Most young calves nibble dirt and some ingest great quantities—creating a blockage in the stomach. Sometimes they ingest sand and gravel, and this may irritate the gut lining and create a situation similar to ulcers.
In some instances, sand/gravel has been found when doing post-mortem on calves with a perforated stomach. One question producers often ask: Do these calves eat dirt/sand because they already have an irritation from an ulcer and are a little off feed and eating strange things? Or did their natural curiosity—normal dirt-eating—cause the problem, with ingested sand/gravel irritating and wearing a hole in the gut lining?
Some people feel that calves eat less dirt if they have a proper mineral balance in their diet. Mineral supplements may help a little, especially in situations where cattle may be deficient in certain minerals and possibly eating dirt to try to fill that lack but feeding minerals won’t completely halt dirt-eating because calves are naturally curious and learn about their environment by tasting things.
How to get rid of the dirt
Young foals typically eat some of their dams’ fresh manure to gain the proper microbes and the same thing applies to calves. They obtain the necessary “gut bugs” by ingestion. And all young animals are inquisitive and go through a stage of licking and tasting everything.
Some calves overeat on dirt, however, to the point of plugging/blocking the stomach. Standard treatment is to give mineral oil by stomach tube in an attempt to lubricate the stomach contents so it can more readily pass on through.
If a calf’s stomach contains a lot of dirt, however, the best remedy is to wash some of it back out. This can be done by inserting a nasogastric tube into the stomach via the nostril to the back of the throat, where the calf swallows it, then pushing it on down into the stomach. A pint of water can be poured into the stomach through this tube, using a funnel.
Then the funnel is removed and that end of the tube lowered (below stomach level), so the water comes back out the tube, bringing some of the dirt with it. This flushing can be repeated several times, until the fluid came back out clear, rather than full of dirt.
After getting as much dirt out as possible, a large dose of mineral oil or a small dose of castor oil can be put into the stomach via the inserted tube, to help work any residual dirt on through.
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