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Sick Calf ~5 months

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Mudhen

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I have a calf born back in March and now it only weights about 150lbs. Back in March I had to pull him from a heifer. Then in about April I moved that pair and some others to another field, and since that move it don't seem like he has grown much, if any. The other calfs born at about the some time are 2X as big now. Some time late May I cut and worked all of them (wormed, blackleg, Lepto, and such). Did I say that I have given this calf some LA-200 3 times, a Sulfur tablet, and some Macatail (sp) in the time from about April to Last night and almost every time I go out to check on this calf is off by it's self. I am beside myself on this one, we may go see the vet? What do you think on this one?
:???: :???: :???: :evil:
 
Mudhen said:
I have a calf born back in March and now it only weights about 150lbs. Back in March I had to pull him from a heifer. Then in about April I moved that pair and some others to another field, and since that move it don't seem like he has grown much, if any. The other calfs born at about the some time are 2X as big now. Some time late May I cut and worked all of them (wormed, blackleg, Lepto, and such). Did I say that I have given this calf some LA-200 3 times, a Sulfur tablet, and some Macatail (sp) in the time from about April to Last night and almost every time I go out to check on this calf is off by it's self. I am beside myself on this one, we may go see the vet? What do you think on this one?
:???: :???: :???: :evil:
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Had the same experience. Almost. Had the calf checked and it was a BVD PI.
I was glad it stayed off to itself then! Was a bought cow, still scares me.
 
Did I forget to say that the body looks good, real good but you can tell by looking in his face? He has scours, runny nose, keeps his head low, droopy ears, and is slow in general.
 
Mudhen said:
Did I forget to say that the body looks good, real good but you can tell by looking in his face? He has scours, runny nose, keeps his head low, droopy ears, and is slow in general.
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If you have given him several rounds of antibiotics, I would keep him separate from the rest of the herd until the results of a blood test comes back. Something is obviously wrong with that calf, from your analysis.
 
Did I forget to say that the body looks good, real good but you can tell by looking in his face? He has scours, runny nose, keeps his head low, droopy ears, and is slow in general.
 
Mudhen said:
Did I forget to say that the body looks good, real good but you can tell by looking in his face? He has scours, runny nose, keeps his head low, droopy ears, and is slow in general.
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No, you did not forget.
 
I would say that you need to get some probiotic into that calf to get his guts working again. Excessive doses of antibiotic can and do kill the good 'bugs' in the gut along with the bad ones.

Give the probiotic and see if you can get him cleared up. You might need to give it several times.

And this is not to say it isn't BVD or something similar.
 
I am with Mike. Get that baby away from your heathy animales. Put him and his momma in a pin that does not have common fence with your other stock. Then get a blood sample and have a vet check it out. Then sell the calf and maybe his momma and treat the heard as advised by your vet.
It ain't worth starting somthing in your heard!
 
Faster horses said:
I would say that you need to get some probiotic into that calf to get his guts working again. Excessive doses of antibiotic can and do kill the good 'bugs' in the gut along with the bad ones.

Give the probiotic and see if you can get him cleared up. You might need to give it several times.

And this is not to say it isn't BVD or something similar.
Click to expand...

The shot I gave for lepto was Triangle® 9 and it has something for BVD in it. We will see what the vet says about it here in a little. I will let you know what he says tomorrow.

I have never used prodiotic but does it work that good?
 
Mudhen said:
Faster horses said:
I would say that you need to get some probiotic into that calf to get his guts working again. Excessive doses of antibiotic can and do kill the good 'bugs' in the gut along with the bad ones.

Give the probiotic and see if you can get him cleared up. You might need to give it several times.

And this is not to say it isn't BVD or something similar.
Click to expand...

The shot I gave for lepto was Triangle® 9 and it has something for BVD in it. We will see what the vet says about it here in a little. I will let you know what he says tomorrow.

I have never used prodiotic but does it work that good?
Click to expand...

I'm not saying he has BVD. But just that the same thing happened to me and the calf "WAS" BVD positive. There are inumerable viruses and bacterias that this calf could have and the only way to know for sure is to test. It's not normal to have a calf that needs antibiotics that often.
Lots of luck!
 
Yes, probiotics work amazingly well. When we used to have alot of sickness in our cattle and had to doctor them more than once we learned to use probiotics to get their system working again.

Another thing, if you have an incidence of bloat, if you will give probiotic after drenching with oil, chances of the bloater living will increase drastically. A couple of falls ago, there seemed to be quite a few calves that bloated~for whatever reason~the calves that were not treated with the probiotic died, while the others lived. Bloat interferes with rumen function and the probiotic helps get the rumen going again.

Interesting, huh?
 
Was that a live BVD vaccine?

Sometimes a PI calf will be fine until exposed to another shot of BVD via a live vaccine. There's a theory that exposure to the virus, even from a live vaccine seems to be all it takes to tip the scales and bring on the illness.

Another symptom is lesions in the mouth, and sometimes between the toes. Added to symptoms of a depressed immune symptom, scours and general unthriftiness and it's a worry. I'd get a blood test just in case.
 
Kato said:
Was that a live BVD vaccine?

Sometimes a PI calf will be fine until exposed to another shot of BVD via a live vaccine. There's a theory that exposure to the virus, even from a live vaccine seems to be all it takes to tip the scales and bring on the illness.

Another symptom is lesions in the mouth, and sometimes between the toes. Added to symptoms of a depressed immune symptom, scours and general unthriftiness and it's a worry. I'd get a blood test just in case.
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Sounds like you know about BVD Kato.
 
They did a stool test and it showed up that at birth he got Joint ill, Navel ill or something like that and will never get over it but one thing I know now is it just happened not to worry about it and to sell him 1st of Nov. :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: Thanks for all the help
 
I find that most interesting.

I hate navel ill more than anything that can happen to a calf. It is so discouraging. And we used to get it regularly until we got on a good mineral program.

Now if we do get one (had one in the last 5years), we now kow how to treat it. You must be very aggressive as the bacteria lives in the joints~that is why you will see the joints swell. The circulation is not good in the joints and the bacteria is safe there. So in order to treat it aggressively here is what you need to do:

Give 8cc Penecillin G twice a day for five days, then once a day for 5 days; OR 10-12cc Long-lasting penecillin once a day for 5 days and then 8cc once a day for 5 days.

It is a ten-day treatment regardless of how you do it. Try to doctor each day about the same time (don't go over 24 hours).

Of course it is too late for this calf, but when you catch navel ill soon enough, I guarantee you this treatment will work. Until we learned to do this, we never saved a calf with navel ill, or they never amounted to anything. And we gave enough shots to them that I wondered what kept the milk from coming out the needle holes when they sucked the cow. We just didn't do it religiously enough for the right amount of time.

Navel ill is something we just don't have any more, but it used to be a nightmare for us. And we treated the navel with iodine too.

Sorry about you calf, but it is better to have navel ill than BVD.
 
Take the calf to the stock yard next sale. Don't waist your time and money on a calf that will not produce.
 
I am going keep the little guy for a couple of months that way he will get a little fat on hem he is not costing me anything right now anyway.

FH that you for all your help, we feed what I think is a good mineral program we have never had this before but we may have but just didn't know it too.
 

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