Really Sick Calf

[B&Kranch]

Ok my husband and I were given a little Hereford bull from my father in law. He was about 4 weeks old when he was bought at the auction. He was a active calf. We put him on medicated milk replacer and were feeding him two quarts twice a day. He also had feed, hay, grass and water in his pen. He ate a little feed and grass.

A few days later he got what appeared to be scours so we were given some pills from the vet to give him for three days. They didn't help.

We watched him and realized that he was drinking some of the milk from the calf that we were raising. We thought maybe he had scours from being overmedicated. So he was getting about a quart extra of milk. So we started staying out during feeding to make sure that he only drank his own milk.

We then noticed he had blood in his now slightly thicker poo. But only at the end of the poop. I looked on this site and read that sometimes happens when they are recovering from scours. So I waited a few days for it to clear up.

It didn't clear up... It got worse. More blood mixed in with the poop. So we took him to the vet and were given some Corid and did the five day water treatment.

It's gotten much worse. Today I was out with him and his poop looked all bloody and he strains pretty hard while pooing. He is not dehydrated, I checked that. He still eats well and drinks. He looks to be a bit weak in the back legs. Other than that he walks fine and was able to escape us pretty easily when we were checking him out. He does lay down a lot but that's the way he has always been. His eyes seem bright and he walks with his head up.

The vet doesn't seem to know what's going on so I was hoping y'all could help us out. Let me know if y'all need more info. Thanks!

[TroutRiver]

Are you still feeding him milk replacer? I don't have much experience using milk replacer so can't tell you if that could be the problem or not. When our calves get scours, we add baking soda, salt and a blend of tinctures to the milk until it starts to look better. Have never had to call a vet. We have a jersey dairy so all of our calves are raised on raw jersey milk.

Hopefully someone else can be of more help. I would say try to slowly build him up to about 50-50 real milk (raw if possible) and milk replacer. Even if you have to buy the milk, I think that would be cheaper at this point than multiple vet calls.

[Cannon_Farms]

calves can get ecoli and salmonella that will give them the bloody stools so can coccidia if hes got it bad enough. Maybe elaborate what the pill was and also what the quantity of medication is in the milk.
At this point I would put him on a electrolyte with gelling added in and have the stool tested at a vets office.

[G. Seddon]

B&K, at the top of this cattle forum is a "sticky" on raising calves. Wouldn't hurt to read through it.

You can also try this site for similar information: http://www.cattletoday.com/forum/vie...hp?f=7&t=49811

I hesitate to say this, but if your vet doesn't know what's going on, you might consider asking another vet.

[springvalley]

The only trouble with putting calves on electrolytes in my opinion is your starving the calf. If you have had him on medication and that hasn`t done any good, not sure if he was diagnoised right. When our calves have regular scours, we cut the raw milk in half, add two eggs (farm raised), 1 envelope of knox unflavored jello, and feed that twice daily till the stool gets thicker. Being on Corid should have cleared up bloody scours, so not certain what is going on for sure. I`ll look in my old time remedies book, and see what I can find. > Marc

[myersfarm]

calf need CORID for the bloody scours

[tinknal]

I'm a little confused. First you say "Really sick calf", and then you say the following;

Originally Posted by B&Kranch

"It's gotten much worse. Today I was out with him and his poop looked all bloody and he strains pretty hard while pooing. He is not dehydrated, I checked that. He still eats well and drinks. He looks to be a bit weak in the back legs. Other than that he walks fine and was able to escape us pretty easily when we were checking him out. He does lay down a lot but that's the way he has always been. His eyes seem bright and he walks with his head up.

Sounds like he is doing fairly well but for the bloody poop. Have you taken his temp? For now I would stick with the corid.

[Cannon_Farms]

what about dimethox instead of corid?