Most dairymen are aware of the health benefits of feeding colostrum to their calves soon after birth. This is a practice that is carried out on most dairies even though the results are seldom measured. However, with written records, calf health and treatment results can easily be monitored and measured. Benefits or detriments of various strategies or treatment programs can be determined. Every dairy should have written calf health records.
As with antibiotic treatments of the milking cows, a single person should be responsible for treating the calves. Written treatment protocols should be developed for the calves with the help of the dairy veterinarian in order to standardize treatments and determine the antibiotic withdrawal times. An example treatment plan using fictitious drugs is included as a possible beginning point. While simplicity is a virtue, in the treatment plan, everything should be spelled out in detail. These details actually insure that the plan will be followed and not altered when the plan is vague and leave room for the person to make decision on their own.
So what type of information should be included in a written calf health and treatment record system? The basic information would be the date of birth, a unique identification number, dated records of any treatments given and death date, should it occur. Beyond this it may be useful to record abnormal attitude, appetite and hydration with a date. Whatever the information to be recorded, it should be simple and useable. There is no need to keep information that will never be used. The dairy veterinarian can help decide what types of information would be useful to keep on your dairy.
After having decided on what information is to be kept, decisions need to be made as to who will be responsible for recording the information, where and how the information is to be recorded. In most cases, the logical person to record the treatment information is the person doing the treatments. Again, a single person should have this responsibility for treating the calves and recording the information. The recording system can be as simple as a 3x5 card attached to the hutch (see photos) all the way up to a computerized system. When a card system is used, the card should be saved after the calves are weaned or die for later examination.
The benefits of using a calf health record system are many. At the very least, a review of the records can quickly determine the survivability rate for the calves over a period of time. Death rates of over 5% should be considered unacceptable. The onset of various disease conditions can be determined and may help to determine the probable cause. For instance, if all the calves are breaking with diarrhea at 7 – 10 days of age, cryptosporidia may be high on the list of suspicion. When diarrhea begins at 3 – 4 weeks of age, salmonella may deserve more consideration. This information may also suggest when to take fecal samples for culture. With many conditions, fecal samples taken just before the diarrhea starts may yield higher numbers of the infectious agent than when take well into the disease course.
Results of the treatment plan can also be judged by reviewing 6 months to years worth of cards or records. Treatments that are successful should be followed with rapid recovery. Lots of chronically, poor-doing animals or high cull or death rates often follow treatments that are ineffective. Records should be periodically reviewed with the calf treater and the dairy veterinarian to insure the most effective treatment plans. In some cases, this review may reveal that the person doing the treatments has made subtle changes to the plans that may produce less than expected results.
In conclusion, the time and energy spent in developing treatment plans for calves and keeping records of the result of the treatments can be anticipated to result in healthier calves that enter the dairy milk string ready to milk. Dairymen are encouraged to work with their veterinarians to develop a calf health records system or to review the current system.
Source: John H. Kirk, DVM, MPVM, Extension Veterinarian, Veterinary Medicine Extension, University of California Davis