We have a 3-week-old calf that we have had to bottle feed from the 2nd day. The day she was born she was not breathing but we got that started, the second day momma was fighting the buzzards off her but we saved her from that. We have given her the colostrum and are now feeding milk. She is having a severe problem walking. She actually walks as of she is drunk. She always has her head down and her back arched. I don't want to have to put her down if I don't have to. Any ideas on what this is?
3-week-old bottle fed calf
- Thread starter dongasue
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I've read a lot on here about white muscle disease. Do a search on it or google it. I do know that selenium deficiency is the culprit with white muscle disease. There is a medication, Bose, for the treatment. Call the vet and talk to him about it. You have to have a prescription for it if the vet thinks it would be appropriate. Wish I could be of more help, but I've never encountered it...that I know of. I do keep Bose on hand, now, just in case I see something like that happening.
Alice
Alice
Alice, thank you for your reply. I have read quite a bit about white muscle also and am confused as to why this is just now happening and we've been on the same land for 12 years and this is first time this has happend. I did got to the web link that Angus/Brangus posted about selenium levels and found our county to be in the lower range but we are diligent about feeding minerals. Not real sure about the amounts but my husband and cousin regulate the feeding. The calf has a little bit of the scours and they are very mucousy. We have given her two 3-day rounds of pennicilin and have also been giving her electrolytes. It seems that she cannot control her legs very well.
dongasue":3bynhmtj said:
Are you feeding her milk, also? Does she act weak? BTW, what kind of milk are you feeding. Milk Replacer? Mother's milk? If it's milk replacer, is it 20% fat and 20% protein made from milk and milk by products?
If she's been on two bottles a day of milk this entire time, I'd go for broke. I'd give her electrolytes only thruout an entire day. At least 3 bottles worth thruout an entire day. Normally, I never give only electrolytes for a day, but this calf is 3 weeks old...and it shouldn't suffer for lack of milk. And everytime you give electrolytes, squirt some probios in the calf's mouth. Also, put some calf manna or dry calf starter feed in front of her, and a little bit of hay...see if she'd nose around in that a little bit.
This is only what I would do...
Alice
Yes ma'am we are feeding her Land O Lakes Calf Milk Replacer. Can't seem to locate the tag to look at percentages. When you say a "bottle" are you referring to the 4-pint bottles? She seems to be very weak because of her lack of control of her legs. She is able to get up on her own though. We have had water, hay and pig starter (a local vet says he's always used pig starter instead of calf starter) available to her. She is drinking the water but she's not even nibbling at the starter or the hay. Do you think we should give her some LA200 for the scours. Oh, we've also been told by an ol' timer to put an egg in her milk for the scours and to sometimes put karo syrup in case her sugar level is down. Have you ever heard of either of these?
If you are feeding Land O Lakes, then she's getting really good milk replacer. I've heard of eggs in milk...I even got desperate once and tried it...and it didn't work. And, I've heard of Karo syrup...but haven't tried that. Are the scours really bad? If they are, and you can get hold of it, give the calf a shot of nuflor and banamine/supressor. When a calf gets down weak with scours, pneumonia can take over. They are prescription meds, btw.
Also, tho I've not used them, I've read a lot of people here use scour boluses and swear by them. I've used the spectam pig scour stuff and I guess it works as well as the next.
The thing is, the calf is 3 weeks old, and around here we would hold our breath until a calf was 2 weeks old. If it didn't scour by 2 weeks, we rejoiced...if it was scouring and still alive at 2-3 weeks, we rejoiced. After 2 weeks one would rarely scour. Also, the calves we were raising were holstein bull babies bought from the auction barn...so they may or may not have had colostrum and were exposed to all kinds of garbage.
You calf was born on your property and given colostrum. If you've got a vet that will give you the time of day about a baby calf, call him/her. And see if you can't snag a script for nuflor and banamine.
If not, give the calf the LA200...what the heck...you've tried everything else...
Again, this only what I would do.
Alice
Also, tho I've not used them, I've read a lot of people here use scour boluses and swear by them. I've used the spectam pig scour stuff and I guess it works as well as the next.
The thing is, the calf is 3 weeks old, and around here we would hold our breath until a calf was 2 weeks old. If it didn't scour by 2 weeks, we rejoiced...if it was scouring and still alive at 2-3 weeks, we rejoiced. After 2 weeks one would rarely scour. Also, the calves we were raising were holstein bull babies bought from the auction barn...so they may or may not have had colostrum and were exposed to all kinds of garbage.
You calf was born on your property and given colostrum. If you've got a vet that will give you the time of day about a baby calf, call him/her. And see if you can't snag a script for nuflor and banamine.
If not, give the calf the LA200...what the heck...you've tried everything else...
Again, this only what I would do.
Alice
Stockton
Member
When did you give the calf colostrum? Sounds to me like a calf that didn't get colostrum soon enough. You will probably have to put it down or it will die on its own.
If your going to try the shot of Selinium you need to do it now. Even the shot takes a couple of weeks to work its way through to where you will see an improvment if that is what is causing the problem.
On a calf that young Selinium lelvels of the mother are more relevant than that of the land. Some mothers just dont pass on enough, according to a local vet.
Im guessing the calf didnt get enough colostrum when it was born becasue of its health issues.
Im not sure what you did, but I think in that situation I would have taken her of the mother for a couple of days and fed her colostrum from a bottle or tube.
On a calf that young Selinium lelvels of the mother are more relevant than that of the land. Some mothers just dont pass on enough, according to a local vet.
Im guessing the calf didnt get enough colostrum when it was born becasue of its health issues.
Im not sure what you did, but I think in that situation I would have taken her of the mother for a couple of days and fed her colostrum from a bottle or tube.
It could be white muscle... or it could be neurological. I've seen some strange problems listed in my vet books, which I don't have access to at the moment. IMO try the selenium (Bo-Se) and if that doesn't show an improvement within a week, either put her down or call a vet if you feel she's worth the vet bill.
