Coccidiosis

[mindenho]

Does anyone have any experience of this in their calves or cattle. I have a 2 month old calf who hasn't "looked quite right" for a couple of weeks but had no temperature, was suckling happily, bright eyed and dewey nosed. Her motions, like the rest of the herd out on wet spring grass, were very loose but of a greyish colour. I phoned the vet and he told me that the colour was nothing to worry about.

Yesterday evening she had definitely gone down hill and the colour of her dropings had changed to yellow with blood flecks. Vet came today and I am told it is probably coccidiosis and the prognosis is not good. Treatment is a five day course of injections.

I would be grateful to hear from anyone else who has experienced this and whether the animal recovered or not.
Thanks

[mindenho]

Sadly lost the calf and had another one show similar symptoms. This one was treated much earlier that the other one and fingers crossed will survive - is certailny looking much better. Heard today that it is definitely coccidiosis and that it is on the increase in cattle, particularly yearling cattle, so I am interested that no one else has experience it. Have you come across it Duncan? I'm told our wet spring wouldn't have helped. Erica

[Duncan MacIntyre]

Hello Erica,

Sorry to hear you have lost the calf, hopefully no more. Coccidiosis does crop up in commercial calves but in our patch not very frequently - or at least it is not frequently properly diagnosed. From our samples sent away to lab E Coli, Salmonella, Campylobacter, Cryptosporidia, Rotavirus and Coronavirus will account for most. Most of the coccidiosis we do see is in suckler herds though a couple of years ago we had some in two large dairy herds, treated by getting the feed medicated for a while.
Like Cryptosporidia I tend to associate it with wet conditions allowing build up of contamination, whether in pasture or in pens, so if you have been experiencing wet weather that may improve, or a move to clean ground might help. Now that you know what you have it may also be possible to get in with treatment earlier or preventative - see what your vet says. I hope you don't see any more.

Duncan

[mindenho]

Thanks for your reply Duncan. Everything seems to be OK now particularly with the dryer weather, but at least I will know what to do should we have another wet spring next year.