From Colostrum to Calf Care: A Smarter Approach to Scours Prevention
A calf’s naturally occurring microbes that live in and on animals throughout their intestinal and upper respiratory systems is rapidly established after birth through nursing and maternal contact. Because an animal’s gut microbiome is a complex ecosystem essential for metabolism, nutrition and maintaining the intestinal barrier, maintaining a healthy microbiome is key to raising a resilient calf.
Critical to maintaining a health microbiome is the judicious use of anti-infectives so as not to inadvertently cause drug resistance development.
For example, treating a scours outbreak with an anti-infective when rotavirus has been identified as the cause, has the potential to do more harm than good, and anti-infectives have no effect on viruses.
“If a producer is aggressively treating with antibiotics, the calf’s respiratory and intestinal microflora are exposed to large doses of antimicrobials, and that’s likely going to have a far-reaching effect,” says Brett Terhaar, beef technical veterinary consultant for Elanco Animal Health.
Terhaar recommends producers work with their veterinarian to establish a cause for the scours outbreak. If the cause is non-bacterial, he suggests employing electrolytes to treat young calves battling scours.
“Often, we can treat calves with electrolytes and get them through these viral problems which are short lived,” Terhaar says. “While scours can be complicated by multiple causes including rotavirus, coronavirus, and cryptosporidium, the primary danger is dehydration. If we treat that with electrolytes, anti-microbials often won’t be needed.”
A simple way to check for dehydration is to pinch the skin on the calf’s neck. If it goes back down in one or two seconds, dehydration may not be an issue. However, if it takes four seconds or more for the skin to go down, his eyes are recessed a bit, or he’s weak and is struggling to get up, dehydration is a concern.
Electrolyte Quantity Matters
When calves are dehydrated, it is crucial to provide an ample quantity of electrolytes to resolve the issue. For example, a 100-pound calf with diarrhea could easily be 6% dehydrated, which translates to a shortage of six fluid-pounds, plus what’s needed to meet basic maintenance needs.
“Because a pint is a pound the world around, our example calf needs at least six pints or three quarts of electrolytes per day for at least three days, or hopefully until you can’t catch the calf,” Terhaar says. “A two-quart bottle won’t get him leveled up and he still could be subclinically dehydrated. A second two-quart feeding that evening would have caught him up, but electrolytes are often given only once a day.”
Severe cases of dehydration often require intravenous treatment by a veterinarian. If dehydration is not properly treated, organ failure can occur.
Disease Control Options
“There is a finite number of ways to treat disease in cattle, including immunostimulatory products, nutraceuticals, and anti-infectives,” Terhaar says.
The field of immunostimulatory products, which promises to help stimulate the immune system, is relatively new. Similarly, the availability of nutraceuticals, which includes bacteria and probiotics, is evolving.
Anti-infective classes include oxytetracycline, beta-lactams (penicillin and cephalosporins), phenicols, fluoroquinolones, macrolides, and sulfas.
“We have limited anti-infective options,” Terhaar says. “It’s important that we do what we can from a management standpoint to help ensure continued efficacy of these anti-infectives and minimize the development of multi drug resistance, especially related to overuse.”
Management and Nutrition Matter
The first course of action in preventing scours is to vaccinate expectant mothers. Scour Bos® is a vaccine designed for pregnant cows and heifers to protect their calves from common scours pathogens such as bovine coronavirus, rotavirus, Clostridium perfringens Type C, and K99 E. coli. By vaccinating the mother, her immune system becomes active and transfers protective antibodies to her calf through colostrum.
Vaccinating to prevent disease and decrease risk are often necessary to ensuring herd health, especially when purchasing unvaccinated or high-risk cattle from the sales barn. It’s management and good husbandry, however, that are the lynchpin to cattle healthy.
“No vaccine can overcome poor management, poor animal husbandry, or poor feeding practices. Cattle husbandry and good management positively affect health outcomes,” Terhaar says.
There are several things cow-calf producers can do to help improve the stewardship of currently available anti-infectives.
- When possible, avoid calving in a confined area. Doing so minimizes calves’ exposure to shedding virus particles, manure, and potentially, diarrhea.
- Move mother-calf pairs to another area, preferably pasture, as soon as possible after calving.
- Avoid congregating cows by moving hay rings, rolling out hay or using a hay processor to feed in different locations each day.
- Manage calving to keep manure off the udder of the cow and feces out of a calf's mouth, reducing disease exposure and risk.
“Calving season scours in calves often resembles a crescendo. First-born calves generally have few issues with scours. Then as we get a month into the calving season, exposure is greatly enhanced,” Terhaar says. “The calf born in the first few days of the calving season is at far less risk than the calf born in the last week of the calving season, especially if they are calved in confined areas.”
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