Post by hoperefuge on Aug 24, 2013 12:35:47 GMT -5
My Tinkerbelle has been struggling with the squirts off & on all summer, and I need some help. Maybe somebody else will see something here that I've missed.
Brief (well, maybe not so much! ) history:
Through spring & early summer, she would occasionally be really runny, but it was usually just for a couple days after we would move them to a new pasture paddock, so I wrote it off to that, because she never really acted like she felt sick. Sometimes, though, it was really nasty & foul smelling. But even if I didn't do a thing for her, she would always get over it in a few days & have perfectly normal manure for a couple weeks in between her little episodes.
July 7 she had a bout of the super foul stuff.
July 8 she had her first set of vaccines, and the vet got to see & smell what she had squirting out, but didn't seem overly concerned when I told him she usually gets over it in a couple days. The next day she had slight fever & was acting "off". Vet gave 4cc of Bananmine
July 12(Fri) she was off feed, not nursing much at all, straining constantly but no poop, normal temp. Vet came out & checked her thoroughly, good gut sounds and he got her to squeeze out a very small amount of well hardened manure. He gave her sulfa boluses, and an injection of banamine & dexamethasone. Told me to start giving her yogurt for a probiotic. Said to call him Mon & let him know how she was doing.
She improved a bit over the weekend, but I didn't have a whole lot of luck getting much yogurt in her.
By Mon 15th she was "off" again, not nursing & constipated. He gave me some mineral oil to drench her with, and 4 Banamine/dexa injections to give over the next 4 days, and told me to keep trying with the yogurt & also to get some bicarb into her. I did all of that...mixing the bicarb into the yogurt I was able to get it all in her. I also was giving her some capsules I have from Agri-Dynamics/Jerry Brunetti...Super Start Calf Bullets, which are probiotics/herbal/vitamin supplements.
That all seemed to set her right as rain, and she was perfectly fine for 2-3 weeks. Then she had another bout of the really foul, nasty stuff, which then had good sized strings of what looked like shed intestinal lining in it. I gave her a couple more of the Super Start capsules...fine in a couple days.
The other week she had a day or two of more "normal" runs.
Now this morning she has the really foul-smelling liquid stuff AGAIN, with shed intestinal lining & some little whitish curd-looking things that DH wasn't sure if they were a parasite-type issue or poorly digested milk.
They were just moved to a new paddock Thurs., but she seemed fine yesterday. She is still on mom (planning to start weaning next week). I don't know of anything toxic in the pastures that she would be eating...there's plenty of good stuff anyway. There is a lot more prickly nightshade this year for some reason, but they all seem to avoid that. None of the other younger heifers have had any trouble at all, so it doesn't seem like it would be something contagious. I've never had a parasite problem with my calves...I keep DE out free choice with their minerals, and this year added a parasite control supplement to the "mineral ark"...oh I forgot, I was giving her that in her yogurt concoction, too.
I just don't know what to make of it. Other than this she's been healthy. Any ideas out there? Anything else I should try doing for her?
Thanks so much!
Kim
Brief (well, maybe not so much! ) history:
Through spring & early summer, she would occasionally be really runny, but it was usually just for a couple days after we would move them to a new pasture paddock, so I wrote it off to that, because she never really acted like she felt sick. Sometimes, though, it was really nasty & foul smelling. But even if I didn't do a thing for her, she would always get over it in a few days & have perfectly normal manure for a couple weeks in between her little episodes.
July 7 she had a bout of the super foul stuff.
July 8 she had her first set of vaccines, and the vet got to see & smell what she had squirting out, but didn't seem overly concerned when I told him she usually gets over it in a couple days. The next day she had slight fever & was acting "off". Vet gave 4cc of Bananmine
July 12(Fri) she was off feed, not nursing much at all, straining constantly but no poop, normal temp. Vet came out & checked her thoroughly, good gut sounds and he got her to squeeze out a very small amount of well hardened manure. He gave her sulfa boluses, and an injection of banamine & dexamethasone. Told me to start giving her yogurt for a probiotic. Said to call him Mon & let him know how she was doing.
She improved a bit over the weekend, but I didn't have a whole lot of luck getting much yogurt in her.
By Mon 15th she was "off" again, not nursing & constipated. He gave me some mineral oil to drench her with, and 4 Banamine/dexa injections to give over the next 4 days, and told me to keep trying with the yogurt & also to get some bicarb into her. I did all of that...mixing the bicarb into the yogurt I was able to get it all in her. I also was giving her some capsules I have from Agri-Dynamics/Jerry Brunetti...Super Start Calf Bullets, which are probiotics/herbal/vitamin supplements.
That all seemed to set her right as rain, and she was perfectly fine for 2-3 weeks. Then she had another bout of the really foul, nasty stuff, which then had good sized strings of what looked like shed intestinal lining in it. I gave her a couple more of the Super Start capsules...fine in a couple days.
The other week she had a day or two of more "normal" runs.
Now this morning she has the really foul-smelling liquid stuff AGAIN, with shed intestinal lining & some little whitish curd-looking things that DH wasn't sure if they were a parasite-type issue or poorly digested milk.
They were just moved to a new paddock Thurs., but she seemed fine yesterday. She is still on mom (planning to start weaning next week). I don't know of anything toxic in the pastures that she would be eating...there's plenty of good stuff anyway. There is a lot more prickly nightshade this year for some reason, but they all seem to avoid that. None of the other younger heifers have had any trouble at all, so it doesn't seem like it would be something contagious. I've never had a parasite problem with my calves...I keep DE out free choice with their minerals, and this year added a parasite control supplement to the "mineral ark"...oh I forgot, I was giving her that in her yogurt concoction, too.
I just don't know what to make of it. Other than this she's been healthy. Any ideas out there? Anything else I should try doing for her?
Thanks so much!
Kim