# Raw egg for scour treatment....



## Oakshire_Farm

I don't want to get involved in the bottle calves thread........ 

I raise about 50 bottle calves every year, I raise them on milk straight from my Jersey cows. And I battle scours like everyone else! I have had pretty good luck with beating them. But I am interested in the egg thing? Do you just crack a egg into the milk and feed it as you would normally? I had never heard this before reading the other thread.... My chicken coupe is in the barn and it would be a easy thing. I have dried all my cows off, and will not b milking or raising calves again till march. But I would like to give this a try. I am open to trying alternative methods. I am sure that many others in my area would also be interested as well. 

Thanks and PLEASE keep this positive.... I do not want this turning into a big argument.


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## topside1

I've added eggs to the milk just to get rid of extra eggs. Yes I just crack the eggs (usually two) and add the yoke and whites. Shake like crazy to break and blend yoke into the milk, and serve. Used it with a scouring calves and calves that are perfectly healthy. Almost forgot eggs are even thrown into my homemade electrolyte blend. Never a problem...Topside


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## CCCC

It will certainly add some nutrient value to the milk for the calf, but I would not think it help with scours. I use a product called Bio-Mos in a water soluble form and it works great for me to fight scours.


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## christyernst

I have been using the bio mos for quite a while with the sick one i have, and the healthy ones too. it hasnt kicked the sick ones scours, but (knock on wood) i have had the replacements for almost a week and no scours. I kinda agree about the ecoli thing, but then again it may work too. I guess it just depends on whether you wanna try it. Im sure youve read where i have tried it all!!


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## christyernst

What works for one may not work for the other... its up to each person to decide what works best for themselves.


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## springvalley

As I had stated on the other thread, I have no idea why people have so much trouble with scours. We have milked here on this farm for 30 some years, and use the same barn, same calf pens and same methods for all these years. And have very little , if any problems, I haven`t lost a calf to scours for four years. "Knock on wood". As I also stated, I only use raw milk, and never overfeed a calf. If and when we get a calf with scours, we cut the milk in half, give two whole eggs and an envelope of knox jello. We also give a garlic tincture of 10 cc per calf, and the eggs need to be from your farm or neighbors farm. The eggs have live antibodies in the yolk, just as colostrum from the cow would. It is also a good idea that if you have a first calf heifer giving birth that you give her calf colostrum from another older cow if you have one, as the cows build up more antibodies the older she gets. We ALWAYS keep colostrum frozen in the deep freeze from some of our best cows so we can use it on what ever animal or human might need it in the future. Now some call these old methods vodo, and wives tales, or myths. Well you call them what you want, I call them early medicine, or farm cures. I am fourth generation farmer, and the last one on my Fathers side that farms. We have used these methods for probably just about that long. I can`t say that these methods will work for everyone, but the vet. can`t say he is going to save all of them either. So do what you can, but not all of us here are crazy. > God Bless American < Thanks Marc


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## gone-a-milkin

I really do believe that the biggest problem comes from not diagnosing soon enough.
Folks who have kept and raised lots of calves know the moment one gets droopy. 
They immediately cut back on the feeding and begin their treatments.

Marc, 

You are in a unique position from most posters here.
Your animals are all homegrown. You have the mamas to them and access to colostrum and whole milk. 
You have a lifetimes experience in handling them and in a limited way too because you are not introducing new foreign bacteria from salebarns.

Most posters who come here w/ problems are NEW. They dont have lots of facilities and they have little experience.
For a lot of those folks, they are willing to try 'anything' to save their calves. 


We give and get a lot of different info here on the forums.
Every bit of it is worth EXACTLY what you paid for it.

Lets all try to remember that this is about cattle. They are COWS. 
Your best bet is to get a vet to help you, especially if you are green to the species. 
They live in your area and know what obstacles you face.
Us on the interwebs are just guessing and sharing our experience.
We sure do sympathize with calf rearing problems though.
Even seasoned farmers get thrown for a loop every so often!

Sometimes no matter what you do they still die. That is part of farming.

These threads have gotten way too personal, IMO.

It is supposed to be about cows.


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## Oakshire_Farm

I don't have a huge problem with scours but I do deal with it.... I get calves any where from a week to two weeks old. Sometimes they come with scours..... I have no idea about how much colostrum and for how long they got it. I think that is the biggest problem, for the dairy farms bull calves are just a by-product of the industry. They don't have to make sure they get the best of care when they have a barn full of heifer calves to focus on. Half of the farms here keep a .22 in the calving stalls.... the calf comes out they lift the back leg, if there is testicles they never get a change to dry off or stand! Around here bull calves are free. I had 2 farmers call me today to see if I would take some. They said if I would not take them or don't know of anyone that wants them they were going to shoot them by the end of the day. I tried selling at the sales barn for the first time this fall. I sent 2 big calves over, I got $50 each for them and they were FAT and had been off milk for a few months. I was pretty disappointed, but I did not want to feed them through the winter. I would have been way farther ahead keeping them and selling then in the fall. But hey, there is a first for everything. 

It is a shame that there is not more people that are wanting to raise them up, but we are on a Island and there is no packing plant here, so unless you have private sales for the meat it has to go off Island to the Auction. I have a great deal supplying a Bible school with all the calves, they have a animal husbandry program, and then ship the cows to use all the meat in the school cafeteria. And then I sell a few privately. But there not many people that want the hassle. I am not sure about everywhere else, but here a bag of MR is $80+ so it is not cheap. No one around here has family milk cows any more  Way more bull calves are produced than there is buyers for them.


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## springvalley

gone-a-milkin said:


> I really do believe that the biggest problem comes from not diagnosing soon enough.
> Folks who have kept and raised lots of calves know the moment one gets droopy.
> They immediately cut back on the feeding and begin their treatments.
> 
> Marc,
> 
> You are in a unique position from most posters here.
> Your animals are all homegrown. You have the mamas to them and access to colostrum and whole milk.
> You have a lifetimes experience in handling them and in a limited way too because you are not introducing new foreign bacteria from salebarns.
> 
> Most posters who come here w/ problems are NEW. They dont have lots of facilities and they have little experience.
> For a lot of those folks, they are willing to try 'anything' to save their calves.
> 
> 
> We give and get a lot of different info here on the forums.
> Every bit of it is worth EXACTLY what you paid for it.
> 
> Lets all try to remember that this is about cattle. They are COWS.
> Your best bet is to get a vet to help you, especially if you are green to the species.
> They live in your area and know what obstacles you face.
> Us on the interwebs are just guessing and sharing our experience.
> We sure do sympathize with calf rearing problems though.
> Even seasoned farmers get thrown for a loop every so often!
> 
> Sometimes no matter what you do they still die. That is part of farming.
> 
> These threads have gotten way too personal, IMO.
> 
> It is supposed to be about cows.


Wendy, I was only asking why so many dairies that some of these posters are getting their calves from had so much trouble with calves. I know when you move calves and transport them (mostly winter)that they have a very good chance of getting sick. I know I don`t move my calves and buy from a sale barn, and that helps alot. I still think it boils down to calf comfort, general health, experience, and feeding whole (raw) milk. And yes, I am sorry I get so bull headed in my thinking that I get offended when my old buddy Haypoint gets under my skin. But you also have to remember we are non registered organic and we do things a bit different than alot of people do. I also don`t just practice medicine on my cattle, I do these home remedies on my horses and other animals also with good results. I also use them on myself, and at my age I can say the only reason I have ever been in a hospital was to have a thumb stitched up and hernia surgery, not bad for an old guy like me. I also do alot of farming by the moon signs, and yes you can say oh no, not this too. But they do work and there are always exceptions to the rules, and I do not think modern medicine is bad, I just think that if you don`t need to use them , why use them. More often over the years if I call the Vet. he comes out and tells me to keep doing what I`m doing and while that reassures me, that also leaves me with less money to put some place else on the farm. I do like my Vet. very much and we have one of the best, but I can`t afford to pay for all of his equipment and time, plus mine. I think alot of my knowledge and bullheadedness comes from me wanting to be a Vet. and not wanting to go to school another 8 to 10 years. I also am very old school when it comes to farming, my Father was this way also,he was a stubborn old German, that hated to pay someone else to do something he could do. Well the nuts don`t fall far from the tree so to speak, and we do things here alot different than most farms would. So I`m not trying to be bull headed, or smarty about this stuff. I hope you understand, I do it because it is part of what I do, it is just me. > God Bless American < Thanks Marc


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## FFcurly

Marc, I really appreciate your thoughts. I do know, from experience that a lot of people feel bullied or personally attacked when natural remedies are given or they are questioned. I am also a non certified organic farmer and get pretty bullheaded about our practices as well. Only because I know what works on our farm and sometimes I get overly passionate with my opinions or suggestions. I also want to save people money. It is scary though, when you are new to this and scary stuff has happened to me too where I feel like my natural remedies are not foolproof! Hence my vet is on speed dial!!!! Everybody understand that if you have any fears or don't feel comfortable, by all means CALL A VET! Our closest vet is almost an hour away, so for me, sometimes I have no choice but to figure out or use one of the old time farm remedies. I was in that situation a few months ago and lost a lamb, but 2 weeks prior to that, I had a lamb turn around within a day. Farming is something that always has something new to learn. This site is great because you will hear personal stories and home remedy recommendations or CALL THE VET recommendations. It leaves you a few good options. To anyone reading this, remember what Wendy has said in a previous post. The posts are about the animal and some people tend to judge others. Remember that everyone is learning AND everyone's farms are unique which means remedies will differ. Also, many easy home remedy practices work tremendously, but some do require vet care! The primary issue here is a calf with scours. Occasionally I get this on bottle fed calves, however, simple practices have worked. I actual looked at this post because we have one calf born 2 days ago that was rejected by a mother new to our farm. I have no idea why, but this calf isn't responding to normal home treatments. I'm driving out this afternoon to buy medicine, but was also curious if there was a remedy out there that I haven't tried. I'm going to be honest- I've never heard of using knox jello in egg treatment! That is something I will keep in mind if this ever happens again. In the meantime, I don't feel comfortable using my natural practices this late in the game. I need to act NOW or I might lose this calf. So, I'm with Marc in that I don't understand why people have so many problems with scours, BUT here I am with a really sick calf- that came from another farm. And I will add that the practices on the farm I purchased the mom from were impeccable. It's just a different farm and this is new cow is to me. I would recommend too, that people having problems maybe call the vet to get these little guys healthy and possibly have a soil and water guy test the soil and water. We had this done with goats having illnesses and it was such a simple "natural" fix. The soil was off balance and had a weird bacteria from an old spring and they were grazing on it! Something I never thought of. The county extension in OH is more than happy to help with this. Our herd has been healthy since! It's a learning process. I think Marc was like me in the "wondering mode" of why the heck are they having these problems-not in a judging way at all but just a general surprise because he's a generational farmer and these problems were solved YEARS ago in his family so again, he's never dealt with them. Thanks for the info Marc. I'm storing it in the back of my brain for next time!


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## soniaramberger

Great info!


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## Oregon1986

We use eggs in our calves bottles,I add two each time into already warmed milk. Has helped big time with scours


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## haypoint

I pray before I eat and have never had food poisoning. Therefore, prayer cures ecoli.
Same for eggs helping cure scours. Adding a protein source unfamiliar to the calf, it is unlikely to be digested. But it is something not likely to hurt anything, makes you feel better, go ahead. Sort of like not stepping on sidewalk cracks.


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## fivehillsfarm

There are plenty of real studies that prove the egg thing. There are even companies that raise chickens vaccinated for the very diseases that they want the calf to develop antibodies to and the eggs are powdered to put in the milk replacer. Personally, I’ll use raw eggs from my farm


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## Oregon1986

fivehillsfarm said:


> There are plenty of real studies that prove the egg thing. There are even companies that raise chickens vaccinated for the very diseases that they want the calf to develop antibodies to and the eggs are powdered to put in the milk replacer. Personally, I’ll use raw eggs from my farm


Yep raw eggs worked just fine for us too


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