Bloody Stool

[Kevin Cunningham]

My off steer had some blood in his manure last night. I saw a fresh dropping and it had a what was an obvious blood spot in it. My intern saw the same thing a week or so ago, but I haven’t seen it until know, so it isn’t all the time. Blood is always concerning and I am not sure what could cause it. I am going to call the vet on Monday, but I thought I would put it out to the forum first to see if anybody can help. Any ideas?

[Tim Harrigan]

Coccidiosis comes to mind but it could be other parasites as well. Have you treated them at all for internal parasites? I know Erika had a problem with this last year, she may be able to comment. And Elke (CharlyBonifaz) is a veterinarian in Germany and may have some comments. Good to get the vet out to take some samples and make other observations. Good luck with it.

[Kevin Cunningham]

I did treat them during the fly season with epirnex(ivermectin) I’m not sure if that is a coccidostat. He seems healthy otherwise, but he is the one losing his coat the fastest.

[Eli]

I know some viral things may cause this we used to get this in our dairy herd. Our vet would have us collect samples just in case it didn’t clear up on its own. Cattle are very durable and a little blood usually isnt a big deal. But by all means consult with a large animal vet. Eli

[near horse]

How much blood are we talking about? A quarter-sized spot or a dinner plate?

No other issues? Temp? Runny stool? Any unusual amt of mucus in stool associated w/ blood?
Finally – what is he eating? Has that changed recently?

[grey]

And what kind of blood was it? A clot? A few clots? Streaking on the outside of the pile? Streaking throughout? Bright blood? Dark blood?

[Kevin Cunningham]

It was a quarter sized clot of blood in a normal looking poop pie. It was brightish red looking. There have been no other signs of distress. They are eating good second cut grass hay with some supplement of fresh cut oats but not much. He seems to be alright but I am still learning about bovines so I might have the vet take a look. Unfortunately the vet is quite expensive.

[CharlyBonifaz]

Unfortunately the vet is quite expensive.

yes, but he/she should know best 🙂
how old are your oxen? beyond half a year coccidia shouldn’t bother them
virus usually is accompanied by (watery) diarrhea, plus temperature if it’s acute (which again I don’t think it is, given that it has been noticed before)
fresh blood? from the end of the intestines especially with a regular cow pie
why? hmm?
hemorrhoids? worms? sexual kinks?
deworm again would be on my list of priorities (after having him checked for worms)

no eprinex(ivermectin) is not a coccidostat.

[grey]

Red blood is undigested blood. This means it is coming from somewhere downstream of the rumen.

If it was Coccidiosis, I would think there would be diarrhea but I guess that symptom doesn’t necessarily have to be present. I would treat for Coccidiosis, since it can damage the digestive system permanently if left untreated. Corid?

[dominiquer60]

Yes I had a grand case of coccidiosis. They had it for a while, but did not present fecal symptoms until we crimped them at 8 months old. My vet said that stress, like the crimping, can cause them to present such symptoms. diagnosing and treating coccidiosis is reasonably cheap. I made the call to the vet Easter Sunday, he was quite certain that it was coccidiosis, I brought him fecal samples the next day and brought liquid Corid home to treat them. The next morning he called to confirm that an ungodly amount of coccidia were in my cattle and I treated 3 times to get them down to an acceptable level, testing in between each period of treatment. Coccidia is a common organism, some cattle will never show signs of it and others may show major signs. My fecal samples also showed signs of other parasites, which I treated for a week after I started the Corid.

All in all the 3 sets of fecals, enough Corid for 3 periods of treatment and some Ivermectin cost me maybe $150 at the very most. A single fecal was $22 per sample, and $15 after that, the Corid was $7 a bottle and with their weight I used 3, there is also a Corid pellet available. Bring fecal samples to your vet, you don’t need to spend the money on a call charge. You can bring a sample from the off steer, samples from both steers, or combine them into one sample and treat them both. It really depends one how you want to approach the situation, by individual, the team or the herd. Chances are if one has it the others could as well. The other thing that I was told to do is to keep the feeding area clean from manure. If they have a tendency to pull hay out to where it can come into contact with manure, see if you can keep the manure cleaned out and/or lessen the amount of hay pulled into the manure. I cleaned my feeding area twice a day anyway, but the organism was rampant on that farm so it was hard to avoid.

Best of luck and let us know how things shake out,

[Kevin Cunningham]

I took a fecal sample in today and got it tested. They have no counts of any worms, but they do have some coccidia. Tex had 400 count and Joseph had a 500 count. The vet said this wasn’t a super high number but still worth treating for. What do you think is it worth treating for this number? We try an not use to many medicines on our animals but when they are needed. Our vet recommended Sulfa Boluses as opposed to Corid. I would probably have to give 5-6 boluses! Sounds like lots of fun. They are otherwise healthy and the vet is not sure what would cause the blood. She did see a little blood in the stool in a group of heifers that got some moldy grain. My steers did eat some moldy hay at the bottom of our stack, but we switched the hay a while ago. I am not sure what to do.

[CharlyBonifaz]

observe, treat only if stools become loose or bloody part increases or animal acts sick – which it doesn’t do right now following your description

[Author]

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