My husband and I have looked through the Health and Wellness questions, here, and also in the Old Forums, but didn't find an answer to this question. We're hoping someone can answer it for us. Within the last week, we've had three fawns suddenly die...one just last night. We took the second one to our vet who is going to conduct a neucropsy (sp??), and we were going to wait and ask her our question, but don't want to risk another one of our fawns dying while we wait to talk to her, especially after this long weekend. We're pretty sure the fawns died of clostridium...and we're wondering if any of you know if it is contaigous...or if fawns just suddenly "get" it. We have five fawns left and they're all in the same pen. I posted a question a few nights back when the second fawn died...about clostridium...and received much help and advice. Unfortunately, I didn't think to add this question to that post. Any help is appreciated. We're thinking of dividing them up...or putting them in a different pen, but we're not sure if this is necessary. Thank you!
Clostridium Question
- Thread starter deerlover1
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Joined Apr 2009
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cental Pennsylvania
In my expierence i have never had it claim a whole pen. It usually will take a few though, then fizzle out. Clostridium is very frustrating and hard to understand. It is hard to get a handle on it, even while vaccinating for it you can still lose some. I hate it.
We dart or inject ours with 2 cc's of C&D Antitoxin around weaning time. It provides protection for 8-12 weeks. Clostridium Type A can still get them but there is a vaccine
(not an antitoxin) for type A if you want to use it. If you happen to see a lethargic fawn that might be coming down with clostridium, penicillin is also said to work. Several weeks ago we had a bottle fed who didn't act right. We gave her 2 cc's of antitoxin and she was fine 6 hours later. The antitoxin will work fast and we are convinced that the injection saved our fawn.
(not an antitoxin) for type A if you want to use it. If you happen to see a lethargic fawn that might be coming down with clostridium, penicillin is also said to work. Several weeks ago we had a bottle fed who didn't act right. We gave her 2 cc's of antitoxin and she was fine 6 hours later. The antitoxin will work fast and we are convinced that the injection saved our fawn.
Our vet told us to give all of our fawns 2 ccs of C, D and T vaccine and 5 ccs of the antitoxin, which we did on this past Friday night (today is Monday, Labor Day). But even though we followed her directions, we lost a little buck Saturday night -- he was the third one that died of what we think is clostridum...we'll hear from the vet sometime this week with the results of the necropsy (sp??). Knock on wood...the other five look OK.
The different strains of clostridia exist naturally everywhere, soil, air, trees, water, and in the guts. Anything that compromises the immune system in any way, quality/quantity of colostrum, other illness, stress, weather.....the list is long, anything can cause the immune system to be slightly weak, and the clostridia sees its opportunity and blooms in the system. It very rapidly becomes septic and toxic and causes very sudden death. It has very few symptoms, and practically no treatments are effective by the time a physical symptom is observed. Often, a necropsy will report non-specific enteritis, because lots of bacteria exist in the GI tract naturally, including e-coli, so unless you invest in bacterial isolation and specific identification, you will likely not get an exact cause of death. It is equally leathal and sudden in other species like horses and cattle, and is extremely hard on young animals, under 6 weeks of age.
Anti-toxin is a great safety net, but only for those particular strains, as stated in a previous post above. My understanding of the anti-toxin is that it is effective for 7-21 days, so in our program, we give it at birth and every 2 weeks until fawns are 8 weeks old and can be given the first round of vaccines.
Anti-toxin is a great safety net, but only for those particular strains, as stated in a previous post above. My understanding of the anti-toxin is that it is effective for 7-21 days, so in our program, we give it at birth and every 2 weeks until fawns are 8 weeks old and can be given the first round of vaccines.
A BIG thank you to all of you for your help! Michelle, the info you sent is very helpful! And, Robbie, we also learned a lot from your reply that will help us manage our herd in the future. I can't stress enough how great it is to have people like you on this forum!!
Clostridium is a tough one. There are vacc. out there for C & D but there is a new type called type A. Most vacc. dont cover type A. But I know that the vacc. Ultrabac CD does work for Type A also. But you most give 2 doses. The only real treatment is a high dose of penicillian both orally and IM. I have seen this in dairy calves and dairy cows. Penicillian if treated early enough will stop it. But you dont have much time. Like you said they can be fine and then dead in 12 hours.