Calving is going great!!
As described in other posts, we had a horrible calving last year with the baby Wagu’s dying, with several different types of scours, within a month of birth. It seemed that every time that we thought we had it worked out something elese would show up. Christmas day was spent picking up seriously ill calves and putting them in a holding pen under a tree and treating them in an attempt to rehydrate them and give them a chance. Unfortunately we lost a very high number of calves last year.
We tried all different ways (both conventional and homeopathic) to stop the scours from antibiotics to pencilline as well as electralytes you name it, even a probiotic mix. The homoepathics did more than most, but still didn’t solve the issues. The frustrating part for us was that we knew the correct remedy was right at our fingertips, it was just determining the underlying problem, then we could treat it.
The first thing we did to try to avert this problem was ensuring that calving happened at the right time of year. Not in the heat of late Spring and Summer but from the end of Winter through the first two months of Spring. Then to get to the bottom of the scours. We tried all the usual homeopathic remedies for such illnesses. It wasn’t until Eric suggested that it must be genetic, not a bug or environmental that we found the solution. Being embryo calves and very closely bred a problem had been seriously magnified. This problem was identified and treated with the appropriate homeopathic remedy and not one calf this year from the January to the Spring Calves have shown any sign of the scours.
It is always a thrill to watch the young spring calves galloping around the paddock, but this year it is way sweeter.
Just a note here that this scour problem has been going on since the property was purchased three years ago.