Weak calf- 3 weeks old

Lime Tree Farm

minerleague wrote: »

Are you giving anything like probiotic yoghurt / eggs, with calves on strong antibiotics you're affecting good gut bacteria aswell as the bad
Refuse to allow one of the vets in local practice onto farm here

I was thinking along the same lines and saved this article yesterday, an actimel in a flask of warm full fat dairy milk overnight. Add a spoon or two of glucose to sweeten it and she just might eat it, if just a cupful was mixed into some of the meal.

https://www.agriland.ie/farming-news/feeding-yoghurt-milk-good-calves/

Westernrock

whelan2 wrote: »

Yes, that's what vet prescribed.

Fair enough 🀷*♂️ The draxxin would stop the noroclav working so it’s not something I would ever combine🀔

patsy_mccabe

minerleague wrote: »

Are you giving anything like probiotic yoghurt / eggs, with calves on strong antibiotics you're affecting good gut bacteria aswell as the bad
Refuse to allow one of the vets in local practice onto farm here

I was thinking along those lines myself, but it's a suckler calf. How would you give them? Want to avoid tubing, if I can. I've tried getting it to drink from a teated bottle but no way would it drink.

_Brian

patsy_mccabe wrote: »

I was thinking along those lines myself, but it's a suckler calf. How would you give them? Want to avoid tubing, if I can. I've tried getting it to drink from a teated bottle but no way would it drink.

Should be able to dose a calf like that without tubing it.
We make Kefir here for largest range of good bacteria, I take it myself.

minerleague

patsy_mccabe wrote: »

I was thinking along those lines myself, but it's a suckler calf. How would you give them? Want to avoid tubing, if I can. I've tried getting it to drink from a teated bottle but no way would it drink.

For sick calves here I make up a paste just fluid enough to suck up with big 60ml plastic syringe (cut off most of tip)and dose down throat slowly. ( Think Angel Delight for consistency !)calf is nearly eating rather than drinking. For scour I mix Koalin powder( chalky), glucose and 2 tablespoons of salt. For your calf (not scouring ? ) mix probiotic yoghurt egg glucose( maybe leave somewhere warm after mixing ) with some of the kaolin ( I get it at my vets)

whelan2

patsy_mccabe wrote: »

I was thinking along those lines myself, but it's a suckler calf. How would you give them? Want to avoid tubing, if I can. I've tried getting it to drink from a teated bottle but no way would it drink.

You can give natural yoghurt with a dosing syringe

Lime Tree Farm

I wonder if this actually works, but worth a try.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQa7iRuKODo

funkey_monkey

How is the calf now patsy?

patsy_mccabe

She's a week off the last antibiotic. She's still plodding along. Hanging in there. I think anyone else would have put her down by now.
She drinking the cow and eating meal. I've also starting sprinkling some milk powder on the meal. Neighbour said to do this. I thought last night she was starting to breath heavy again.
Even if she does live, I can't see her amounting to anything.

funkey_monkey

So you still have no confirmed diagnosis from the vet?

patsy_mccabe

He was on about microplasma in the nasal area.

Base price

patsy_mccabe wrote: »

He was on about microplasma in the nasal area.

Our Vet reckoned that we had four or five cases over the past two years due to the fact that the calves also had ear infections. Apparently ear infections can be one of the symptoms. Calves were treated as normal with antibiotics, dexameth, rehydration fluids and I washed the ears out with warm salt water. They all made a recovery but we vaccinate calves (RS+PI3) on arrival so that probably helps them.

funkey_monkey

patsy_mccabe wrote: »

He was on about microplasma in the nasal area.

Mycoplasma?
Have you had any previous instances of this? Stick with it, you've come too far with it now.

gozunda

patsy_mccabe wrote: »

She's a week off the last antibiotic. She's still plodding along. Hanging in there. I think anyone else would have put her down by now.
She drinking the cow and eating meal. I've also starting sprinkling some milk powder on the meal. Neighbour said to do this. I thought last night she was starting to breath heavy again.
Even if she does live, I can't see her amounting to anything.

Do you have a calf jacket on her? Even a large dog one might help.

patsy_mccabe

gozunda wrote: »

Do you have a calf jacket on her? Even a large dog one might help.

Don't have one. She's on dry straw in a nice corner anyway.

patsy_mccabe

Got calf put down today. It was slowly slowly just fading away. Finding it harder to breath. Legs starting to go too.
First time I ever had to put an animal down.

funkey_monkey

Sorry - to hear that. I had a bad feeling when I seen you had posted here again.
Are you getting autopsy done?

patsy_mccabe

funkey_monkey wrote: »

Sorry - to hear that. I had a bad feeling when I seen you had posted here again.
Are you getting autopsy done?

No. Didn't bother. It was a problem in the nasal area. I felt under its neck last night as it was breathing heavily and you could feel vibration in the area. Lungs were perfect and it was still drinking cow last night. Ah well.

whelan2

patsy_mccabe wrote: »

No. Didn't bother. It was a problem in the nasal area. I felt under its neck last night as it was breathing heavily and you could feel vibration in the area. Lungs were perfect and it was still drinking cow last night. Ah well.

You worked hard for that calf. Sorry to hear it's dead. Had one here that got pneumonia during the summer. She was coming along ok and I said to my dad last week she will be ok if she doesn't do anything stupid. Next morning she was stuck in the meal through and died

_Brian

That’s a balls but you did the best that could be done. Kinder in the long term, no farmer is comfortable with a suffering animal.

50HX

Welcome to the club Patsy

You did everything right all along, not nice but just chalk it down and move on

greysides

patsy_mccabe wrote: »

Got calf put down today. It was slowly slowly just fading away. Finding it harder to breath. Legs starting to go too.
First time I ever had to put an animal down.

Assuming it was Laryngeal Diphtheria.... the odds were always against you. You tried, that's all you've control of.

Lady Haywire

Shame after you tried so hard Patsy. Though thank you for the thread, diphtheria wasn't something I even knew calves could get, another one for the brain to remember in years to come :pac: