# Scouring Calves



## nod4eight (Oct 4, 2012)

Hey Everyone, 

I bought 4 Jersey bull calves on Friday 10/5 from a local dairy. I had purchased a few back in January and thought it would be a good time to attempt the venture again. 

When I got them home here is what I did...
1. Gave them shots of Thiamine, BOSE, vit a&d, and LA200
2. Started them on colostrum.. I got them home around 3, fed them at 8 with the first round of colostrum. They all received 1 pint a piece. I also mixed in calf quench 

Day 2:
I gave them strictly colostrum and I gave it every 4 hours at 1 pint a feeding. And calf quench

Day 3: They received colostrum and mr mix 50/50. They also received another 2 cc LA 200 I followed the 1 pint 4 times per day 
Also started to add one raw egg to each bottle
Day 4: MR 2 pints 4 times per day and raw egg 

Last night calf #4 was dehydrated enough that his little eyes were sunk in so I gave him 500 MLs lactated ringer sub q. And as much oral electrolyte as I could get down him. Which was about 6 pints or so I also put a calf toxin binder bolus in his bottle.(I just opened the capsule and poured it in) He was cold to the touch so I put a heat lamp on him to try and warm him. 
Got up this morning and said a little prayer as I tip toed in with bottles. This morning I took him strictly electrolyte solution which was 3 pints. He has drank approximately 12 pints of electrolytes today. This evening I went to take him a bottle of MR and he wasn't interested at all. I gave him 15 cc Calf Paste because his fecal matter is water.
But when I took the other babies their bottles tonight I have two of the three that are headed down that same dehydration road. One of the calves will NOT have anything to do with electrolytes at all!! He barely drank his bottle of MR which was 2 pints with a whole egg. The other little guy when I went out acted normal except his head movements were off as in he was wobble headed.. He drank his bottle alright and had extra electrolytes earlier in the evening. I was thinking of doing a sub q lactated ringer on him but decided to try with electrolytes first. 
What in the world do I do with these guys??? I have heard giving the Diatamacious Earth can help...
Here are some of the things I have on hand: 
Pepto, knox gelatin, spectro gard (pig scour meds), calf medic, calf toxin binder, diatamacious earth, nuflor, la200, and tylan.


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## Ironman (Mar 21, 2012)

I am by no means an expert, and all of this is just my opinion....I'm sure others will disagree but this has been my experience. My goal is 2 quarts of MR in the morning and 2 quarts in the evening. If they start getting scours, I will decrease the amount of MR in the mixture. I also will give them electrolytes (as much as they will take). And on a few occasions when they were too weak to stand up, I went to Tractor Supply and bought a Tube Feeder (looks kind of like an IV fluid bag). If they are too weak for the bottle, you will need to Tube them. After a couple of days, they seem to bounce back. And in my experience, once you get thru the first 2 weeks, things get better and scours is not as much of an issue.


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## kycrawler (Sep 18, 2011)

3 pints of milk replacer 2x per day . Tube them if they wont drink it . They are just babies and you keep switching them around . Get them on a routine and let them adjust . The la 200 nuflor or draxxin all cause some scours in calves that small and should only be used if needed . Calf body temp will tell you alot . Just give them a little time to get their systems regulated and back to normal .


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## thequeensblessing (Mar 30, 2003)

I don't see where you said their ages, however, if they were a couple of days old when you bought them, colostrum isn't going to do any good. 
We feed strictly raw cows milk to our calves. Before we bought a milk cow, we'd buy milk from the dairy down the road, where we bought the calves. They sold us milk for animal consumption only, and its legal. 
Also, at the first sign of scours, we give oral antibiotics (you can buy this by the bottle, in liquid form that you mix with water or milk), and we also mix 1 pkg of unflavored gelatin per pint of milk. The gelatin helps the milk to form a gel in the animals gut, while the antibiotic treats the underlying bacteria. We have never lost a calf using this procedure, but the key is to catch it early, as soon as you notice the stool getting loose but while the calf is still interested in the bottle. 
We also feed new calves 1 pint 3 times a day, and older calves (over a week old) get 2 quarts of milk twice a day.


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## SpaceCadet12364 (Apr 27, 2003)

We use Supra Sulfa 3 Calf Bolus It is a antibacterial. And don't laugh Pepto Bismal mix in their milk. It helps calm their stomach.


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