Solutions that restore water balance are used to replenish tissues with fluid after it is lost due to diarrhea. Electrolyte solutions in livestock farming are used in the complex treatment of calves and adult animals. Let's look at the types of electrolytes for calves, the rules for their use, contraindications, and how to make a solution at home with your own hands.
Anti-diarrhea medications
Diarrhea in young calves is one of the leading causes of death and economic loss in livestock production. During diarrhea, salts that are important for life processes are excreted from the animal’s body along with fluid. Dehydration sets in.This is a dangerous condition for the animal; if the mineral and water balance is severely disturbed, the calf can die. You can restore the water-salt balance using a saline solution. For calves, you can use human medications that can be purchased at the pharmacy. These are “Regidron”, “Polysorb” and others.
Products with electrolytes are divided into 2 types:
- solutions for dairy calves;
- preparations in powder, from which a solution can be prepared by diluting it in water (used for calves eating adult food).
The types of products differ only in consistency.
What are they used for?
It is necessary to feed calves with salt solutions in case of diarrhea that occurs due to feeding with a milk substitute, due to the transition to food for adult animals, due to stress during vaccination, transportation, or changes in living conditions.
The solution also helps with diarrhea and infectious diseases. Cold, dampness, drafts, overcrowding, and dirty bedding can also cause diarrhea. During the treatment of infections, calves should receive not only electrolytes, but also medications that fight pathogenic microflora. Usually these are the antibiotics “Tetracycline” and “Levomycetin”.
When diarrhea occurs as a result of water loss, calves quickly lose weight. Without treatment, due to diarrhea, calves can die from acidosis, hyperkalemia, hypoglycemia, sepsis, and hypothermia. Soldering the electrolyte liquid solves this problem. It is necessary to monitor their condition and, if symptoms appear, treat immediately. Dehydration can be determined by behavior, activity, how the calf behaves - it stands more or lies more, by the elasticity of the skin.
In electrolytes, different ingredients perform different functions:
- sodium enhances the absorption of water, which restores the amount of extracellular fluid;
- glucose provides energy, maintains an active state and also enhances water absorption;
- glycine promotes the absorption of liquid, sodium and simple carbohydrates;
- alkalinizing agents reduce metabolic acidosis;
- potassium chloride replenishes system electrolytes;
- alkaline agents that normalize the acid-base composition of the blood.
The ratio of sodium, potassium, chlorine in saline solution and glucose ensures that osmotic pressure is maintained at a normal level.
Some preparations contain thickeners, which give them the desired consistency, and beneficial microflora that normalize the functioning of the gastrointestinal tract. The composition includes vitamins, lactic acid bacteria, and flavoring additives. Electrolyte solutions should be given to calves at the first signs of dehydration, as well as for prevention when transporting calves to another place of residence (it is recommended to skip the first 2 milk feedings and, instead of milk, give the animals a saline solution).
Rules of application
Equipment for drinking electrolyte solutions (buckets, bottles, probes, nipples) must be clean and disinfected. It is recommended that each calf have its own container to drink from. If the calf can drink on its own, the solution is injected into the stomach. In case of severe dehydration, the solution is administered intravenously.
Calves do not like the taste of ready-made electrolyte solutions due to the alkaline components they contain. Therefore, you should not wait until the animals drink everything on their own; it is easier to start drinking it by pouring liquid into their mouth from a bottle. At home, when preparing the product, it is important to follow the dosage and volume standards. A lack of salts, as well as their excess, have equally negative effects on the animal’s body.
Before making a solution, you need to determine the degree of dehydration. You can tell by the symptoms:
- 5-6% – no clinical signs other than diarrhea. The calf is mobile, the sucking reflex is normal.
- 6-8% – the animal moves little, is depressed, the sucking reflex is weak, smoothing of the skin after pinching occurs within 2-6 seconds.
- 8-10% – the calf hardly moves, lies a lot, eyes are dull, gums are pale and dry, skin smoothing takes longer than 6 seconds.
- 10-12% - the animal does not get up, the skin does not smooth out, the legs are cold, there may be loss of consciousness.
After determining the percentage of dehydration, you need to divide it by 100, then multiply by the weight of the animal in kg. The resulting number is the volume of electrolyte solution that must be prepared and given to the calf along with the milk. In this case, milk and solution should be taken equally. How to give to a calf:
- only solution, without milk during the entire period of therapy;
- in the first 2 days give electrolytes, on day 3 - together with milk 1 to 1, on the last day only milk;
- Give milk and solution in full, but alternate.
In practice, it has been established that giving up milk does not justify itself, since, in addition to salts, calves require nutrients and glucose, which provides energy. There is little glucose in electrolyte preparations, which is why the solutions cannot provide animals with the necessary amount of energy. Milk or milk substitute contains proteins and carbohydrates that have energy value.
To prepare your own products, you need to store the powder or liquid correctly. The preparations should be kept in a dry, cool place, in sealed packaging, so that the powder does not accumulate moisture and does not cake.
If it is not possible to prepare a solution from the drug, it can be made from available means. We must remember that it is impossible to replace glucose with sugar, since it is not absorbed in the body of cattle. Sucrose not only will not be beneficial, but can also be harmful: diarrhea and dehydration of the body will increase. An approximate recipe for a saline solution that can be prepared at home:
- 1 tbsp. l. salt;
- 1 tbsp. l. soda;
- 1 tbsp. l. fruit pectin or flax seed powder (for an enveloping effect);
- 1 tbsp. l. potassium carbonate;
- 1 tbsp. l. glucose or honey.
To normalize the intestinal microflora, lactobacilli and bifidobacteria can be added to the saline solution. Mix the ingredients in 2 liters of clean water at room temperature. Water can be replaced with whey, fresh hay infusion, or a weak decoction of oak bark. Or infusions of medicinal herbs: horse sorrel, chicory, plantain, nettle, yarrow.
Are there any contraindications and side effects?
Electrolyte products have no contraindications and do not cause side effects. This applies to industrial preparations and those prepared by hand. A slight overdose is not dangerous; it is much more dangerous if, due to an incorrect dosage or an error in volume, an insufficient amount of salts enters the calf’s body. In this case, dehydration and diarrhea will not stop and the problem will not be solved.
Analogs
The pharmaceutical industry produces many electrolyte preparations.In addition to “Regidron” and Polysorb, you can give calves “Normohydron”, “Maratonic”, “Orasan”, “Smecta”, “Zosterin”, “Lactofiltrum”, “Enterosgel”, “Alfasorb”, “Enterodez”, “Pepidol” , "Naltrexone", "Enterumin" and others.
Electrolyte solutions are a necessary means for restoring the water-salt balance in the body of calves with diarrhea that occurs for various reasons. The use of salts is extremely necessary; without them, the animal may die. The effectiveness of electrolyte therapy depends on the composition of the drugs, the concentration of active particles, dosage and feeding regimen.
