Calves that don’t perform well or die are a headache for producers. But a stomach ache—specifically, ulcers in the abomasums of young calves—might be a better description of the problem.
Dr. Murray Jelinski of Beef Cattle Health and Production Medicine, Western College of Veterinary Medicine in Saskatchewan, has done extensive research on fatal abomasal ulcers in young beef calves. He points out that even though cattle have four stomachs, these are not all functioning in a young calf. The rumen—the largest compartment, fermenting and digesting forages—takes time to develop. For the first weeks of life the calf depends on the abomasum to digest milk. This stomach is similar to the human stomach.
“Like a human stomach, the abomasum is prone to ulcers, some of which are subclinical and do not affect the calf. Some bleed, and some become deep enough to perforate. Acids and digestive enzymes secreted by the stomach can digest a hole in the stomach wall, allowing contents of the abomasum to leak into the abdominal cavity,” Jelinski explained.
This results in peritonitis, inflammation/infection in the abdomen, which kills the calf.
“Calves with perforating ulcers are found dead or near dead. They usually have a dime-sized single hole in the holding portion of the abomasum. Typically, these calves are 3 to 8 weeks old, but we see some as young as 4 days old. Ulcer formation can be rapid,” Jelinski says.
“A common cause of ulcers in humans is interruption of blood supply to the lining of the stomach,” he says. The human stomach (and abomasum in a young calf) secretes acid. It must have a healthy mucous-forming membrane lining to protect and buffer it from effects of acid. Plentiful blood supply bathes the lining of the gut, keeping the mucus-forming cells healthy and productive.
“The stomach lining is a buffering zone. If you destroy the blood supply, you suddenly have damage from the acid,” he says.
Identifying ulcers
Calves with bleeding ulcers may pass blood, making feces look black.
“In early, spring-born calves this is usually happening in April and May. The season probably doesn’t matter; it’s more related to age because this is when the physiology and anatomy of the stomachs are changing,” explains Jelinski. The rumen is developing, as the calf starts eating forage (grass/hay) and changing from a single-stomached digester of milk to a ruminant.
“Some calves don’t make that transition smoothly. They may also be licking mud or drinking dirty water from puddles, ingesting microbes. Some get diarrhea, and some get abomasitis or a big, bloated abomasum—which may lead to perforated ulcers. Some of these calves have a pear-shaped look to the belly, rough hair coat, and look dull. They may have ulcers, but you only really know if a calf has ulcers by doing a post-mortem examination,” he explains.
“Many producers, when they see dull, bloated calves, assume the calf has ulcers. The ones that eventually die generally do have ulcers.”
But many of the calves with a bloated, sloshing abdomen eventually get better and you don’t know if they actually had ulcers or just a digestive upset that irritated the lining of the abomasum or distended this stomach for awhile.
Bloat in young calves
If the young calf has trouble making the transition from monogastric (single stomach) digestion to rumen digestion, sometimes the abomasum fills with fluid.
“Some of these calves appear bloated, but the bloat/filling is in the abomasum rather than the rumen,” says Jelinski.
If you were to pass a stomach tube into the rumen to try to relieve the bloat (as is often done in an older animal), you wouldn’t get any gas back out. In young calves, the rumen is not developed or large enough to be a bloat problem; the distended stomach is actually the abomasum.
“As it becomes full and large, it may become flaccid, lacking good muscle tone,” says Jelinski. Food doesn’t move through very well, and the calf goes off feed.
“If the producer brings one of these poor-doing calves to the vet and the vet opens up the calf surgically, searching for an ulcer, the abomasum is like a huge, fluid-filled sausage. It may contain rank curds of milk, bits of straw, and whatever else the calf has been eating. Typically, the entire lining is red and irritated, but you don’t see any ulcers in those calves. They have abomasitis and we don’t know whether it is from an infection like Clostridium perfringens type A or some other pathogen,” he says.
Diagnosis is often challenging, because Clostridial organisms are often found in the gut of healthy animals. Types A, C and D may be present and never cause problems, so just finding them there after a calf experiences a gut problem or dies does not mean they were the cause.
“Some calves go through bouts of abomasal dysfunction and we don’t know whether it’s an infection, or they just ate things that irritated the gut lining. People often treat them for ulcers, with various concoctions or products—everything from Keopectate to mineral oil or antacids—trying to buffer and soothe the raw lining. Some calves get better and others die, in spite of treatment.” — Heather Smith Thomas, WLJ correspondent
