12/09/2025
Do your calves look like this? 👀🐄
👉🏼 Older calves mucking loose?
👉🏼 Dirty tails and backends?
👉🏼 Calves losing condition around/after weaning?
There are usually two main causes on-farm: nutrition or pathogens.
🌾 Nutrition-related causes 🌾
- Diets very high in protein can loosen muck and make calves dirtier. However, most youngstock diets are actually low in protein, so this is less common. If protein was the issue, calves would appear bright but lighter in condition – not lethargic or underweight.
- Loose, bubbly muck can also be a sign of acidosis, often linked to high levels of rapidly fermentable carbohydrates (such as grains or barley). I’ve seen this when heifers are fed barley while still on or just coming off milk – which I strongly advise against.
🦠 Pathogen-related causes 🦠
- One of the most common culprits of scours in older, underweight calves is Coccidiosis. Cocci is a protozoan parasite that damages the digestive tract, reducing feed conversion, metabolism, and overall health.
- Clinical infection often shows up at 1–2 months of age, but it can occur any time up to 12 months.
- Infection usually comes from the environment – oocysts shed by contaminated animals (often older cows that show no symptoms).
🐄 Case study from farms 🐄
I have worked with several farms who’s calves have looked like this, implementing:
✔️ Removal of Deccox from the feed
✔️ Introduction of a natural supplement to support gut health & integrity
✔️ A tailored drench protocol (double-dosing pre- and post-weaning, at intervals matching the parasite life cycle)
✔️ Balanced diets both pre- and post-weaning
✔️ Improved colostrum management protocols
Result:
✅ Calf health, performance, and gut integrity improved.
✅ Clinical cases of Cocci massively reduced.
If you’re struggling with scours in older calves or weaned heifers, drop me a message – I’d be happy to discuss what changes could help on your farm 🐄😊
