By late morning yesterday four of the five calves were scouring. Diarrhea. Bad. All except Difficult. 
Here is what I know. Any loss of fluids needs to be replaced very fast or a small newly born animal like these calves will die. The scouring needs to be attended to immediately. If caught early and I can get at least a quart of fluid down their throats every three or four hours there is a good chance the calf will survive.
Little, who is drinking Lady Asters milk, went down first. The calves in the other barn followed close behind and they are drinking milk replacer. So it is not the milk powder. But it is nutrition related – (they were scouring white water).
There are no vets on the weekends so I have chosen to treat the symptom rather than waste precious time searching about for a cause as this point. In the end the cause of it takes second place to replacing the lost minerals, keeping the baby hydrated so she can flush her system without killing herself. All through this episode their noses have remained moist.
They just cannot find their balance. Scours is a very real threat to bottle fed babies. And I really think that these calves did not get colostrum at birth.
I had electrolyte on hand for exactly this problem and a plan. You must have a plan for fighting this kind of thing it is very hard work and extremely tiring so it is best to create a plan ahead of time. Trying to work out what to do in the middle of a crisis leads to errors.
By this morning after 20 odd hours of three and sometimes two hourly force fed drinks of electrolyte (if they would not stand up I fed them lying down or if they refused to drink I held their heads and bodies against a wall with my legs, put the teat in their mouth then reached in and squeezed the fluid into their mouths with my own fingers – you cannot give them too much of this stuff.) I have gone through almost a box of gloves. But by this morning they are at least improved.
Separate. Make sure the calf has water close by so they do not need to walk far.
By this morning all the calves but Little are back up, and were able to have a little milk in their electrolyte mixture. All but two ran to the gate and sucked their little portion right down. Some were even peeing which is a welcome sight! 
I will continue with three hourly drinks.
Little is the slowest to recover but has come out of his house and is tottering about in the sun, he is such a mess, he still will not voluntarily drink more than a few slugs, after that we go to battle. But it is honestly a battle for his life so we fight.
I have been up and down with them all night really, giving endless drinks and I am now deadly tired but we are not out of the woods yet. They are hydrated again now, but they need to Eat.
So now I am adding milk back in to the electrolyte.
I know many people believe in starving the animal of milk for 48 hours but there are two schools of thought here. And i err on the side of cautious nutrition. Even if it is expelled at speed the calf will get a little goodness and develop a little more strength, as long as I am still pushing the other fluids. But if they do not get nutrition into their bodies they will deteriorate and they will not grow properly. It is a juggling act.
OK back to work.
Your friend on the farm,
celi
P.S. If I do not post tomorrow morning it will not be because something is wrong it will be because I am sleeping or just late posting. Probably both!
The Kitchen's Garden 
66 responses to “Scours in Calves”
Hope all is well, poor little calves.
Stay strong, Miss C. The whole Fellowship will be pushing strength, good wishes and sheer bloody minded determination your way. It sounds gruelling, and I wish I could be there to take over some of the other stuff so you don’t have to think about it. Thinking about you, with fingers crossed. xxxx
Yes, indeed!! Sending….sending…. xo
Oh, goodness. 😦 Just said a little prayer, asking for strength and stamina for you and healing for the calves. Hoping for a better night and day for you all.
oh my gosh- how frightening for these little calves. Thank goodness you know what to do- hopefully they all pull out of this .
I hope you remember to treat yourself as well as you’re treating your animals, c. Hugs to you. xx
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Poor things! I hope they all pull through – I’m sure they are getting the very best attention and care 🙂
I know about the scours… and I was only working on one little deer (Daisy) for a couple of days. I cannot imagine the work and worry about so many little calves! I am sending love and energy your way… I hope the coming hours show improvement and you are able to rest easy.
It is such a struggle, Life. I am sending you boat loads of strength and good humor and good wishes. Hang in there babies!
You are amazing. These dear ones are lucky to have you! I am sending healing vibes from canada !
Best MIss C as you struggle to save these animals.
Stay strong! Those little calves are lucky to have you.
Sending positive thoughts and healing energy to all, hope the little ones turn the corner soon in the next 24 hours. Laura
Oh bloody hell – what a shyte thing to happen right now. As if you haven’t enough on your plate. Hang in there my friend, sleep all day tomorrow if you have to!
Scours are so difficult. I had the problem in my goat kids this year. It’s exhausting. Good luck with your calves.
miss c having been in this battle, its a hard one indeed.. I know that lots of folks will offer different advice, and each will offer different, I think what you are doing is bang on, but I will also share grandpa advice on scours, and yes I have done it, but like you so many other things being done, no way to know if it worked, helped etc but my scour calvies did all make it.. ok so when comes time to start milk again, make according to instruction, and then beat one raw egg in mix.. beat the egg first till pale and frothy before adding so blends in easy.. repeat until the poo changes color and get ploopy..
now here is the other and again its odd but none the less, as wee babes, you wring the spit out, but as soon as they are even nibbling, you make them swallow a small wade, only needs to be done once or twice.. for calves that are bottle feed, steal a waddle of chewing cud from your milk cow, your adult tummy is filled with working bugs, that licked with momma calvie get but bottle are missing, so by stealing a second cud and giving to the bottle calf, it brings that strong healthy tummy load to the calf, I know its a odd one but I have done it with all my bottle babies and I feel I can see a difference in doing so..
third, bless you, nap when you can and prayers..
Thank you -I added an egg this morning to their milk so we are on the same page.. and the cud. that is interesting.. c