Special report on diseases of cattleUnited States. Bureau of Animal Industry
Science
Special report on diseases of cattle
United States. Bureau of Animal Industry
Cattle -- Diseases
INDIGESTION IN CALVES (GASTROINTESTINAL CATARRH, DIARRHEA, OR SCOUR).
Calves are subject to a form of diarrhea to which the foregoing
designations have been applied.
_Causes._--Calves that suck their dams are not frequently affected with
this disease, though it may be occasioned by their sucking at long
intervals and thus overloading the stomach and bringing on indigestion,
or from improper feeding of the dam on soft, watery, or damaged feeds.
Suckling the calf at irregular times may also cause it. Exposure to damp
and cold is a potent predisposing cause. Calves separated from their dams
and fed considerable quantities of cold milk at long intervals are liable
to contract this form of indigestion. Calves fed on artificial feed, used
as a substitute for milk, frequently contract it. Damaged feed, sour or
rotten milk, milk from dirty cans, skim milk from a dirty creamery
skim-milk vat, skim milk hauled warm, exposed to the sun and fed from
unclean buckets may all cause this disease.
_Symptoms._--The calf is depressed; appetite is poor; sometimes there is
fever; the extremities are cold. The dung becomes gradually softer and
lighter in color until it is cream colored and little thicker than milk. It
has a most offensive odor and may contain clumps of curd. Later it contains
mucus and gas bubbles. It sticks to the hair of the tail and buttocks,
causing the hair to drop off and the skin to become irritated. There may be
pain on passing dung and also abdominal or colicky pain. The calf stands
about with the back arched and belly contracted. There may be tympanites.
Great weakness ensues in severe cases, and without prompt and successful
treatment death soon follows.
_Treatment._--Remove the cause. Give appropriate feed of best quality in
small quantities. Make sure that the cow furnishing the milk is healthy and
is properly fed. Clean all milk vessels. Clean and disinfect the stalls.
For the diarrhea give two raw eggs or a cup of strong coffee. If the case
is severe, give 1 ounce of castor oil with a teaspoonful of creolin and 20
grains of subnitrate of bismuth. Repeat the bismuth and creolin with
flaxseed tea every four hours. Tannopin may be used in doses of 15 to 30
grains.
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