Q&A for How to Diagnose and Treat Scours in Calves

Not a great idea if you don't have a portable shed and bedding to go with it. Clean the barn or stall out and keep replacing old straw with the new so they stay warm. Cold calves won't be healthy calves if they don't have shelter and bedding to lay in. A south-facing shed is perfect for them to stay warm, if you don't have a barn or stable, out in a field or pasture.

Use straw or shavings for bedding instead of sand and clean the bedding out each day. Sand is a breeding ground for bacteria. Switching to proper bedding will solve a large part of your scour problem.

There is no injectable medicine available. Scour boluses are available, but generally they're for young calves with bacterial infection of the gut. You may also need to use electrolytes and make sure bedding is cleaned out regularly. Scours is just a symptom of a bunch of different possible diseases or conditions, from feeding too much milk to a gut bacterial infection caused by E. coli, Campylobacteria, Salmonella, etc., or some other illness. Please talk with your vet about treating scours in your calves.

Electrolytes are just vitamins and minerals mixed in water, so too much by accident won't hurt, but don't continuously overdo it because it may cause problems. Scours is diarrhea in calves, and you can't go wrong when you see a calf have runny poop rather than the normal miniature cow-pat that they should have. If you're saying you gave the wrong calf electrolytes, no it won't hurt him, just make sure a) you have the right calf to treat, and b) you follow directions on the package.

The scours may be because you are doing at least one of the following: introducing the milk replacer too fast; giving him too much at one time; you have the mixture wrong ; you are giving the wrong type of milk replacer. He also may be suffering from not enough good bacteria in his gut; antibiotics can kill both the good and bad bacteria, so you may need to give him some probiotic formula. Talk to the vet about it, and get a fecal done on the calf to see what's going on.

If they are soft but not runny, then I wouldn't worry. It's when the poops start to get watery that you should be worried and consider treatment.

Please contact your veterinarian to see what's going on. Scours is merely a symptom of something else, whether it's too much milk, a gut bacteria causing problems, or another issue that needs to be addressed. You can also start giving the calf electrolytes to make sure it has enough fluids in its system. Don't feed milk at the same time as you're giving them electrolytes.

If you're only feeding your calf 7 ounces of milk replacer a day, you are severely under-feeding it. A calf should be drinking at least two quarts of replacer twice a day, which adds up to roughly 1.25 to 2 pounds. If I were you, I'd fix your feeding problem and then get a fecal test done to determine if the calf is indeed scouring.