Navel Ill and Pneumonia

Hello,

We just had our 1 month old angus calf die yesterday from navel ill and pneumonia. We noticed about 2 weeks after her birth she wasn't running around or nursing. We called the vet who said she had a umbilical infection and pneumonia. We gave her two round of LA200, 7 days apart. She seemed to be getting better. Eyes, nose and cough all cleared. We have had some very high temperatures here the past few weeks and yesterday in the morning she was alone in the field and not with the rest of the herd. When we found her she could not walk and was dripping in sweat. We took her into the barn and gave her another shot of LA200 and fed her through a tube feeder. She passed away about 1 hour after that.

We did not give her any antibiotics or vaccines at birth. She was born in a very clean shelter with brand new wood shavings. She was the first calf of our angus heifer. She seemed to be doing a lot better, growing, nursing, etc. We are really surprised that she passed away...

My question is...is there something I could have done to prevent this? Any advice would be much appreciated. This is our first year of raising calves on the farm.

Thanks

Greetings @cjc fro the front range of Colorado. !

Sorry you lost your calf. Maybe some of the cattle experienced folks can shed some light/share some recommendations?:

@Bossroo @WildRoseBeef @greybeard @jhm47 @77Herford

I am truly sorry for your loss. However, this is indeed a hard lesson learned.

It sounds like she may have died of heat stroke or heat exhaustion as high temperatures can put a lot of stress on a young calf, especially one that isn't used to it and tends to be more sensitive to it due to the black hide/hair. That and combined with her lowered immune system from being sick previously would've compounded on each other and resulted in a dead calf.

Next time, for sure make sure your calves get their vaccinations. Contact your veterinarian or a local veteran cattleman to see what vaccines are best for your area and for young calves. Most calves, though, get vaccinated for Clostridial (9-way) diseases, BVD (bovine viral diarrhea), BRD (bovine respiratory disease), BRSV (bovine respiratory syncytial virus), IBR (infectious bovine rhinotracheitis) and PI3 (Para-influenza-3); the last four all respiratory diseases that can cause pneumonia. Scours vaccines are also highly recommended for calves less than a month or two old.

Antibiotics are really not needed at all. They only matter if the calf is already sick with a bacterial infection. There is no need to give a healthy calf antibiotics unless it's for special considerations like a preventative means for coccidial diseases mainly. Of all beef producers I've come across, I've rarely ever heard of someone feeling the need to feed their calves medicated feed. All others have dealt with such illnesses with proper and timely vaccinations.

And it really does not matter how clean a calving area is, there are always bacteria and viruses present even in the newest, seemingly cleanest wood shavings. Just because you can't see them doesn't mean they're not there. There's always bacteria and viruses around unless the area and the materials within that area, including the tools used to feed or work the animals (yes, tools like hay forks, sorting sticks and pails do carry bacteria that can spread easily from one area to another) is completely sterile and spotlessly clean and disinfected, and wood shavings and seemingly very clean shelter certainly are not sterile.

I am not trying to start a schitzen-flinging storm here, I'm just trying to help you out by giving some practical advice that doesn't deserve to be sugar-coated. Hope you understand.

Thanks for the advice. I appreciate any help I can get.

Our pasture does have a shelter and few shady areas with trees but the past few weeks they have been fighting for shade. One actually pushed another right through the fence to get a shadier spot. With the heat exhaustion and the calf...how could I have avoided her getting too much sun? Luckily it is cooling down here. We are in BC, Canada and usually don't see temperatures like we have the past few weeks.

We took the advice of a friend and only treated the navel with iodine to prevent infection which obviously didn't help us with the loss of our calf. We have one other calf on the farm that we have not vaccinated. Our bull calf is about 3.5 weeks old @WildRoseBeef would you suggest that I go ahead and vaccinate him now? A local rancher came by yesterday and gave me his routine. 8 way, pneumonia nasal spray and vitamin A & D.

I am really saddened about the loss of our calf...we are a small family farm and I probably get too emotionally invested into our cows.

Thanks again for the advice.

@WildRoseBeef I just ran up to the vet and grabbed Inforce (8 way), Tasvax (nasal spray) and Vitamin A&D. I will vaccinate the bull calf this Saturday. Anything else I am missing?

Those should be good. I usually like to go with Covexin + and Pyramid (4 or 5 FP) in addition to the Vit AD vaccines, but those will work for you. You will need to follow up with boosters when they're older. So you'll need to follow up, if you vaccinate now, in about six weeks, especially with the 8-way as you're giving them their first vaccinations.

Smaller gauge needle for calves versus cows. So usually cows would need a 16 or 18 gauge needle for vaccinations, for young calves 20 gauge is sufficient. Other than that I don't think you're missing anything else.

Very nice pairs, btw. Too bad about the heat, it's being felt here in Alberta too. Not much can be done but just try to bear it and hope the cows and calves will do fine too.

Thank you so much @WildRoseBeef really appreciate your help!

Not a problem!

@WildRoseBeef question for you again my dear! I need to follow-up my vaccine for my calf. It will be 6 weeks on the 15th so I will do another round then. Do I only do the 8way or do I do the Vitamin A/D and also the nasal spray as well?

Thank you!!!

There's no need to do the vitamin injection again, you just need to do boosters for the 8-way and nasal spray. Of course, check the labels to be sure, but I remember from when we processed the steer calves we got we didn't need to do the vitamin shots again when they were getting their boosters, just dehorning and if it was near spring, pour-on as well. Don't worry if you can't or don't want to do the latter, that's just what we had to do with our animals.