CALF TROUBLES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 27 June 1938, Page 3

CALF TROUBLES

CAUSES OF STOMACH DISORDERS. PROMPT ATTENTION NEEDED. The fundamental requirement of calves suffering from stomach disorder depends, like many other diseases, upon prompt,, attention. In its early stages, if overlooked or neglected a mild attack may assume a more serious character, and result in death or in a general unthriftiness from which recovery is difficult, if not impossible. While stomach disorders arise from various causes, they are usually the result of errors in the diet. The usual predisposing causes where diet is concerned are overfeeding, irregular feeding, ' and unsuitable milk. The method of feeding and the individual calf may also be responsible to some degree. In the common method of pail feeding, the young calf must ingest a much larger quantity of milk at each feed than would normally be the case if suckling at frequent intervals were possible. To avoid stomach derangement, a calf so reared must possess sufficient stomach vigour to enable a complete digestion of the curd formed in the stomach by the action of renin upon the milk. Failure of the digestive organs to break down this curd regularly, between each feeding, results in a growing accumulation of curd in the calf’s abomasum or fourth stomach. Such curd deposits, in acute cases, are often responsible for irritation of the stomach lining and even rupture of its smaller blood vessels. This condition is primarily induced by failure of the gastric glands which supply rennin, to act upon these curd accumulation. Successful treatment in most cases of stomach disorders is effected by dosing the animal with castor oil immediately the first signs of the trouble appear; either excessive costiveness or looseness of the bowls. The dose may vary from half a wineglass for a calf one or two weeks old, up to two wineglasses for an animal eight or ten weeks old. A common trouble where stale or unsuitable milk has been fed, is overacidity of the stomach. This condition may be corrected by the addition of half a teaspoonful of bicarbonate of soda (bread soda) or a small quantity of lime-water added to the milk for a few days. Another ailment, often described as “curd in the stomach” arises by the presence of curd in the rumen or first stomach of young calves, before this stomach has properly commenced its normal functions. Young animals suffering from this complaint often grind their teeth before showing any alimentary derangement. Curd in the stomach is effectually treated by the addition of 20 grains of bicarbonate of potash to the animal’s milk for several days.