Solving A Gut-Wrencher

摘要

For many years, calves in the Lemhi Valley (east-central Idaho) and other areas have been plaqued with an acute bacterial gut infection. It can kill swiftly, even before calves have a chance to develop diarrhea, This infection generally affects oldercalves, past the usual "critical" age for scours, and it can kill a healthy calf in a few hours. Some ranchers, including ourselves, have been successfully treating this with a combination of castor oil and neomycin sulfate solution (a liquid oral antibiotic) - a combination recommended by veterinarian Peter J. South during the 1960s. He was the vet at Salmon, ID, for 26 years, This treatment seems to be effective because the neomycin combats the toxin-producing bacteria, and the castor oil stimulates the shut-down gut to contract and move again. (Mineral oil will not work; it merely lubricates the contents of the gut.)