There is plenty of calves on the ground now that autumn calving is about to wrap up, but with pens filling, the threat of calf scour grows.

With only a few more cows to calve down and breeding sneaking up around the corner, it is easy to take the foot slightly off the pedal in terms of cleaning out calving houses and calf pens.

However, if this is the case, the bacterial load will quickly multiply as those that cause scour thrive in damp bedding.

Scour, which is commonly caused by rotavirus and cryptosporidia, is the champion in terms of causing sickness and death in younger calves.

Therefore it is crucial to maintain the utmost hygiene in a bid to eliminate and prevent the disease from spreading.

Calf scour

Scour is a result of a badly damaged gut, and presents itself as a watery or custard-like faeces.

A calf will continue to scour until the intestine heals, while becoming increasingly unwell in the meantime as they lose water and salts in the form of diarrhoea.

If one of your calves does contract scour, remove them from the group immediately and isolate them to prevent the infection from spreading, as well as giving the calf a better chance of recovery.

The calf's salts and fluids will have to be replaced with an oral rehydration solution immediately.

Remember healthy calves need up to 6L of fluids each day and scouring calves will need an additional 4L to replace any lost fluids.

The calf with scour should be given one or two extra feeds of about 2L each of electrolytes or some sort of good quality rehydration solution as soon as the calf starts scouring.

If the calf is too weak to suck or drink the electrolytes, it should be stomach-tubed to get something into the system.

Farmers are also advised to continue feeding milk to the calf as milk does not cause, worsen, or prolong scour, and actually helps with the healing of the intestine.

Prevention

Prevention is often better than cure when it comes to scour, with prevention sometimes being as easy as following and maintaining basic hygiene rules.

Good colostrum management in the early life of a calf plays a crucial role in preventing them from scouring, so ensure you follow the '1,2,3 rule', and clean all equipment thoroughly after.

From here, calves should be grouped in pens with clean, dry bedding, with every pen being cleaned out before a new group enters.

Being stingy on straw will end up costing you more in the long run than you save, so carry out the knee test - the bed should be dry enough so that your knees do not get wet when your full weight is on them.

Some farmer use vaccines against scour-causing viruses and bacteria.

However you will need to know the cause of scour before you choose a vaccine, meaning faecal sampling will need to be carried out first.