Twin heifers...one rejected. Advice needed!

[Awp0302]

Our cow just had twins 2 days ago. Both are heifers, one black and one brown. Both rare right? Mama cleaned up and took to the black calf, but was kicking and bunting the brown calf off...just short of stomping her. We may have intervened to early by many opinions, but we were scared she was inadvertently going to kill the brown, so we pulled her away. She initially took a full bottle of colostrum powder. And has been taking a bottle twice a day since. Only problem is she will not take anymore colostrum....only milk replacer. Is it too late to continue trying colostrum powder? Do we wait her out until she’s so hungry she takes it? Continue with milk replacer? When or do you vaccinate a rejected calf sooner? Any advice anyone can give me is greatly appreciated.

[Buck Randall]

Colostrum is of no value after the calf is 12 hours old, so just go with the milk replacer.

Vaccinate her just like you would for any other calf. I recommend Inforce 3 and Once PMH intranasal as early as possible.

[circlebllc]

Rejection of one calf is not abnormal, happens. Colostrum antibodies is absorbed mostly before 24 hours, so replacer is now needed. Congrats, you now have a full time bottle calf. Might check your local sale barns, day old calves can be pretty high. I do not know about current prices.

[Awp0302]

She’s hanging in there. Is a little blood in her stool normal?

[alisonb]

Any signs of diarrhea? Apart from blood do you see any mucus? What color are the feces?
Is the blood red or dark brown/black?

[TennesseeTuxedo]

Our cow just had twins 2 days ago. Both are heifers, one black and one brown. Both rare right? Mama cleaned up and took to the black calf, but was kicking and bunting the brown calf off...just short of stomping her. We may have intervened to early by many opinions, but we were scared she was inadvertently going to kill the brown, so we pulled her away. She initially took a full bottle of colostrum powder. And has been taking a bottle twice a day since. Only problem is she will not take anymore colostrum....only milk replacer. Is it too late to continue trying colostrum powder? Do we wait her out until she’s so hungry she takes it? Continue with milk replacer? When or do you vaccinate a rejected calf sooner? Any advice anyone can give me is greatly appreciated.

Bottle feed until you can sell her.

to Cattle Today.

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

Twins are not "rare". What is rare, is getting lucky and both are alive - and both are heifers.
A bull/heifer combo generally means the heifer is sterile. We call that a freemartin.

[ccr]

below is a link to a previous thread about bottle babies.

https://cattletoday.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=49811

good luck