The whole of veterinary medicine is devoted to prevent animal suffering and disease. Over the years I have been in practice, I have noticed herds and the rate of infection in those herds. Mostly the infections I have seen with major outbreaks have been with scours and respiratory cases. Now, I will be the first to admit that there is nothing that is 100 percent to prevent these infections. But, we can slow it down and minimize treatments and losses with prevention.
Prevention is the key to having a healthy calf to sell at weaning. This prevention starts with the cow. When an adult cow herd is vaccinated properly, this immunity is passed on to the calves through colostrum for the beginning of life. Several years ago an experiment was done at the United Meat Animal Research Center in Nebraska. It was found that calves having proper colostral intake within 18-24 hours after birth were healthier all the way through feeding to the packer.
I have followed client’s herds that have not vaccinated properly and those that have vaccinated properly. Without proper vaccination in the cow herd, more money was spent on treatment of disease overall throughout the years. Granted, some years we have less disease, but sooner or later it will catch up.
One client started vaccinating twice annually and following my directions. Previously we were treating scours and respiratory in his calves quite often and dealing with major outbreaks. Within 2-3 years I was only seeing him to vaccinate the herd. I also have another client that regularly vaccinates his herd and one year he did not pre-wean vaccinate his calves. Needless to say we had a major outbreak of coccidiosis and respiratory in those calves. The medicine cost on treatment was several thousand dollars. This minor mistake in management has not been repeated and probably will never be.
Cost of this type of prevention will be around $14-20 per head per year. And $20 times 50 head of cattle is $1,000, but $20 times 800 head is $16,000. Yes, this is a lot of money, but when you figure one dose of antibiotics to a 500 pound calf can be as much as $30, do the math, if you have 100 head to treat, that would be $30,000. You will also have loss of pounds on the hoof due to sickness and recovery time. You also have the hassle of getting these sick ones up and giving them special care till they recover. This has not taken into consideration one dying or turning into a chronic. Ones that die and turn into chronics cost the most.
Yes, the old saying, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” is still true today.
Dr. Tim O’Neill owns Country Veterinary Clinic in Farmington, Ark.
