Simon Wells

Diarrhoea or calf scour can be a major cause of poor development and calf mortality in many dairy herds and cryptosporidiosis is one of the most common causes of the condition. Here, Simon Wells tells us how Rehydion has benefited his herd.

“We have an ongoing problem with cryptosporidiosis, which is caused by the Cryptosporidium parasite, and despite changes to our herd health plan which include trialling external calving sheds, there is often a tricky 7 to 10-day period when the calves display classic signs of scour including diarrhoea, dehydration, loss of appetite, fever and abdominal pain.

“Scour can be a hugely time consuming and frustrating condition to manage with a lot of man hours going in to trying to keep calves alive, from ensuring they get as much colostrum as possible in their first few hours to provide nutrients and antibodies, to feeding them milk and rehydration liquid therapy, which is the most effective treatment strategy.

“We like to be proactive and ‘on the front foot’ with the treatments that we use on the farm and our vet recommended Rehydion for the digestive support of scour. We have now used it successfully for many years. It is easy to administer as it is simply diluted in milk, which means there is no interruption to milk feeding, and our weekend relief staff also find it easy to use.

“Timing is key! As soon as we notice that a calf has developed scour we administer Rehydion as quickly as possible to ensure a quicker recovery and good daily gain and I’m happy to say that once they are through the tricky period 99% of calves are absolutely fine. I’d definitely recommend that farmers give it a try!”