10/10/2026
🐄🐄We love a good outcome!🐄🐄
Sometimes scouring calves really do take a turn for the worst. In this case, this heifer calf went from drinking fine one evening with mild scours, to being very poorly the next morning. She was down, very weak, depressed, dehydrated with a very weak suck reflex and impaired palebral reflex.
We know that offering normal milk feeds and adding extra electrolyte feeds throughout the day will often be enough to help them overcome their scours, on top of giving them pain relief and keeping them warm, dry, clean and draft-free of course.
But sometimes, they need a bit more than that. They can become very unwell from being very dehydrated due to the loss of water from their circulation, drawn into their guts when they are experiencing diarrhoea. However, often it is not just dehydration that makes them this ill.
In this case, rotavirus will have damaged the villi in the small intestines, unabling them to absorb the carbohydrates in milk. These then will enter the hind gut, where lactose gets fermented quickly by the bacteria living there, into D-lacatate. It's the systemic D-lactic acidosis, that is responsible for the distinct neurological symptoms (weakness, ataxia (wobblyness) and lethargy) seen in scouring calves.
The best way to combat this Lactic acidosis is to give them Sodium Bicarbonate in the vein. The results can be very dramatic.
We are glad that this particular calf pulled through so well. She already was given pain relief and electrolytes before we saw her. After the initial IV fluid, she continued to receive electrolytes several times during they day, until she was strong enough to get up herself and starting to drink again.
😀 😀
