Table 1.

Health status and fecal consistency rubric used for evaluating severity of calf illness and diarrhea.

Score	Health status	Fecal consistency
1	Normal. The calf is alert, hungry, and watches the caretakers. It may stretch when it gets up. The calf will eat greedily, often twitching its tail as it eats	Normal feces; feces retain form. The feces may be pasty but do not flow across a surface
2	Mildly depressed. The calf drinks without coaxing, but not aggressively. The calf pays some attention to caretakers and assessment for dehydration (skin tent ≤4 s, eyes normal) produces equivocal results	Mild diarrhea; form is a puddle, not a patty. Sufficient water content to slowly flow across or down a surface
3	Severely depressed. The calf must be coaxed to get up, and has difficulty rising or standing, does not pay attention to caretakers when touched, may refuse to eat, and is clearly dehydrated (e.g., skin tent >9 s, separation between eyeball and orbit ≥0.5 cm, dry mucous membranes). The calf is unlikely to recover without supportive treatment	Moderate diarrhea; feces with sufficient water content to easily flow across or down a surface, while leaving some adherent material
4	Moribund or dead. The calf cannot stand or is dead	Severe diarrhea; part or all of feces are very watery. Feces can drain away leaving little or no residual on a smooth surface (a calf may have very watery feces followed by some solid material and still have severe diarrhea)
5	N/A	Not observed