fly eggs on calf!!

[greenhorn]

Hello everyone,
As my user name indicates I am pretty new at all this. Long story short, I have 6 steer calves: 2 Jerseys and 4 Holsteins. The Jerseys are fine, but the Holsteins are taking turns with the Scours. Each one seems to have their bout and then perk up, but one has another problem. He had a lot of poo-goo on his back legs and rear, so I washed him and sent him off to play in the fresh air and sun. About 5 I came to give him his bottle, and he had many flies on his wet coat, and upon closer inspection there were clumps of fly eggs everywhere! I first scratced at the lumps to dislodge them (gross) and then got the hose and a brush and rinsed off as many as I could, but I know there are still some there.

What should I put on him to kill those eggs and deter future ones. Has anyone else had flies lay eggs on their animals? Maybe a serious desicant?

Also any other tips about scour treatment would be great. They've all had an antibiotic pill (can't remember which one, but it's big and yellow), Scour-Ease and electrolyte water. And are even healthy calves suppossed to look emaciated at 3 weeks? They're perky and hungry, but seem so thin!

Thank you for any help.

Greenhorn

[kmorisett]

I haven't been through this yet myself, but I have read many people's advice online. For treating scours, never give milk or milk replacer in the same feeding as electrolytes (follow the directions on the package). The most important thing is to keep them from getting dehydrated which can happen quickly at this age. If they've had an antibiotic, then some probiotics are in order. They sell these, or you could use some plain, live culture natural yogurt. Perky and hungry is good. For the eggs, I'm not sure. I know with horses and bot eggs, you can smother them with baby oil and it will kill them. I don't know about other fly eggs, sorry.

Kim

[Madsaw]

Greenhorn,
Lets address the problems in the order you need to take care of them. You will need a spray called screw worm spray. This can be gotten at your feed mill or CooP. If you can not find it call your vet. They should be able to point you in the direction you need to go to find it. Spray the area where the eggs are and worm it in with a brush. This will also keep the flies away from there too.
Next a 3 week old calf has some underlying cuases to make them scour at this age. I would use a sulfa based drug on thme . Such as Sustain III, Sulmet, and SMZ/ bactrum tablets. I have posted about this before, most of the time the calves have a slight case of pneumonia causeing them to be run down just enough for the calf to never get over the scours. You can just try the sulfa, or use a pneumonia drug with it. Good ones to use are Nuflur and Draxxin.
Welcome to the board and feel free to ask all the questions ou need too.

Here is a link to the decription of the screw worm spray.

http://www.valleyvet.com/ct_detail.h...2-00b0d0204ae5


Later
Bob

[ksfarmer]

The screwworm spray is more designed to be used on wounds and open sores. This stops maggots, although I think screw worms as such aren't present in the U.S.
Better would be to use a spray of Permectrin (http://www.valleyvet.com/ct_detail.h...92-00b0d0204ae) or another fly spray that contains permethrin. If your calf is clean and dry you shouldn't have any problem with fly maggots.

[ErinP]

Since everyone else got the rest of your questions, I'll just toss in that yes, even healthy calves can look skinny. Particularly Holsteins.
The better check is shiny eyes, pink skin tones, wet mucus membranes, being active, etc. (Basically the same things one looks for in healthy people babies. ) With any kind of luck, if you get the scours cleared up, they'll start filling out a bit.

[Madsaw]

I have had the same problem from time to time on calves with teh eggs and magots. Screw worm spray is the only way to go. About once a yr we end up with a claf like this. Tryed alot of other things but this stuff works great. Just makes you sick to see them boiling up out of the hair after you spray the calf with it.
Bob

[greenhorn]

Well, I had some luck with the eggs so far. It is quite cool here today for June (60 degrees) so the hatching is delayed. I knew I couldn't get the spray until this afternoon, so this morning I brushed Baking soda all over his back and butt and then poured on....a Diet Coke. That really fizzes up in the baking soda, like vinegar but I couldn't find that (we just moved). Then tonight I rinsed him off, towel dried him and put on the spray. We'll see, but he sure liked the brushing!

Sad to say, the calf with pnemonia (my opinion) is not doing well. I gave him and the other that has the eggs, shots of antibiotics (Oxy-something) first a large double-dose and the a single one 8 hours later. I got this same kind of initial double-dose when I had an early delivery of baby #4, and I was positive for Strep B. The egg calf really seems better, but the sick one is just lying on the straw (head down) and not moving. He is breathing slowly but is very cold, so my son and I rubbed him with a towel for awhile and he took some electrolyte water, but then pooped out again. i covered him with a dry towel and straw and am just hoping the antibiotics go to work soon.

Thanks for the advice an dwish me luck!

[Madsaw]

Use draxxin or Nuflur for pneumonia in calves. Also the use of a sulfa drugs helps alot too. Oxymycin, LA200 and drugs of that nature are not the first choice for pneumonia in calves.
The worse I have ever had to use screw worm spray I thought I would have to shoot the little heifer calf. She had maggots so bad. I used a mild diluted iodine to wash around her butt area. Then used a good spray down to kill them off. She was hairless on the backside for months from them. She was on pasture with her mom for 3 days after she was born when I found the mess.
Where are you located?
Bob