Not getting enough colostrum may lead to the first case of the three main calfhood diseases.

Focusing on the big three calf conditions will pay dividends

Scours, pneumonia or navel infections are commonplace but their incidence can be reduced

Reading Time: 3 minutes Most experienced cattlemen will have had an increased incidence in one of the three main calf diseases we see on ranches across Western Canada. These can be smouldering problems and occur year after year. I have spent many a time over my career discussing treatment of scours, pneumonia or navel infection (and then, ideally, working […] Read more

When moving cattle from mature pastures into lush green ones, only give them access to a small portion so they don’t come down with fog fever, says Dr. Nathan Erickson.

Deadly cattle condition called fog fever returns to the Prairies

Cases of fog fever, a type of pneumonia that causes severe cattle mortality, 
have been recently diagnosed in Alberta

Reading Time: 2 minutes Fog fever — a condition that causes cattle to suddenly drop dead — has returned to Alberta and Saskatchewan. “Fog fever isn’t extremely common” said Nathan Erickson, a veterinarian and assistant professor at the University of Saskatchewan. “Some of these old diseases, we start forgetting about them because we’ve managed our way out of them. […] Read more


It’s worth the effort to find out what happened

It’s worth the effort to find out what happened

Beef 911: Autopsies can provide very valuable information you 
can use to enhance preventive medicine protocols

Reading Time: 4 minutes When an animal dies, producers often simply have it disposed of. But that often means valuable information is lost — so decisions for the rest of the herd or altering treatments for subsequent cases cannot be made. An experienced veterinarian can glean very valuable information from a complete autopsy and often give you the cause […] Read more

A calf with bovine respiratory disease.

Watch for newer respiratory pathogens

Beef 911: Corona virus and B. trehalosi bacteria aren’t always easy to spot

Reading Time: 3 minutes We have all heard of corona virus being one of the main causes of viral scours in our newborn calves. It and a couple of strains of rotavirus are the two main viruses we see in our scours vaccines. (It also causes a winter dysentery bloody diarrhea in mature cattle, especially housed dairy cattle in […] Read more