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haemophilus somnus

Triangle Bar

Well-known member
I've never had a case before in the 18 some years we've run cattle here, but I guess there's a first time for everything and consequently have never vaccinated for it. :( I took two weaned calves to the vet on monday that acted like they couldn't see and generally just dumb acting. They had a high fever, nasal discharge, and in his opinion the signs of h. somnus. He doctored them with nuflor and vitamins.

I'm not sure how contagious this is so I've isolated the two that were doctored, sorted through the others and see no others with any symptoms. Moved 'em to a clean pasture and water source monday afternoon.

Yesterday we vaccinated all the weaners with Somubac, Virashield 6, and backpour with ivermectin. I was going to work them on friday anyhow but was spurred into action.

The vet recommended that I begin feeding my calves a tetracycline medicated cake for at least 7 days to ward off any additional cases while the vaccine has a chance to start building some immunity.

Is there anything else I can do or should know?
 

Big Muddy rancher

Well-known member
Pray. :D

The first case I ever saw was in a big Char calf must have been over 30 years ago. Stumbling around blind and knuckling over on the back ankles. If my memory serves me correct we just used Oxytet to treat as didn't have many choices back then. I can't even remember if the calf survived I think he did but we lost some in later years. Don't see it much(Knock on wood) since we keep our own calves and vaccinate at branding and weaning.
I even remember who the first calf cam from. :D
 

Kato

Well-known member
It's a lot more common than you may think. Sometimes it shows up as what we call ITEME, which is when it gets into the brain and makes them go down.. fast. Sometimes it shows up as pneumonia, and sometimes as swollen joints. The worst one though, is that once in a while it can get into the heart and cause an abscess, and a seemingly healthy calf just drops dead with no warning. It all depends where the bacteria lands.

We always vaccinate for it, and if you know you've got it, it's a good idea to give a booster for the vaccine a couple of weeks after the first one. One shot of the vaccine isn't nearly as effective, even though it does help. We vaccinate at pasture turnout, and then again at weaning.

One of our own calves went down with ITEME a couple of years ago just after weaning, but before she got her booster. It was the first one we'd ever had do this, and she went down fast. We gave her an IV shot of thiamine and trivetrin and hoped for the best. A half hour later, we went back out to see if we needed to drag her out of the pen, and she was up eating hay at the feeder. Go figure. She was dumpy for a couple of weeks, but she did get over it.

I'd give them a booster of the vaccine. It's pretty cheap, and will more than double how effective it is.
 

Triangle Bar

Well-known member
Big Muddy rancher said:

Yep, I'll sure be doing that.

Thanks Kato, I reckon it could of been around before and it just manifested its self in a different manner. I'll be sure to give a second H. Somnus vac. here in a couple of weeks.

The two I took to the vet show some sign of improvement and all the others are doing fine so far.
 

elwapo

Well-known member
good luck triangle bar, it sounds like you have been given some good advice A good vaccination program pays! Unfortunately most guys that sell calves off the cow never see the brunt of the effects of not vaccinating or under- vaccinating. We went to broad spectrum vaccinations at branding and weaning 20 years ago when we got into the PB business and started keeping many more calves. There is a misconception out there that a premium will be payed for large groups of one iron calves regardless of the vaccination regime. My feedlot friends and neighbors are very quick to identify the origin of a chronically sick group of calves.
 

cowsense

Well-known member
Kato said:
It's a lot more common than you may think. Sometimes it shows up as what we call ITEME, which is when it gets into the brain and makes them go down.. fast. Sometimes it shows up as pneumonia, and sometimes as swollen joints. The worst one though, is that once in a while it can get into the heart and cause an abscess, and a seemingly healthy calf just drops dead with no warning. It all depends where the bacteria lands.

We always vaccinate for it, and if you know you've got it, it's a good idea to give a booster for the vaccine a couple of weeks after the first one. One shot of the vaccine isn't nearly as effective, even though it does help. We vaccinate at pasture turnout, and then again at weaning.

One of our own calves went down with ITEME a couple of years ago just after weaning, but before she got her booster. It was the first one we'd ever had do this, and she went down fast. We gave her an IV shot of thiamine and trivetrin and hoped for the best. A half hour later, we went back out to see if we needed to drag her out of the pen, and she was up eating hay at the feeder. Go figure. She was dumpy for a couple of weeks, but she did get over it.

I'd give them a booster of the vaccine. It's pretty cheap, and will more than double how effective it is.

Kato........your calf sure sounds more like a polio victim than ITEME; thiamine can give a fairly rapid response. To be fair Polio (can't spell the whole word :lol: ) exhibits many of the same symptoms but eye response to motion is usually poor or non existant. We use Thiamine also as a just in case.
Touch wood but we haven't had ITEME problems ever since we started a comprehensive vaccination protocol prior to weaning. We use Fermicon 7 as Blackleg with haemophilus vaccine added and it seems to be working.
 

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