Diarrhea is a common cause of disease and death loss in young calves whether on the cow-calf operation or the dairy. If you are a cattle producer and have not had the privilege of dealing with scours, then wait patiently, because your turn is coming. Given that the disease is so prevalent and that many producers have treated calves in different ways, there are many different opinions floating around regarding which treatment method is best. The purpose of this article is to provide some clarity on what treatments actually work and what treatments may be a detriment.
Calf scours is typically caused by one of three categories of organisms: viruses, bacteria or protozoa. These organisms cause diarrhea by either decreasing the calf’s ability to absorb fluids from the intestine or by causing excessive secretion of fluid into the intestinal lumen. In either case, calves lose significant amounts of fluid and often become severely dehydrated. Additionally, calves will suffer from metabolic acidosis (low blood pH), low blood sugar and in more severe cases, become debilitated and hypothermic. A small percentage of calves may become septic in which bacteria make their way from the intestine to the blood stream causing systemic disease.
The primary goal of treatment should be to combat the effects of the diarrhea including dehydration, acidosis, hypoglycemia and sepsis and provide the calf’s own immune system time to clear the infection. With the exception of sepsis, these goals can all be accomplished simply by administering a quality oral electrolyte solution. Some may recommend discontinuing milk feedings in an effort to avoid providing a media for bacterial growth. However, it is impossible to ‘starve’ the bacteria without starving the calf. Therefore, I never recommend discontinuing milk replacer, but instead, in addition to milk feedings, calves should be given oral electrolyte solution two to four times daily. As a general rule, scouring calves are often not given enough electrolyte solution to make up for the fluid and electrolytes lost in their diarrhea. If too much electrolytes are administered calves will simply urinate out the excess. So my primary recommendation for treating scouring calves is electrolytes, electrolytes and then more electrolytes. Electrolytes should be administered 15-30 minutes after a milk feeding or as a separate feeding all together. Beginning oral treatment early is key to preventing calves from becoming too debilitated to save. If a calf gets down and can’t get up then intravenous fluids are required.
What may come as a surprise to many producers is that most scouring calves don’t need antibiotics. In fact, antibiotic treatment can work against the calf by eliminating healthy gut flora and leaving pathogenic organisms to overgrow. I generally don’t recommend antibiotics unless the cause of diarrhea is coccidiosis or the calf is suffering from sepsis. Coccidiosis can be identified on a fecal sample examined by your veterinarian. Sepsis can also be diagnosed by your vet or may be indicated by fever in the calf. If antibiotics are used, products like Excenel (on prescription by your vet) or sulfa antibiotics are a good choice.
Darren Loula, DVM, is a large animal veterinarian at Fair Grove Vet Service in Fair Grove, Mo.
