Calf scour

[Water Wheel]

Check your water supply / tanks if you have a Crypto problem.

We plaster the floor of calving pens and calf pens with dry hydrated lime between batches as we often don't have time to wash out when calving. Two 20 lt buckets to a 15x15 ft pen, spread with a little hand shovel, takes minutes.

 

[som farmer]

another plus point for block calving, calf facilities get a decent rest, and clean.
after our crypto experience, we bought new penning, and moved sheds, halocur and stopped it.
Rota vac, in our opinion is a key part of stopping it recurring again.
we clean out, and lime, but also leave the penning out side, sun wind and rain, being the cheapest and best disinfectant, you can get. But we always keep focussed on it appearing again. Using halocur, or similar, while being efficient to oust crypto, does kill off a lot of gut microbes, which in turn holds the calf back. But the best way of avoiding a bad attack, is by making sure calves are in the correct environment, properly fed, and lots of colostrum, they stand a chance of fighting it off then.

 

[MrA.G.]

Scour under control now @Jdunn55 ?

 

[Jdunn55]

Scour under control now @Jdunn55 ?

I think so, nothing scouring now and all seem OK, just the 3 that were lost that I'm gutted about but shouldn't happen again I'm hoping as halocure seems to have worked

 

[ImLost]

I think so, nothing scouring now and all seem OK, just the 3 that were lost that I'm gutted about but shouldn't happen again I'm hoping as halocure seems to have worked

Look on the bright side, you caught it quick and only lost 3.

 

[Stuart1]

We had crypto a couple of years ago, tried a few things, finally got parafor liquid from vet. Squirt down the throat for first week did the trick.
Keep the chin up, the person who tells you they have no dead stock has no livestock.

Crypto has creeped into my calves last week, lost a B&W Bull calf. Vet has told me to Rotavac and use the parafor liquid like you mention. I’m using away at it with new borns and they seem totally fine. How long did you carry on using parafor for on new born calves? Maybe your still doing every calf or it disappears over time? I’ve never had a crypto problem before so bear with me where do they pick crypto up from?

 

[Jdunn55]

Crypto has creeped into my calves last week, lost a B&W Bull calf. Vet has told me to Rotavac and use the parafor liquid like you mention. I’m using away at it with new borns and they seem totally fine. How long did you carry on using parafor for on new born calves? Maybe your still doing every calf or it disappears over time? I’ve never had a crypto problem before so bear with me where do they pick crypto up from?

From what I can gather once you have crypto on farm, you have crypto on farm for life

I'm not sure whether I will give rotavec a go or not because it's more money, I would likely still need to halocure the calves and because I only give 2 colostrum feeds it doesn't give that great a benefit
Plus with the halocure it seems to have solved all my problems so just going to see how it goes from now

 

[Stuart1]

From what I can gather once you have crypto on farm, you have crypto on farm for life

I'm not sure whether I will give rotavec a go or not because it's more money, I would likely still need to halocure the calves and because I only give 2 colostrum feeds it doesn't give that great a benefit
Plus with the halocure it seems to have solved all my problems so just going to see how it goes from now

I honestly hope your wrong about it being on farm for life!
I think your mad personally. Shouldn’t you at least do 10-20 cows with rotavac and compare them calves against non rotavaced calves?

 

[Dead Rabbits]

Crypto has creeped into my calves last week, lost a B&W Bull calf. Vet has told me to Rotavac and use the parafor liquid like you mention. I’m using away at it with new borns and they seem totally fine. How long did you carry on using parafor for on new born calves? Maybe your still doing every calf or it disappears over time? I’ve never had a crypto problem before so bear with me where do they pick crypto up from?

Once you got it it stays near as I can tell. We have zero treatment options other than painkillers and hydration.

 

[Dead Rabbits]

From what I can gather once you have crypto on farm, you have crypto on farm for life

I'm not sure whether I will give rotavec a go or not because it's more money, I would likely still need to halocure the calves and because I only give 2 colostrum feeds it doesn't give that great a benefit
Plus with the halocure it seems to have solved all my problems so just going to see how it goes from now

How much is a dose of vaccine there.? Ours is under $4 which is high but the absolute cheapest insurance you can buy. Not saying it will solve all your problems, it won’t. If colostrum transferred no immunity nobody would feed it.

 

[Stuart1]

Once you got it it stays near as I can tell. We have zero treatment options other than painkillers and hydration.

How come you’ve no treatment options over there? Does every calf born end up with crypto? What’s the mortality rate pre weaning?

 

[Stuart1]

How much is a dose of vaccine there.? Ours is under $4 which is high but the absolute cheapest insurance you can buy. Not saying it will solve all your problems, it won’t. If colostrum transferred no immunity nobody would feed it.

I think a dose of vaccine is around £7 ($9.40) but I could be wrong.

 

[Holsteinfriesian90]

I think a dose of vaccine is around £7 ($9.40) but I could be wrong.

It Varys a lot I found. £7 the cheapest from the vets more like £10 per dose.

 

[jimmer]

We needed 14 doses
Cheaper to buy 1 20 dose bottle than 3 5 dose ones
6.80 as opposed to 6.40

 

[jimmer]

We needed 14 doses
Cheaper to buy 1 20 dose bottle than 3 5 dose ones
6.80 as opposed to 6.40

No that's wrong, I can't 100% remember, but basically buying 20 doses and throwing 6 away was cheaper in total than buying 15 and throwing 1 away

 

[Holsteinfriesian90]

No that's wrong, I can't 100% remember, but basically buying 20 doses and throwing 6 away was cheaper in total than buying 15 and throwing 1 away

I did notice yesterday that the new bottles can be used in 28 days once you open it long as it’s kept in the fridge.

 

[jimmer]

Yeah saw that too
Might donate 6 doses to a neighbour

 

[yin ewe]

Crypto has creeped into my calves last week, lost a B&W Bull calf. Vet has told me to Rotavac and use the parafor liquid like you mention. I’m using away at it with new borns and they seem totally fine. How long did you carry on using parafor for on new born calves? Maybe your still doing every calf or it disappears over time? I’ve never had a crypto problem before so bear with me where do they pick crypto up from?

Don't give parafor routinely now, but if I see a calf dull or not drinking for a feed I give it a dose right away and daily for a week. I was told that crypto is picked up from the environment ie bedding/buckets/clothes etc and it is incredibly easy to spread from calf to calf.
Does the vet think rotavec will help with crypto?

 

[Stuart1]

Don't give parafor routinely now, but if I see a calf dull or not drinking for a feed I give it a dose right away and daily for a week. I was told that crypto is picked up from the environment ie bedding/buckets/clothes etc and it is incredibly easy to spread from calf to calf.
Does the vet think rotavec will help with crypto?

I’m relieved to hear your not routinely using parafor still I was beginning to think this was going to be routine here. He found rotavirus in a couple of samples he took, he doesn’t think it’ll cure crypto but said it’ll make a notable difference. He also couldn’t understand how calves that tested for crypto and rotavirus weren’t dead.

 

[yin ewe]

I’m relieved to hear your not routinely using parafor still I was beginning to think this was going to be routine here. He found rotavirus in a couple of samples he took, he doesn’t think it’ll cure crypto but said it’ll make a notable difference. He also couldn’t understand how calves that tested for crypto and rotavirus weren’t dead.

Any samples we tested only had crypto hence my question about rotavec. I'd definitely try it if I thought it would work.