Cows, calves and veterinary

electrolyte for calves

New health issue? Google it. My vet book so far has told me my cow might have BVD, Salmonella, Johne's, E. Coli mastitis (why didn't I check her udder this evening while not milking her?) or copper deficiency.

Google first unearthed a fascinating biosecurity document, then a rephrase landed me deep among calf scours with never a mention of adult bovine scour. I liked this:

From the Dairy Exporter archives
Schouten said 95 percent of diarrhoeic calves could be cured by therapeutic levels of oral electrolytes, without additional alkalinising agents or intravenous fluids. Calves with mild to moderate diarrhoea should continue to be milk fed and additional electrolytes given to provide a total fluid intake of six to eight litres/day. Electrolytes should be separated from the milk feeds, being given ideally two to four hours apart. A calfeteria filled with electrolytes in the pen all day and especially overnight ensured a good intake, greatly increased the speed of recovery and reduced the mortality rate. Clean water should also be provided as necessary.
With moderate to severe diarrhoea feeding should be:
Day One - Electrolytes in the morning with milk at lunchtime and electrolytes later in the day and available all night long.
Day Two - Milk in the morning, electrolytes at lunchtime, milk later in the day and electrolytes all night long.
Day Three - As for day two or back to milk.
Schouten said home brew electrolytes were often inadequate, as they might not have enough of the vital salt and energy ingredients. Farmers should stick to commercially available, clinically proven products.

...and have only two things to add. Ad lib electrolytes is wonderful for a pen of calves scouring/threatening to scour/recovering from scour but it is essential to ensure that those calves most in need are actually getting the stuff. And yes, that may mean bottle or tube feeding any weak calves in the pen - seeing them standing at the feeder mouthing a teat is not enough.
And naturally, a comment on home brew. often inadequate, as they might not have enough of the vital salt and energy ingredients The only reason why that might be the case is because the 'home brewers' don't have an adequate recipe or have failed to make it up correctly. You know where most 'home brewers' get their electrolyte recipes? From the farmer next door.
I go to the vets, get the biggest box of electrolyte powder they've got (3 kg) for my little mob of calves and it's gone in 24 hours if there are several scouring calves. So I go straight back to the home brew, at a fraction of the cost and without mucking about with piddly little scoops and trying to find homes for the empty boxes.
Offering electrolytes at the first sign of a problem, and offering them ad lib, ought to be regular practice. But if farmers are going to use commercial preparations to do it, they need to be available in 20 kg sacks. And it kind of helps if they are no more expensive than the milk they're replacing.

edit, 25 September: This is the cow for whose benefit I was looking up scours.


She'd been calved a day, milked once and apparently all was normal, before I went to get her for the evening milking and found her lying 'flattened' (miserable cow/milk fever pose) and reluctant to rise, apparently dizzy and with scour like water. Sunken eyes (see 2nd image) - often a result of dehydration. I decided she didn't have milk fever. In the morning she was worse (though the scour was on the mend).
I checked that she didn't have a retained placenta (she didn't, and although I didn't think to check for it at the time, that also eliminated the possibility of a left-behind twin). My inexpert diagnosis was low-grade peritonitis, the sort that eczema cows get, not the acute peritonitis that kills them in 48 hours (because she wasn't dead) and she was started on a course of White Magic
Then I sat back and watched her recover.

I took this photo today, ten days after the previous photos.

posted by nellta holdings @ 2:24 AM