Bleach works!

[corine]

Had ample opportunity to try out various scour treatments over the weekend, including a few trips to the vet Found out how to use vircon, just add 1 tsp to 2 ltr electrolyte drench. Didn't work that well though, and straight electrolytes seemed to just make a real happy enviroment for the virus. Finally, last night we were losing one of the little guys that had been to the vet for an IV already. Eyes sunk, couldn't lift his head, forget about standing up, so I gave it 2 ltr water, 2 eggs, 1 tbsp bleach & 1 tbsp baking soda at 10 pm. Thought we were going to drag it out at 4 am, but it had actually moved! Eyes look better too. Gave it to another bad one last night and it was walking around this morning. Thanks for the great advice, guys. The super soaker works well too.

[pandiana]

How old are your calves, Corine? What's your best guess as to what your dealing with regarding the scour bug?

[corine]

It's the dreaded 10 day scours. My best guess (and the vet's)is rota/corona virus. After they are about 15 days old, they seem to be able to handle it much better. Only have about 25 calves in the danger zone right now, nice that most of them are older. We like to calve earlier in the year, but bought a bunch of cows last summer that are coming in now. Past years, if I hit them REALLY early on with calfspan, it would go away, but this doesn't seem to work this year.

[cowman]

I'm glad those suggestions worked for you! But it isn't free! You have to pay it forward...tell at least three other people how it worked for you. It is sort of a different concept?

[pandiana]

I guess my questions above were directed at why conventional electrolyte treatment wouln't work. Did you try this? Like you, we have been hitting them early with boluses and antibiotics if they have a fever and up to now have had little problems. We had our first real scouring calf yesterday. Bracing for more! So much dam snow and dampness calves want to stay in shelters. I am beginning to think shelters are as much of the problem but on the other hand cold wind, wet snow and bedding couldn't be good either.

Rather than bleach, we have used Hibitaine disinfectant in a cocktail where we suspect colicky bloat in young calves; the idea being to kill off bad bacteria I guess.

[corine]

Pandiana:
Electrolytes work well for us on bacterial scours, but viral scours it seems to really aggravate. For a bunch of years we could get away with calfspan really early at the onset, and if they started to look drunk then a drench of 2 tbsp baking soda in a cup or so of water. This is no longer sufficient, this particular scours is just awfull!

[dusodan]

Another scour remedy that has worked for me very well in the past has been this. 2 Quarts of water
2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
1 pkg. of Certo

[farmerboy]

We haven't used commercial electrolytes for years, as we found they didn't work. We always had to tube and tube these scouring calves with the expensive electrolyte solution, and this went on for days until once we decided; this is garbage. Here is this tiny turd of a skinny calf and we are not getting anywhere; we tried a homemade remedy which we read in cattlemen; a fraction of the cost of commercial electrolytes. It worked wonders and since then we never ever buy revibe or anything else. It doesn't work diddly-squat and its so expensive. Here's what we use and it has never failed us, ever:
for 1 quart warm water, use 2 tsp dextrose (we got this at the local feed store, a powder which is inexpensive, and if not available at the feed store perhaps at the pharmacy), 1 tsp salt and 1 tsp baking soda. We also beat an egg or two and add to the above and tube the calf. We also give trivetrin injectible and tribrissen boluses if in the first 3 days of life (when E-coli is suspected) otherwise we just give LA-200 to ward off any secondary infection. This year we had a particularily bad outbreak of e-coli as we had to take each and every pair into the barn because of the long cold and snowy season. So we had to use Exenel for the e-coli (cheaper!) but we don't know if it worked any better than the trivetrin or tribrissen boluses.

[farmerboy]

I forgot to add that we always use Neorease, a pink scour suspension, which we get at the local vet clinic, it is actually cheaper than the scour suspensions available at the feed stores, and it comes in a 500ml bottle. You squirt it in their mouths, it contains neomycin and sulfa drugs, and is good for pneumonia as well.

[stevek]

What is the super soaker?? Also, any ideas on calves born dead that look like "jelly calves", that's what one of my kids say they look like. They look full term, but they are sort of soft and mushy? Had 2 of them this year, same bulls, same cows, nothing new last breeding season. Cows look good, feed was good and the same as before. Don't really see the need for a vet consult, (too expensive for them to tell me it's some unknown disease)

[cowman]

Stevek: Super soaker is a high tech water gun! It can shoot a long ways. They're a big thing with kids. Can't help you on the calf thing!

[farmerboy]

Sounds like the jelly calves could be hydropsy calves (water calves). We have never had this but have heard of it. They always die.