when we wean them with a 7 way with H-Somnus. Never had a problem, but then these calves are in the 700 lb. range. Just wondering, because we were thinking of backgrounding some younger calves this year.
 
On the directions for the Pfizer Haemophilus Somnus Bacterin, it states: "Admister a single 2ML dose subcutaneously to healthy cattle 3 months of age or older, followed a by a second dose 2-4 weeks later."

If there is a recommended age restriction, it appears that for calves under 3 months of age, a haemophilus vaccination would not be recommended.
 
I'm not trying to change the subject of this thread to mineral, but has anyone else especially in drought areas noticed that the cows are hitting the salt/mineral especially hard lately?

I've had some Smartlic 22% barrels out since mid-Aug and using them to feed American Stockman Hi-Salt with EDDI TM salt and Vigortone 32S Plus mineral. I keep the lick barrels covered with salt and mineral.

I know the cows are trying to get at the lick, and they sure go through a lot of salt and mineral in the process.

Right now the barrels are empty, so when I put out some more I will cover the barrels with salt the first day before I give them the mineral.
 
We also fed a LOT of mineral this year and it's the 7th year of drought. We are nutrition sticklers. Also, anybody that puts cows on stalks, protein supplements do wonders :wink: :wink: . They will utilize the forage alot better.

We don't give Somnus to calves under 400 lbs either. Just too hard on them.
 
katrina said:
Yup....... Welcome to drought 101.......
Click to expand...

I think you're right, Katrina. Cows eat more salt and mineral on dry grass. That's the way it worked all winter too. When I first turned the cows out on this particular pasture in the spring there was quite a bit of green coming up in the old grass. I didn't use this pasture last year at all.

Not much green of any kind out there for quite some time. Things looked pretty tough by the end of June just when stuff should have been at its peak. Seems like hayfields and pasture need to be rested every other year through this drought or they don't amount to much. I didn't even hook on to the hay machinery this year.


Charlie, it's the 7th year of drought here too. I didn't put up any hay in 2002 either.
 
I hope 7 is a lucky number and the drought breaks. It is raining here today. Chilly too. We had .85 last I looked and still raining. Got a load of unweaned calves from Ft. Pierre on the way down. Guess that's what it takes to get it to rain. Supposed to rain tonight, tomorrow and some Monday too. Maybe we should have bought them in June :wink:
 

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