Calf Talk

April, 2004

Volume 11, No.4

DIAGNOSIS IS MOST IMPORTANT

By: Russ Schnepper, D.V.M.

I have an old saying, "If you have a diagnosis, any idiot can treat the calf." I see too much money lost following the practice of "I have given it Nuflor, Excenel, Micotil, Baytril, etc., and nothing has worked. What do you have that I can give?" My first question is, "What are you treating?" Usually, they have no idea. My point is, the client will spend a lot of money on inappropriate drugs and dead calves. A diagnosis would be much more cost effective. When calves were cheap, losing a few calves may not have been so bad. But now a 100# bull calf here in Wisconsin is costing $200.

There are many excellent diagnostic laboratories all across the United States. The majority of them do an excellent job in a prompt fashion. In most cases, a thorough job will be done for the approximate cost of one calf. I much prefer that the entire calf be taken to the lab, as the lab will do an excellent job of the postmortem and will run all the tests they deem necessary. Whereas, if we send in tissues, the lab can only work on the samples submitted. It is important to select calves that are a good example of the problem that is taking place. The best is a sick calf that is still alive, and the next best is a very fresh dead calf. Running tests on a calf that has been dead for a few hours gives very misleading results. Now once you have submitted the calf and have the lab results, interpretation of the results is very important. You will never have just one "bug." It is up to the Veterinarian to determine if the lab results match what is going on in the calf. Taking the calf to the lab is not the end all. But it does help to eliminate several possibilities. The lab will usually run antibiotic sensitivities on the significant pathogens that are isolated. Usually the sensitivities are helpful, at least if it shows a resistance to an antibiotic, I certainly would not use that antibiotic, but sometimes the "bug" may be sensitive to the antibiotic on the culture plate, and still not work in the calf. The antibiotic testing does help to eliminate useless choices of treatments. The lab has many new sophisticated tests to help detect the problem. Recently, the Diagnostic Laboratories have been very instrumental in identifying Salmonella dublin in 10 to 18-week old veal calves. BVD can be ruled in or out by the diagnostic tests. The Diagnostic Lab results can be faxed to the Veterinarian for prompt evaluation. I do not think it is worthwhile to do a lot of diagnostic work on purchased calves the first two weeks in your barn. You are merely figuring out the problem on the originating dairies.

My recommendation is to follow a prescribed start-up program that we know is going to cover the "bugs" your calves are forced to contend with. Then if there is a problem, do the diagnostic work. Things do change, and so do the treatments and preventive programs - such as the use of the very effective new SRP salmonella vaccine.

Due to the cost of the calf, diagnostic work is very cost effective. You save on medication costs and reduce the death loss. As the source of calves and the problems change, diagnostic work guides us in making necessary modifications in the start up program. Rather than throwing everything at the calf, provide what we know works and save money on the procedures that are no longer effective.

Contact information for ordering information and questions about our products:

Schnepper International, Inc.

3210 County B, Platteville, WI 53818

608-348-6141, Fax: 608-348-6146