Septicemia is systemic infection in which bacteria get into the bloodstream and travel throughout the body. Toxemia refers to the presence of bacterial toxins in the blood.

Some types of toxin-forming bacteria gain entrance via the gastrointestinal (GI) tract after damaging the gut lining and slipping through it, causing rapid death. The calf goes into shock when internal organs are damaged and shut down. Any bloodborne infection may become life-threatening if bacteria or their toxins damage vital organs.

In some instances the infection may localize, creating internal abscesses, or settle in the joints, causing a painful arthritis called “joint ill.”

Veterinarian Austin Hinds* of the Caine Center, University of Idaho, says the most common reason calves develop systemic infection is an inability to fight the pathogen — and this is often due to poor colostrum intake.

“A common cause of septicemia is navel ill in the newborn calf. Infection from the umbilicus gets into the bloodstream. A healthy calf that had good colostrum may still get an infected umbilicus, but generally walls it off as a local abscess and is not as likely to get septicemia,” he explains.

“If the calf is young and sick, and maybe has swollen joints, check the navel for signs of infection such as swelling, heat, a thick umbilicus or pus discharge,” says Hinds.

Bacterial infection may enter the body through various routes. It only becomes septicemia if the blood takes it everywhere. A common location for blood-borne infection to localize is the joints.

“There is a lot of vasculature at the joints,” Hinds says. “The infected joints swell and become painful and the calf is lame.”

Septicemia may develop from pneumonia or an intestinal infection. In the very young calf, diarrhea is generally caused by E. coli. If that bacterium crosses the GI tract into the bloodstream of a calf that has no immunity, the calf will become septic — and hard to save without early and diligent treatment.

“Calves can get meningitis from septicemia. Nearly any organ can be adversely affected once the infection gets into the blood,” says Hinds. The traditional term was blood poisoning.