Need help curing a 4 month old dairy heifer with coccidiosis!!?

Question

We have a 4 month old Ayrshire heifer who recently qualified to go to State Fair and has now come down with cocidiosis. Have been working with my vet, and treating her with corrid, also gave her Ivomec plus injectible wormer for strongi worms. We're not making much progress--although her appetite is good and she does not act sick. Her manure is still very loose and obviously she can not be shown in her present condition. I know this will affect this animals rate of growth. This will be the first trip to State Fair for the teenage girl who is to show her and I hate to disappoint her if the animal doesn't clear up. Been researching this, haven't come up with many other ideas other than what we are doing. Any tried and true rememdies out there? "Old timers" cures? Anything?

Answer 1

Corid doesn't work as well as SULMET or ALBON....  I stopped using Corid years ago...

SWITCH your drugs....  

Are you SURE it's coccidiosis? Has your vet confirmed this via a fecal?? Coccidia is going to always be present in their manure ... It's when it gets out of control and doubles, triples itself (so on) is when it becomes an issue.

Have you also attempted to treat her with an antibiotic such as Oxytetracycline??

Give her PLENTY of PROBIOS during your treatments to keep her rumen healthy. Pull back on grains and push more fiber...

Answer 2

Have you tried giving her sulphur bolus?

Answer 3

cocciciosis is usually caused by unsanitary conditions and poor management, to control  and prevent it you should drain pastures, use pasture rotation, and make sure feed and water are not contaminated  because it enters young calves that way.  if you ayrshire is  in the early stages of the disease she can be treated with sulfa, best of luck with curing her.

Answer 4

Here are a few interesting articles. I would attempt an herbal remedy in association with what your vet is recommending. The thing about herbal types of remedies is that they work in a different way than medications and is a more natural and effective in a lot of ways. My spouse once had a urinary tract infection that Dr.s could not effectivly treat. I put her on Kinikinic tea for a week and she never had the problem again. The tribes from this area used it for more than a millenia and nature handled the work naturally. I frequently go back to old lore to work out a prob. Consider it. The last article may be most important!

Answer 5

you might try mixing 2 lbs of Ferrous Sulfate, 1/2 lb Copper sulfate into 50 lbs. of salt and force feeding about a tablespoon a day in her grain.  The two elements will support red blood cell production and seem to be a deterant to the coccidial organism.

Not a cure but a support mechanism.

Answer 6

It is good that you have worked with the vet, do not short change or over extend the treatment period.  Proper treatment of the Corid should have killed the coccidia, did the vet take a stool sample following treatment and check with the microscope whether the treatment was effective.  Depending on the extent of the damage of the coccidia within the calf's system, you might try some probiotic's to get the "bugs" (good bugs) in the gut revived.  Feed fresh grain twice a day with the probiotics mixed in and tender leafy alfalfa along with fresh water.  Monitor the calf's temperature to be sure that there are not some secondary effects bothering the calf ie. low-grade pneumonia.  

Depending on the calf's nutritional intakes: in the midwest we are selenium deficient so to cover your bases if not already given, a shot of A,D&E along with a dose of BO-SE (selenium) may help with some of the underlying causes of being off-feed.  

The environment: dry bedding, open air shelter from the sun, (not an enclosed building) and if kept with other calves, hopefully they were all treated with Corid as they too will have the same problem to some degree.

Corid only kills the cocc. that are currently present in the calf's gut, if the environment that the calf is in is still contaminated with cocc. they will reinvite themselves into your calf's digestive tract.  Can the calf be moved to a new area that is clean and free of any manure or contaminants?

Talk with your vet and nutritionist, if you have one calf you will want to feed products from a larger dairy that will work with you.  If you have your own group of cattle, following the treatment of Corid, adding a "lasalacoid" (sp?  I could be wrong on this name it has been too many years since I was on the farm) to the feed supplement which acts as a growth promotant will also suppress any new reinfestations of the coccidia.  Talk with your local professionals to help you with this feed supplement.

Be careful on the use of "old timers cures" if they have not been studied on how they affect an animal you surely do not want your state fair animal to become the new guinea pig on home remedies.  Stick to proven science for this calf anyway.  I am not against home remedies, just that this animal is of show quality and hopefully headed to the state fair and you do not want any unneccessary surprises at this time.

Try getting some beet pulp into the daily ration as this will help bulk up the diet.  Finally help the teenage girl realize that sometimes these are the lessons that we learn in life and that the show winning animal will still take her places, just maybe not the show ring at the state fair at this particuliar time.  Help her understand what the real lesson here is for her to learn that the care and future of her animal may be more important that one particuliar day at the show.  Have her be involved in talking with the vet and nutritionist and an area farmer so that she learns the lessons of working towards solving a problem  to keep this animal healthy so that she can breed it for future calves and depending on the calf's genetic potential maybe flushing her for embryo's.  Many options, many opportunities, more than just one show day.  Good luck.

This website is for a feed product from Elanco, yet gives a good tutorial with pictures! regarding the Rumensin product, which if available would be a good product to consider adding to your daily feed supply.  It will not kill cocc. that are present yet will help prevent the reinfestation and also help with the overall growth of your heifer.  Check with your feed salesman or nutritionist about this or other similar products.  Not trying to sell any particular product here, yet making suggestions to help you get over this heifers momentary slump.

http://www.dairyherd.com/adviser/Elanco_...