Need help with a sick calf.

[mydogsparty]

I've got a sick 3.5 week old holstein (male). He was fine yesterday, ate great. [The standard feeding for him has been two quarts of water with milk replacer at 9:AM and again at 4:PM. He also has a very small amount of protein pellets in a pail if he chooses.] I went to feed him this morning and he appeared fine. He was anxious to see me and started drinking from the pail right away. He only drank half his milk replacer (1qt). He's been a great eater up to now. I took his temp and it was a normal 101. I put new straw in his hutch. He stood in the back with his head down almost like he was going to throw up. Then he basically laid down on his side like a dog, closed his eyes and was breathing pretty shallow. He would cough every now and then. His stomach seemed bloated. At times I could hear some churning. I sat next to him and petted him like a dog for a while and he just kept his eyes shut.

This afternoon he got up when I arrived for chores and I fed him some water (2qts) without the milk replacer but with baking soda, beef broth and ProBios in it. He was up and hungry. He ate it pretty well, actually much better than I expected but after eating he basically laid back down in the back of the hutch. There has been no scours or other discharges or weird smells. His hutch is in a shady location so he's comfortably out of the heat in Michigan. Any ideas? This seemed to hit him so suddenly and out of the blue. It seems like it's something he ate but I have another calf the same age, on the same schedule and eating the same milk replacer and he's doing fine.

Any help or new ideas would be appreciated. Thanks.

[Oakshire_Farm]

No suggestions.... but..........Why would you feed him beef broth?????

[topside1]

Start feeding 9am and 9pm....How long have you had him? Topside

[wildacrefarms]

COULD HE HAVE EATEN more of the pellets than he normally eats and have a little gas? I don't know if they get bloat from just milk replacer mine never did, but she did get bad gas from eating too much sweet feed once when we missed her regular feeding due to being in town. we got home like 3 hours late to find her laying out in the rain stretched put and groaning she looked miserable. wouldn't eat the next day. watch and see how much grain shes eating....

[mydogsparty]

Originally Posted by topside1

Start feeding 9am and 9pm....How long have you had him? Topside

I've had him for 3 full weeks. He was about 3 or 4 days old when I got him.

[mydogsparty]

Update: The little holstein calf (named Watson) had a tempurature today of 103.5. He was coughing and wheezing too. Very lethargic but he did get up to eat when I arrived. We (my uncle and I) gave him a little over 1cc of Baytril after he ate. We're pretty sure he has pneumonia now. He seemed to sleep most of the day but he was back up at 4m for a feeding. He ate great (2qrts of water with milk replacer and little baking soda sprinkled in) and then he laid back down until I was ready to leave the farm at 8:30pm. He was up and looking for more food. I didn't want to give him more milk so I gave him 12oz of Gatorade.

Tomorrow we're planning on giving him the same dose of Baytril in the AM.

Thoughts, concerns, ideas?

[mydogsparty]

Originally Posted by Oakshire_Farm

No suggestions.... but..........Why would you feed him beef broth?????

he seemed to have something going on in his stomach(s) so we wanted to give him something very bland but more than just water.

[topside1]

Start feeding 12 hours apart as I led you to earlier...I could be wrong, but I'd give 3ml SQ, but I could be wrong....I'm not a Vet....Keep in touch.

[mydogsparty]

I'm happy to report that Watson is doing much better. He got his final dose of Baytril today. He's been up the past two days and his appetite has been great.

When calves get over pneumonia are they more or less susceptible to getting it again? Do they build some type of immunity toward it?