In the world of cattle, the word scours means diarrhea in young animals, when scours happen, dehydration follows and it is the most common cause of death especially amongst calves who are younger than one month. Scour has several causes, some are infectious while others are non-infectious.
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The infectious causes of scour in cattle include; Rotavirus, coronavirus, or cryptosporidium which cause almost the total of infectious cases of calf scours who are below 3 weeks in age. These three causative factors could be present in the cattle individually or the combination of the three agents.
All cattle are naturally exposed to these pathogens, but whether a calf will get sick or not will be dependent on the received dose, this means the more pathogens a calf receives, the higher the chances of it getting infected with scour.
Rotavirus infects cells that are essential to the absorption of nutrients in the small intestine. When the small intestine is unable to absorb nutrients, there is a creation of nutritional deficiencies for the calf, and it interferes with the remaining digestive tract's ability to absorb water. This will lead to diarrhea, as well as complications happening due to the missing nutrients.
Coronavirus on the other hand, similarly infects cells to rotavirus, but in this case instead of just interfering with absorption, the virus will actively kill the cells present in the lining of the intestine, this will lead to widespread destruction in the lining of small intestine. In this case, the calf is unable to absorb any nutrients at all, the inflammation is a massive one and several stages of diarrhea are involved too.
Cryptosporidium, also popularly called Crypto, is a protozoan. Protozoa are microscopic and they implant themselves in the wall of the intestine causing serious damage to the lining of the intestine. This damage will lead to diarrhea for the calf, and usually a painful form of infection. Crypto can survive for a long time outside the body, due to its thick shell.
These points mentioned above are the three infectious causes of scours, but there are non-infectious ones too;
Feeding calves at inconsistent times can stress the calf, and increase the chance of acidosis.
Calves should be drinking body temperature milk, and the temperature of a cow should be between 101 F and 102.5 F.
The measure of water and powder being mixed to feed animals is important, when a milk replacer is too concentrated it causes water from the calf's body to move into the intestine, which may lead to osmotic diarrhea.
Poor nutrition is the most common cause of scours, calves need food for growth and to fight off every form of pathogens that could be made available in the body. To accomplish these two major tasks, then they must eat well. When calves are not fed sufficient milk to give them sufficient energy that will help boost their immune system, this is the first reason behind the occurrence of scours.
As I always write here, prevention is more appropriate than treatment, but when it happens the next thing is to identify the cause of the problem and look for appropriate ways to get it treated. If your calf is unable to stand, simply call your vet.
Dehydration can kill calves very fast, so electrolyte feeding has to be added to milk feeding.
It is still very important that you reach out to your vet whenever you begin to notice weird signs from your animal.