3 Day Old Cow Wont Eat

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To everyone on the feed, I feel completely idiotic.

My farm hand brought me this bag of "formula". I gave him money to go buy the replacement for me because I didn't want to leave the calf's side the first three days for too long.

During the time I've hern giving her the "formula", I was mixing in an egg or I was giving her an electrolyte replacement drink to help her when I thought she was sick from scours.

I didn't know how wrong I was being to poor Mira... Thank you all. I'll be buying her REAL replacement milk and I'll be buying scour medication and the works to prepare her for the possibility of getting it from my terrible terrible stupidity...

I hope you all don't think me cruel or a monster. I really just didn't realize. I put my trust in my farm hand and he's obviously messed up too. He gave me this same stuff when I took care of my first calf back years ago. Same bag and name brand and everything... The fact that she lived through that is now terrifyingly amazing.

I'm glad it was caught before I continued on stupidly. These next days are gonna be rough on poor Mira and it's my fault no matter who I had but my stuff or not. I should've paid attention better. I should've been smarter...

I've learned a lesson and I've learned it hard. You all saved this calves life now and I thank you all for that. I'm crying my eyes out feeling like a monster over this and I'll be beating myself up for awhile...
 
We get scour bolus' for our calf crop and use as needed. Often times our bottle babies need it more than our calves on the mom. That can be purchased from any local farm store. It will have directions on it, but if she does get scours that usually helps to clear it up.
 
Well, lesson learned. I would not jump into any type of scour medication until you see how she reacts. The thing that you need more than anything is to get her fed some FOOD, ie MILK. I would be more inclined to get some PRO-BIOS gel, it comes in a tube and you give her some which will help get her gut bacteria re-established. It has lacto-bacillus and other types and is used to help re-populate the good bacteria in the gut when using anti-biotics. Or sometimes you can buy it in bolus (pill) form. Just get her on the MILK REPLACER in SMALL doses for the next day or two. It will have a label that tells how much to feed and how much to mix.
Feed her HALF of the recommended amount at each feeding; but feed her twice as often so she can get adjusted to it.
Like giving a human baby 4 oz per bottle feeding, and feeding every 2 hours; instead of 8 ounces every 4 hours because it is spitting up.
 
I got country lane milk replacement. I'm following the instructions and cutting down what it recommends in half and doing half portions every three hours today since I don't have to work. Today and tomorrow will be gentle easing of the formula into her belly and watching for bloody or extra bad poops.

I'll update you all on how she's feeling by the end of the day.

In the meantime, thank you all. I called my farmhand nd chewed him a new hole basically but I also take responsibility for not doing my damn research... I'm really grateful for you all helping me and steering me the right way. I'm glad it was caught now instead of way later and it was 100% too late to fix. Her tummy is in for a possibly really rough day, though...
 
And is it all milk and milk by products, no soy and a minimum 20-20 percent fat and protein?
 
dun":3teb3oo4 said:
And is it all milk and milk by products, no soy and a minimum 20-20 percent fat and protein?
Yes! No soy at all, 20% Fat & Protein. I made sure to be extremely careful reading the ingredients over before I bought anything. Here's a picture below of the bag.

 
Mira has drank 1.5 Quarts of formula so far. She's doing good with it. I feel bad cause she keeps chasing me down for more after each feeding. Like literally Headbutt charges me like a goat and circled around me like a puppy. I was able to get her some exercise because anywhere I walked she followed like my shadow :p Shevreally likes the vanilla smelling formula indeed.
 
I'm really glad she's doing better, and you got everything figured out.

Now that that's out of the way, if you want to learn more here goes. You referred to a 3-day old cow. There is no such thing. What you have is a heifer calf, not a cow. If it was male then it would be a bull calf (unless it was castrated, when it would become a steer). The word "cow" generally refers to a mature female bovine. A bull is a mature male bovine. Steer can be used to refer to a castrated male of any age. They're all cattle. In case you're interested.
 
Mira is doing well. The little calf is constantly headbutting me for not giving her more than what I'm giving her as I test out this formula to make sure I don't rip her stomach apart from my lack of focusing on what I've been giving her.

She pees every time I feed her. I'm not sure if that's normal or not? I mean yeah it's a good sign she's peeing but she pees almost every time I feed her a bottle, which has been every 3 Hrs and 1/2 a Quart each. I haven't been able to find if she's been pooping though. I'm watching out for that but haven't found any in the barn yet.

She's also still sway walking. It's like her equilibrium is off. I'm really starting to think it's a defect from her birth. Her eyes are much better looking. And the vet believed her fumbling and stumbling was from IBS/Vitamin B deficiency... I'm not sure what else can be done about her stumbling. If this is just from me giving her bad nutrition then I'm hoping it'll heal up... If it's not from that, then I wonder why she does it... It's concerning because right now she's a cute little calf whose only 11 going on 12 Days Old so she's littkebwnd bounces back up from it. But she could really hurt herself by the time she's about half the size of a normal female cow.
 
Goats get "polio" from vitamin b/thiamine deficiency. It causes the brain stem to shut down and they loose coordination. It starts with a loss of motor control in the hind legs and they will often walk "drunkenly". Administering vitamin B complex helps the combat the problem in goats, may work for your heifer. I've honestly never had a calf have the symptoms, so I'm not 100% on if it will work, but may be worth a shot...
 
Boot Jack Bulls":npv10led said:
Goats get "polio" from vitamin b/thiamine deficiency. It causes the brain stem to shut down and they loose coordination. It starts with a loss of motor control in the hind legs and they will often walk "drunkenly". Administering vitamin B complex helps the combat the problem in goats, may work for your heifer. I've honestly never had a calf have the symptoms, so I'm not 100% on if it will work, but may be worth a shot...
I've given her two large vitamin b shots already. I got some from the vet. I have two more shots left if I need to give them. He didn't say I had to give them all but they're here. I can try giving her one more to see how that goes for her but I don't wanna shove more needles in her. She's had two antibiotic shots and two vitamin b shots in the last two weeks poor thing.
 
LizHartley1991":2ren6ycn said:
Boot Jack Bulls":2ren6ycn said:
Goats get "polio" from vitamin b/thiamine deficiency. It causes the brain stem to shut down and they loose coordination. It starts with a loss of motor control in the hind legs and they will often walk "drunkenly". Administering vitamin B complex helps the combat the problem in goats, may work for your heifer. I've honestly never had a calf have the symptoms, so I'm not 100% on if it will work, but may be worth a shot...
I've given her two large vitamin b shots already. I got some from the vet. I have two more shots left if I need to give them. He didn't say I had to give them all but they're here. I can try giving her one more to see how that goes for her but I don't wanna shove more needles in her. She's had two antibiotic shots and two vitamin b shots in the last two weeks poor thing.
I'm thinking I would give her more of the vitamin B. It is not a case where giving extra will cause harm, but not giving enough definitely will. If she was born with a deficiency, one or two shots will not put her back on the level. In the cases where we have had goats show deficiency, we administer B complex daily until the condition improves.....
 
The vit B will not hurt her as BJB has said. But really, give her a little time to just get on an even keel from getting some decent food into her stomach. She's not going to get "over it" overnight. It could very well be a birth defect, but it could be from the lack of nutrition. I mean she has barely existed for the past 11 days.
It is great that she is following you and butting and wanting more milk. That is the way she should be. Looking for her next meal is a very good sign. She is peeing out some of the overdose of the minerals so that is also good. You might want to put a small bucket of water in with her where she can't knock over. She can and will start to drink water and that will help to flush out her system too. If she continues to do this good, then you can up her amount and cut her back to 2 or 3 feedings in a day or 2. As per the label instructions. By the time she is 2-3 weeks old she ought to be nosing around wanting to eat other stuff, so offer her a handful or 2 of a CALF STARTER FEED. It will be in the 14-18% protein and usually is a sweet feed meaning it has molasses on it. I have month old calves that are on nurse cows and 3 on bottles and they are already going into the feeder and eating some feed and hay that they can munch on. A nice fine grass hay, not alfalfa or anything too rich. It is just to help them develop their rumen.
 
Mira is still eating well. Still headbutting and going after me for more. Still stumbling a little.

I feel bad though. It's freezing lately. It's been hitting below 40 and this morning around six when I was feeding her it was 18 degrees.

I've said this before but out barn is very old. It has three openings. One opening has a door and the others do not. The one with a door still has a wall that has a big opening that lets in cold. The wind doesn't come in as hard but it still has a very light draft to it. This barn hasn't housed living creatures in years so it's not really made for it anymore unless you're a cat who can dive between the hay bales in the back...

I've layed out a lot of hay for her and even tried to block out as much of the cold as I can but it's still pretty cold... I'm afraid she's gonna freeze to death or something. I can't find a calf blanket around here she can wear and the dog sweaters I find are for smaller dogs and wouldn't help her much... we don't have a heating lamp or heater in general to give her so I can't do that. Even if I could I'd be afraid she'd stumble into it and burn herself and the barn...

All I can offer her is a lot t of hay to try and snuggle in and a bunch of very old blankets to sleep with but she doesn't like the blankets so mostly just hay...
 
In 1983 it got down to 6° here on Christmas morning. I had a small calf bedded down in hay in a 3-wall shed, open to the south, and she did fine.
 
As was said before, they usually handle cold ok, it is the wind they tend to mind. We have had bottle babies in one of our old barns here in Pennsylvania during December. One of the more recent ones just a few years ago we were raising a preemie in our barn and had straw bales stacked around him. During the night the temperature dipped below zero, but he was a tough little guy. :D
 
If you all think all thevhay will work then I'll try not to super fret too much. I just don't want the poor thing cold. I've alrwady given it too many minerals and shoved shots in it and put LA 200 in its eyeballs. It doesn't need to freeze to death because I'm a dumb!

But here's a picture of the barn. I just put down a new full bed for her and she has plenty of places to lay and snuggle against!

 

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