Bloody scours

[eacb]

Hello
We've got a 3 day old beef calf that was abandoned by it's mother at birth (first born of a pair of twins). I don't think the shepherd gave it enough colostrum - it hadn't sucked the dam and it only got 2 litres of artificial colostrum. It sucked the colostrum but hasn't shown any interest in sucking since. We have been tubing twice a day with 2litres of milk.
Since yesterday morning, the sh!t coming out of it has looked like pure blood, quite dark. I've got it under a heat lamp of a thick bed of straw and we will keep tubing it.
Does anyone have any suggestions as to what the problem is and what we could do?
Thanks.

 

[primmiemoo]

Is it dark red blood, or treacly dark meconium?

 

[eacb]

Dark red. He passed some meconium on day 1. I'm worried that tubing him so much will hurt his throat, making him less likely to suck. I've had this with lambs before but not with a calf

 

[primmiemoo]

Poor thing. I agree about tubing. I honestly don't know about that condition, sorry. He's surely too young for parasites, so maybe bacterial, although you'd see a temperature?

 

[Werzle]

Tube shouldnt hurt if its warmed abit and not forced down its throat. Try 2 litres of water instead of milk for two feeds and then try the teat on the next feed/feeds with milk. If its abit sore inside i wouldnt give it salts based scour mixture either.

 

[GreenerGrass]

Electrolyte solution such as lifeaid surely if cutting out milk?

 

[Farmer Fin]

Keep the calf on milk plus an electrolyte that can be mixed with milk. Most of the evidence shows that they need the nutrients in milk to repair the gut lining, 2l milk twice a day with electrolyte plus 1 or 2 feeds of 2l water and electrolyte in between milk feeds to keep fluid up of getting dehydrated. Scour may also be viral or bacterial so anti inflammatory and antibiotic may be warranted.

 

[Celt83]

Keep the calf on milk plus an electrolyte that can be mixed with milk. Most of the evidence shows that they need the nutrients in milk to repair the gut lining, 2l milk twice a day with electrolyte plus 1 or 2 feeds of 2l water and electrolyte in between milk feeds to keep fluid up of getting dehydrated. Scour may also be viral or bacterial so anti inflammatory and antibiotic may be warranted.

Definitely keep the milk getting into him, it is essential! Mix with electrolyte, this will keep his energy up and replace the fluids lost.

Sounds like it could be rotovirus (but I'm no vet). Only way to be sure you do a fecal test asap!!