Owning and maintaining a herd is hard work. When it’s calving season, the work is even harder because of how important calves are to the herd. When you have a new member in your herd, you have to take extra care of them because their health affects herd wellness. Fortunately, there are many extra precautions you can take to prevent any major health deficits among your herd. Cloud Peak has the resources and information you need, so please learn more about the services we provide so we can assist you the best we can.
One of the most common illnesses that lead to calf mortality is calf scours, which is a clinical sign associated with several diseases characterized by diarrhea. It results in the loss of electrolytes and water in the calf’s intestinal system, both essential to keeping a calf alive and healthy. Keep in mind that calves are 70% water, so any sort of dehydration will severely impact a calf’s health. When a calf has scours, the diarrhea prevents the intestines from absorbing and keeping the water and nutrients that any growing, living thing needs. As a result, a calf can easily die from dehydration, but it isn’t the only symptom resulting in mortality. As mentioned earlier, the calf loses an extreme amount of electrolytes, leading to acidosis, which is fatal.
You may be wondering how you can prevent any of your calves from scours. But, before we can get into that, you need a little background information about what causes them. There are two different types of scours: Noninfectious and infectious scours.
Noninfectious Scours
Non-infectious Scours are those unrelated to viruses, parasites or bacteria. Regular parts of your pet’s life such as diet, environment and poor post-birth care can all contribute to non-infectious scours. Like any newborn animal, calf immune systems are very delicate and have to be closely cared for, especially after birth. This care should also extend to the mothers (or dams). Cows require a lot of nutrition even without being pregnant, so when your cows do get pregnant, it will require more attention to detail from you and the caretakers. It is critical to ensure that the dam has the best possible diet and environment, thus encouraging production of nutrient-rich colostrum, which is the first milk the mother produces. The better the dam’s nutrition, the better the colostrum. Because calves are born with little natural immunity, colostrum intake is critical; it enables passive immunity to flow from the mother to its calf before the calf develops much of its own immunity. This passive immunity has a shelf life of sorts, so if the calf does not ingest colostrum within the first 24 hours of the life, the rate of effectiveness of passive immunity decreases.
Another cause of non-infectious scours is a poor birthing environment. These conditions include unkempt stalls, crowding and calving heifers in close proximity. Ensure your property has plenty of room for the herd and the individuals in said herd.
Infectious Scours
There are several ways calves may contract infectious scours, including exposure to bacteria, viruses, parasites, yeasts and molds. Here are some specific examples of what to be on the lookout for so that your herd can stay as healthy as possible.
Escherichia coli (also known as E. coli) is the biggest threat to a calf’s health. The bacteria thrives in unsanitary conditions (a good example of why you should keep the herd conditions ideal). Salmonella can also endanger herd health. Should an outbreak occur, the infected herd members will need antibiotic treatment. To get started on that process, give Cloud Peak a call at (307) 347-2781, and we’ll make sure your herd gets the care it needs.
Viruses also pose a threat to herd health. The rotavirus causes cell disruption in the small intestine, preventing healthy digestion and ingestion of nutrients. Early treatment is critical for the welfare of the infected calf, as its immune system will be less able to combat other diseases and illness. Another virus to be aware of is Bovine Virus Diarrhea (BVD Virus). Monitor your calves for oral lesions and diarrhea so that they can be treated early on. And as mentioned earlier, it is essential to treat any diarrhea symptoms as soon as possible.
While yeasts and molds are less concerning than viruses and bacterias, and are usually not a cause of scours, they are secondary invaders and should be monitored and taken seriously.
For more information about noninfectious and infectious causes of scours, we recommend going here.
Scour Prevention Tips
There is no “one size fits all” fix for preventing scours, as only you and your veterinarian can determine what will best suit your herd. However, there are two important types of prevention: medicinal and managerial, and both are needed to maximize your herd health.
Medicinal prevention is herd-specific, so depending on what vaccines your vet recommends, getting on a schedule to regularly vaccinate your herd could be a useful way to ensure your herd’s health. This schedule should be discussed with your vet, so make sure to make that a priority if you haven’t done so already. To reiterate, newborn calves need that passive immunity from their dam, so make sure their colostrum is everything they need to avoid illness.
Managerial prevention is slightly more intensive, and includes factors such as nutrition, environment, and sanitation. It is essential to understand the nutritional needs of your cows, including the intake required for them to maintain a healthy weight. Nutrition goes hand in hand with sanitation – both play equal roles in managerial prevention of calf scours. All members of your herd need a clean, dry environment to limit vulnerability of disease and scours. Specifically, it is critical to separate calving heifers from wintered heifers. We highly recommend the Sandhills Calving System. This method involves moving calving cows to a pasture. As they wait to calve, the pregnant cows are moved to different pastures based on time. To learn more about this method, visit this website or ask us how to start incorporating it into your regular routine.
Treatment
The most important thing to remember about treating calf scours is that dehydration, acidosis, and electrolyte loss should be the focus of treatment. The basic outline of treatment is very basic, although parts of it need to be herd-specific. To treat those three symptoms, there will need to be antibiotic treatment as your calf probably did not get enough antibodies when ingesting colostrum. Administration of oral electrolytes can also be used to treat the deficient calf, but keep in mind that certain fluids allow for scours to get worse. Talk to your vet about what course of action would be best for your infected calves to treat the illness as soon as possible.
Stop by our office to talk about the herd-specific prevention and treatment of calf scours – we want to help keep your herd scour-free! Call us at (307) 347-2781 to set up an appointment. We look forward to hearing from you!
