3 Day Old Cow Wont Eat

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Merry Christmas to you also. Since she had such a rough start, I am with Jeanne and it is more like she is a newborn now than a month old. I wouldn't get in too big a rush to get her eating other stuff until she is actually looking for more. Which she will be as the milk won't keep her satisfied as she continues to grow. Keep it in front of her and as she becomes more active, she will go looking for things to do and eating will follow.
 
dun":up6uz6uu said:
Need to start a new thread but call it Mira!
At this point I really should haha! I wish I could just rename this topic! It's got the whole story and background for everyone!
 
Mira is a month old today. Tomorrow it'll be a month I've had her. But she was born the 27th of Nov so today is her 1 month birthday. Holy crap she's made it a month!

Feedings are going well. She's getting better on her feet (or hoofs) and only walks into stuff if she's super hungry or it's too dark to see. She walks like a newborn deer kinda. Also she just flicks her tail as she walks and I talk to her. It's cute.

Fingers still crossed though!
 
Your last post and the photo of her on page two, made me wonder if she might be afflicted with "fawn calf syndrome". It is a heritable condition of some Angus and Angus cross calves. If they survive and are able to eat they will continue to improve as they age. By the time they are an adult you may not see any symptoms anymore. It is a recessive trait and American Angus is working on removing it from the breed. They do not allow the registration of carriers or potential carriers. A genetic test can reveal whether an animal is afflicted or a carrier. I have attached a link to a video that shows an affected calf.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUt5fQ_3L20
 
Katpau":v1lta1l2 said:
Your last post and the photo of her on page two, made me wonder if she might be afflicted with "fawn calf syndrome". It is a heritable condition of some Angus and Angus cross calves. If they survive and are able to eat they will continue to improve as they age. By the time they are an adult you may not see any symptoms anymore. It is a recessive trait and American Angus is working on removing it from the breed. They do not allow the registration of carriers or potential carriers. A genetic test can reveal whether an animal is afflicted or a carrier. I have attached a link to a video that shows an affected calf.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUt5fQ_3L20
That is the most fascinating thing I've sver seen! Whoa... The front of the legs look similar to how Mira's legs look and she is a bit hunched like that, but she doesn't move like that. Her legs move more stiff like sometimes. Like she's trying to figure out how to move her legs or they need to be stretched... She's doing better now. It's so cold outside that I haven't been able to let her roam as much. She doesn't like to roam when it's cold. She just lays down... Maybe I'll try getting a video of how she moves for you all to see.

This is fascinating though. I've never seen a calf like that. It's adorable but goodness it does move deer like... The front of the legs and the slight hunch are similar to Mira though.
 
I've been kind of worried about Mira not getting enough outside time... She spends 95% of her time in the barn and that can't psychologically be good for her... I wanna let her roam outside but the temperature keeps dropping to the negatives and I've been sick so I'm not much use outside with her and don't wanna just leave her out of the barn cause it's freaking cold and she doesn't have anyone else to roam or snuggle with...

Any advice? I Don't want her to think the barn is her only place. I know she's a cow and has fur and is warmer than I think but she literally will just lay down if I take her outside. Plus it's still snow covered outside so I don't think laying in the snow is gonna help her get better... I'm used to worrying about keeping a calf from overheating in the summer, not the winter...
 
The snow won't bother her. It is warmer to lay down on snow than to lay down on frozen ground.
But, staying inside will not bother her. Many calves are raised totally inside, never see outdoors. They acclimate when the time comes to go outdoors.
Now that she is not getting her shots of Thiamin (sp?), has she slipped back at all?
 
Jeanne - Simme Valley":20l7u8sg said:
The snow won't bother her. It is warmer to lay down on snow than to lay down on frozen ground.
But, staying inside will not bother her. Many calves are raised totally inside, never see outdoors. They acclimate when the time comes to go outdoors.
Now that she is not getting her shots of Thiamin (sp?), has she slipped back at all?
Well the grounds not frozen, just snowy. So maybe I'll try walking outside with her later today.

And I haven't updated you all on that have I? I stopped giving Mira Thiamine (you spelled it right!) on Christmas morning (that was her last shot). I've been watching her these last four days and it seems it really was a matter of needing the vitamin B1 (Thiamine) and getting a better quality formula going in her. Once I started using the MannaPro Suckle Pro formula with the shots, it was like she got a steroid kick or something. She's more alert. She moo's more, walks a lot better (though still just a little stiff like, but not as bad as it was), and is very alert to my presence and when the time is. She's also a lot stronger and can almost completely knock me over when she gets excited. And I know she's happy to see me cause her little tail goes crazy like a puppy.

All in all - fingers still crossed of course - she's shown great improvement these last four-five days and I'm very impressed by the vets quick analysis on her... I'll definitely be sending them a thank you card in the future for that.
 
Sometimes I forget how smart cows can be. That they can learn just like a dog or cat can.

When I go to feed Mira in the morning or Evening, I always take this LED light with me as a backup light to give myself something besides my phone to use to see on my walk down to the barn. And before my dad put the extra light in, this was the only extra light (along with my phone light) that I had to see Mira (she's a black furred cow so yeah she could be hard to see in the dark sometimes).

Well now that I have the extra light, before I go into the stall, I have to plug it into the extra outlet we have so I can see. Mira has come to recognize that when that light goes on, it's food time. She's also learned to be alert to when the gate is opening and she hears footsteps outside the barn. My farmhand says - during the middle of the day while I'm at work - she'll give a loud moo when he opens the gate and go to the door to see if it's me. If he's the one that opens the door, she'll sniff at him then scurry away from him. If it's me, she's waiting at the door and starts circling around me as I sit the LED light down so I can feed her the bottle. It's pretty interesting and funny to me.

I do have a question for anyone that's still keeping up with this long thread... Is 4 quarts what I continue to give Mira until she's natured? Or do I ever increase it? Obviously not by a lot cause too much can cause scours... But I just wondered if I ever give her an extra quart or do I stay at 4? It says 2 quarts twice a day on the bag so I'm following it's instructi and I know you all said 4 quarts... Just wondering if I should increase it.

Also speaking of the circling thing, is that normal? The fact she circles me like a puppy? I think you all said that was normal but I wanted to make sure... And she doesn't really headbutt like most cows when she's hungry. She leans and rubs on me or she just keeps flicking her tongue around like she's searching the air for something... Never seen a calf do that until her.

Funny fact: She licks my butt or arm when she's looking for more food and it's so weird!
 
The feed you introduce will add what she needs so stick with the 4 quarts. I think I remember you saying you were giving some kind of feed. Make sure she's eating that. And have fresh water available for her to drink as she wants it
 
Yes, they will circle you because they are excited. You are her MOM. She's flicking her tongue because she wants to suck, would be my guess.
I'm not a bottle raiser, but I would guess what Craig said is correct. You want to add GRAIN mixture to satisfy her appetite.
 
Yes, you need to get that rumen working. It takes many weeks (5 at least I think) of eating solid food to get it up to speed. That milk goes right past the rumen and into the abomasum.
 
What the others said. Don't increase the milk past the recommended amount. She'll get the additional nutrition she needs from feed, and hay or grass.
 
I'm thinking Mira's eyesight is still kind of shot... I try to test her by doing the hand wave/stick wave in face thing as often as I can.

She didn't really react to it this morning. I mean she did in one eye better than the other but I could tell it wasn't as strong... Shes not stumbling around but she is walking a little less sure this morning... Hmm. That's usually my first worry sign for her so I'm gonna see how she is this afternoon/evening when I change out her hay. Could be me worrying to much but we all know she's fallen back before. Just wanna be sure.
 
Jeanne - Simme Valley":2bvdtbes said:
Give the vet a call & see if it would be in any way harmful to put her back on the Thiamine.
That was my first thought as soon as I got done in the barn. I'll be calling him as soon as they open to see what he says. Read my mind ;)
 
Are you sure there is nothing in the barn she could be getting into? Lead paint for example? They will mouth and suck on everything at that age. Whenever I have had to hold a calf in a building without safe pens, I would make a pen out of hay bales, so the only thing they could chew on would be hay. I am usually able to get an extra like a twin onto another cow before too long. If I can't, I will move them outside into a pen once they are as old as yours and make a wind break out of bales. I have a hay shed with only a roof, although the sides are open. If I did not have a roof, I would probably put a piece of plywood over hay bales to make a three sided covered wind break.

It is not too late to get her on another cow, if you have one lose a calf. I have convinced a cow who lost her month old calf to take one of the spares. It took about 10 days of penning her for forced feedings, but it worked. Last year the last cow to calve had one coming with both feet back. We noticed too late, and by the time we caught her and pulled it, the calf had died. We had a 6 week old twin we were bottle feeding, so we took the dead calf away before she could see it and rubbed the afterbirth all over that 6 week calf. The cow took it instantly, but the calf was a little afraid. We got the cow in the head gate and helped the calf suck. I had been feeding the calf with a bucket before that and was a little worried she would not quickly pick up on sucking a nipple again. By morning those two were paired up and that calf did great. We had been having some issues with her scouring and going off the bottle before that, but the cow cleared up all problems and she ended up catching up to her twin in weaning weight. That would never have happened otherwise.
 

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