In some parts of the country, summer scour season has already started.
If you have dairy or dairy-beef calves out at grass, this is worth a read.
Summer scour syndrome affects artificially reared calves in the weeks following their first turnout.
We do not fully understand what drives it: extensive testing has ruled out a primary infectious cause, so no single bug is to blame. What the research points to is a rumen not ready for lush spring grass and a calf grazing the leafy tops, while ignoring the fibrous stem.
When an outbreak hits, get a faecal sample done to rule out coccidiosis – it can take advantage of a compromised animal and make things worse.
While you are at it, run a mineral panel. Copper and selenium deficiencies are a genuine problem in Irish calves at grass: molybdenum can quietly sequester copper even when dietary levels look fine on paper.
Both cause ill-thrift that can look very like scour and both are treatable once identified.
The single most important lever is giving the weaning process the time it deserves.
Push weaning age towards 12 weeks and make the step-down as long and gradual as possible.
Reduce milk slowly over two to three weeks and never pull it if the calf is not eating 1kg of concentrate daily.
Rumen buffers, available as powders or incorporated into calf meal, appear to help in some situations.
Make sure good-quality hay or straw is always available both before and from turn out.
Strip grazing helps too, but move the wire every three to four days – done half-heartedly, it changes little. If calves succumb to scour, house them immediately. Standard treatments will not work.
Supplementation with good hay or straw, concentrates, fresh water, and patience is required. The principle is the same as prevention: give the animal time.
Joaquim Canotilho, DVM
XLVets, Ormonde Veterinary Hospital, Kilkenny
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