Scour is an issue that unfortunately has to be dealt with on all dairy farms at some stage or another, but the severity of these cases can vary greatly.
With the majority of farms now over five or six weeks into calving, there is a potential for increased sickness in some calves.
Possible infection within the calves is likely to be high currently, with calf sheds on many farms now at full capacity.
No matter how well you clean the shed at this time of year, there is going to be a certain level of infection or bacteria remaining.
Scour
The biggest killer of young calves under a month-old on farms is scour, which can be caused by parasites, viruses and bacteria.
Scour-causing parasites are Cryptosporidia and Coccidia; viruses that cause scour are Rotavirus and Coronavirus; and bacterial scour is caused by bacteria such as Salmonella and Escherichia coli (E. Coli).
Calves that are showing symptoms of scour need to be separated from the other calves in the pen to prevent or reduce the risk of it spreading to other calves.
Sick calves should be given 3-4L of electrolytes in separate feeds to their milk feeds.
Keeping scouring calves hydrated is important; continue to feed these calves milk, along with electrolytes in a separate feed.
A scouring calf is losing fluid which needs to be replaced, so it is important that you continue to offer milk feeds, along with extra feeds of electrolytes.
Previously, some farmers would have stopped feeding milk to scouring calves, but research has shown that offering calves their milk feeds can reduce the length of sickness and recovery time.
Prevention
Completely eliminating cases of scour will be difficult, but a number of measures can be introduced to reduce the number, and severity of cases.
Keep all the calf rearing/feeding equipment and the pens as clean as possible, control access to the calf shed and avoid entering the pens when possible.
Ensure that each calf gets adequate amounts of high-quality colostrum within two hours of birth.
If scour is an issue, take samples and have them analysed; this will allow you to select a disinfectant that kills the bacterium, parasite or virus in question.
This disinfectant should only be used when the shed is empty after the calving season and prior to the next one.