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Calf Scours---Treatement--- Help

He seems down for the count. I've gotten a gallon of liquid in him so far today, the electrolytes, probiotic, and some pepto bismol (1T) in the amt on the label, he can't get up. His tummy seems to be puffed up a bit, laying there, pooping on his tail. We have tried to wash him off, it is ok for only a short time. He is flat out. We built him a sunshade today. It was like 80 and sunny.

I rubbed his tummy, and when i pushed, more poop came out. His head came up to look, i guess, and then he went back down. His nose is dry. He drinks, sucks not so hard. But the fact that he is drinking laying down is encouraging. He slept a lot today, I will call the vet tonight, leave a message for a visit tomarrow, and call first thing again. So its just getting dark, I'll give him a quart in another hour and a half, and again around midnight i'll try, and then in the middle of the night again, if he'll take it.

I am not particularly worried about people on this thread with the #, and i'm too fat, old and ugly to stalk. That and a sick cow, what a picture that is. I'm covered in poo.

I have the mineral block by his head, should he feel like lickin.

Anybody have any experience with banding on cows?? They're hard as a rock now and ready almost to go, maybe this has an effect on this, but I did give him 5cc of the LA200, it says it takes 24 hrs. He DID NOT like getting the shot(s) , they said give no more than, what, 2 cc's in any one place. It ended up bein 4 places, as the stuff was like Maple syrup and my needle was a 20.
 
Small feedings more often is way better than givin em a gallon at a time. Our calf bottles are 1/2 gallon ones, and when we have a bottle calf, I don't give em but about half of that at one feedin when they are real young. Then gradually increase them to all of the 1/2 gallon.

His nose bein dry is a good sign he's got fever. His nose should be wet.

Hope he makes it thru the night til you can get a vet there. But even then...that's no guarantee.
 
I've felt him all over, incl his mouth, and nothing feels hot. He is still squirting, less than before, I wonder what he even has to push out. It's 1:30 am, and i've gotten another half gallon into him since sundown, and I will go again now, its like a quart at a time. He is really enjoying the drinks, I think he's bored with this. Not that I'm anthropomorphizing. Its late. I'm hallucinating.
 
I know its not over....but

I stayed up all night, giving him part of a bottle hourly. I had to take the hose to his butt, drag him to new hay, he couldnt stand up to save his life. This ws another pretty picture, as he was parked in front of the gate, 20 feet from his pen. I only dragged him a foot, to the new hay, after I dug a trench and sprayed his butt and tail off.

The combination I used included lomotil, I've done that 2x in the last 24 hrs, crushed with fruit juice and honey, and electrolyte powder and probiotic, an occasional addition of pepto when I didnt use the lomotil, I made some Lapacho tea, put that in, as I had read that metronidazole for fungus helps the absorption of electrolytes, why not natural stuff? The vet had called and said dextrose, I used fructose. always bicarb of soda too.

He was laying there shaking uncontrollably when I left him this am at 5 am. The only thing i could think of was to cover him up, and I did. This morning now at 7 my husband woke me up and told me that the calf was out walking around. I just found him wandering, and he came up to me and leaned on me, he's still wobbly... but it was a cow hug for sure, and I know this insn't over, it could still end, but I'm indebted to you all, the vet will now come and if anybody ever wondered why there was an internet, my answer would be people like you and places like this. Thank you guys.
 
Audreyvgs said:
I know its not over....but

I stayed up all night, giving him part of a bottle hourly. I had to take the hose to his butt, drag him to new hay, he couldnt stand up to save his life. This ws another pretty picture, as he was parked in front of the gate, 20 feet from his pen. I only dragged him a foot, to the new hay, after I dug a trench and sprayed his butt and tail off.

The combination I used included lomotil, I've done that 2x in the last 24 hrs, crushed with fruit juice and honey, and electrolyte powder and probiotic, an occasional addition of pepto when I didnt use the lomotil, I made some Lapacho tea, put that in, as I had read that metronidazole for fungus helps the absorption of electrolytes, why not natural stuff? The vet had called and said dextrose, I used fructose. always bicarb of soda too.

He was laying there shaking uncontrollably when I left him this am at 5 am. The only thing i could think of was to cover him up, and I did. This morning now at 7 my husband woke me up and told me that the calf was out walking around. I just found him wandering, and he came up to me and leaned on me, he's still wobbly... but it was a cow hug for sure, and I know this insn't over, it could still end, but I'm indebted to you all, the vet will now come and if anybody ever wondered why there was an internet, my answer would be people like you and places like this. Thank you guys.
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I hope the little guy makes it cause you've put your heart into it for sure!!!

My little nieces and nephews get bucket babies from the feedlot close to there place{surprise babies} The feedlot just gives the calves to them,its not easy to raise the little guys...I give you credit.
 
Well, he's not totally out of the woods yet, as he still is squirtin, but he was following me around just now butting me for more electrolyte replacement stuff. The vet told me to just give him half gallon of regular whole milk from the store in the morning and at night. I have yet to sleep, need to go to the store now. I need to keep up the electrolytes... I have no idea how long it will take to get him over poopin so much.

I do think it was the Lomotil, not the loperamide that is what, Imodium, this is a scrip i have from lactose intolerance, I spose its not legal to give your pills to a cow, but evidently they put atropine in it to make you sick if you over do it. I think thats what's helped, really. There is no mention of lomotil, which was scary and risky to give to a cow, where there is no info, but its an opiate. I think maybe it just calms down those stomachs. He sleeps. He got better.

Now, his system just has to calm down a bit, and I will continue the other liquids. oh, man. all this for a cow I had decided not to get attatched to. !!!
 
Well, I will now. Its now 9:30, he is now on a half gallon of milk 2x a day and lots of electrolytes and some pepto bismol in between. Along with the salty electrolyte replacer, he goes apeass over Gatorade. I had to keep tabs on him all day, along with the other animals that own me at the moment, He MUST be getting better, as he tried to get my husband to play with him. I keep telling my son and husband that that game of tag isn't going to be so funny when he's 1000 lbs. !!! now, zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
 
Audreyvgs said:
This morning he was (impatiently) waiting at my back door for breakfast. I guess its back out with the horses and goats today! YAY!
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I'd keep him by himself the rest of this week.

I don't mean to rain your parade but many here will agree with me when I say this.


Lots of times.....critters get a whole lot better......then up and die on ya.

So, don't count it all over yet. That calf sounds as if it's been thru the wringer backwards and it will take more time than just a day or so for the innards to adjust and start up.

Keep him as cool as you can, let him sleep alot.....and keep hiim hydrated and fed.
 
Thanks guys, he's great. Kolanuraven, thats good advice. I am going out there with another gatorade & stuff in it just in case now. He sure is a nice one of those. I don't even know what to call him. Is it a steer if you banded him right off the bat? I just call it cow. When he's hungry he sticks his tongue out, if he's not, he just leans on me. I'm throwin him hay and he's tasting it, he tries his starter food, but wants his milk. then he wants his gatorade later.

He's still a bit skinny after his ordeal, but he plays hard as he did before. I have great hopes.

I was surprised that the burro and the old horse took him on face value immediately. They were initially horrified that he tried to nurse on them, but we gave him a stall, and he figured it out. He fits in so well.
 
If your so called "cow"....has or had ' nuts'.....be they gone or not....HE IS not a cow. Cows are girls.....Boys are Bulls ( with nuts) or steers ( without nuts).

Do you have any idea how old this calf is? Regardless, you're gonna have a bottle baby for a few months. Get some milk replacer at the feed store and start to wean him back from so much electrolyte solution. He prob needs to start getting some ' solids' via milk into him on a reg basis. Even give him a bottle of water, or as much as he'll take also. We'd always rinse out the bottle after feeding with cool water, and let the calf suck it down. That way they get extra water and we get the bottles flushed out! IF he balks at the milk replacer...add a bit of pancake syrup the first bottle or two then he'll latch on.


He prob too young to ' eat' hay. A normal calf will nurse it's Mom for about 6-7 months before being weaned. You can start him on some calf manna/sweet feed earlier...but he'll still need a bottle.


Make sure the horse don't kick him trying to push him back when he tries to nurse. In fact, best keep him away from anything bigger/taller than he is right now.
 
My steer was born on April 9th, and we got him April 11. We had him on replacer, but somebody insisted after 2 weeks or so that we change to the next up the list food, i'd given him colostrum just in case at the beginning. He had diareah for a day after that, but i figgered on it.

So, for the next up food, they said he wasstill hungry, we should up it to a gallon in the am and pm. 2 bottles in stead of one, i think thats what got us in trouble. way too much.

So now the vet has us on half a gallon of store milk 2x a day with electrolytes in the middle. I noticed tonight he was pooping plain water!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I threw some egg whites in there tonight for protien. but after the waterpooping, i put some more pepto in the electrolytes. He's nibbling on his calf manna, and has some hay in his mouth at times, I don't know exactly what he's eating.

So, now he's a month old. God, i can't wait for this thing to wean![/i]
 
Here's my 2 cents worth of advice. Get some milk replacer and use that as your milk source, to transition from store bought milk. All the protein, fat, and vitamins the calf need are in the milk replacer. I would not add raw egg or egg whites in with the milk, my fear would be infecting the calf with salmonella from the raw egg. Unless your calf is still having large bouts of diarrhea you can probably stop giving the gatorade, ask your vet.

Another suggestion would be, if you think the calf is getting to hungry between your 12 hour feedings, is to go to 3 feedings a day at roughly 8 hour intervals. Adjust your feeding amount of 1 gal/day (1/2 gal per feeding) to be fed over 3 feedings instead of 2. For example, 3 pints in the morning, 2 pints afternoon, and 3 pints in the evening. Smaller but more frequent feedings might get the calf's intestines to settle down.

Good Luck and honestly I'm not just trying to get you to work more. :)
 
's ok! I'll do whatever it takes. I'm an artist, so I work at home, so I'm here. I can do this.

It was just the whites, and theyre' my chickns, so I know the eggs are ok. I'll try some replacer bit by bit.

He goes from solid to loose fast.
 
I put some milk replacer in the milk, then more water. 3x. He's chowin on the calf manna and tonight he chased the goats away from their food in the bown he was eating...He was eating goat chow! We gave him a bath, he stayed tied to a post pretty well...didn't mind the water too much, and I wish my burro would let me play with his feet like i did the steer's.

I will keep an eye on him.
 
If the calfs tail is dark brown or red, or you see them squirt a dark liquid, you may be dealing with coccidiosis. Used to be common in weaners and yearlings when stressed. We have been seeing it some in very young calves. Bovitec is a good treatment and there is a product you ad to milk replacer or resorb if you are tubing them.
 

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