3wk 4H dairy calf bloating on bottle

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2 cups and she doesn't weigh 100 lbs yet - she is still a baby. This morning the bloat is down but not 100%. We are feeding her probios and electrolytes this am - no MR per the vet. I will talk to him again this afternoon to see what we do next. At least she is still alive and quite perky this am.
 
slusser":21fojkkw said:
2 cups and she doesn't weigh 100 lbs yet - she is still a baby. This morning the bloat is down but not 100%. We are feeding her probios and electrolytes this am - no MR per the vet. I will talk to him again this afternoon to see what we do next. At least she is still alive and quite perky this am.

I found myself sneaking up on your last post...scared to read it...relieved when I did. :)

Hang tough...and take care...

Alice
 
Yep, told my daughter this am that calf might not make it and if not is was not her fault in any way. We have done everything we could for her. Today she is in her pen running around but of course we haven't fed her yet. Too bad they cannot live on electrolytes alone. We'll see how the day goes. Updates to follow :)
 
I almost hate to throw this out here...but, what about goat's milk? Or, what about canned whole milk?

Alice
 
Vet stopped by because he was in the area - calf is slightly bloated, gave electrolytes this evening with a 60cc's of kaopectyte and will check again in the am. If she is doing about the same we will start very small feedings every 6 hours and go from there.
 
Holding her own this am - no bloat 3 hours after her morning feeding. We will feed again in three hours and see how she is then. Crossing my fingers :D
 
slusser":kr1zljp3 said:
Holding her own this am - no bloat 3 hours after her morning feeding. We will feed again in three hours and see how she is then. Crossing my fingers :D

Crossing my fingers, too!

Alice
 
Just a touch bloated last night after her third feeding so per the vet we gave electrolytes for the fourth feeding. This am she looks great is perky and hungry but we are keeping her on the 4x a day feeding schedule until she can eat it all with no bloating. Hopefully that will be today but we are taking it one day at a time. Have a great day everyone!
 
She's had 3 feedings today and no bloat!!! We are taking it one day at a time but it is looking up :) Thanks for everyone's input - I really appreciate it!
 
slusser":1jm3luqn said:
She's had 3 feedings today and no bloat!!! We are taking it one day at a time but it is looking up :) Thanks for everyone's input - I really appreciate it!

So far, so good. I think that's great!

Alice
 
We were able to get in 4 feedings yesterday with no bloat and she looks good again this am. I'm starting to think we might be coming out of the woods. Yea!!!!!!!
 
slusser":2shdmfcq said:
We were able to get in 4 feedings yesterday with no bloat and she looks good again this am. I'm starting to think we might be coming out of the woods. Yea!!!!!!!

You and your family deserve pats on the back for this one. :D

Alice
 
AARGH!!! Bloated again this am. Have given some therabloat and will be calling the vet. This is getting crazy.
 
There's an oldtimer's trick that does seem to have some merit to it. Put the calf in a trailer and drive it down a bumpy road. In fact, drive the calf to the vet in a trailer and see if the bloat's gone down by the time you get there. Just a thought...seems like you've tried everything else.

I hate to say this, but sometimes these calves are just chronic bloaters. If you can get it off the milk and onto dry feed and hay, that might help...oh, I think that's already been mentioned, hasn't it...bless your heart.

Alice
 
Well, it's been a day. Bloat only got worse. Tried to give her electrolytes this afternoon but she would not take the bottle. She would not lay down and I couldn't get her down so we didn't tube her till late afternoon. Followed electrolytes with oil half hour later or so (after we dehorned and immunized the other 2 calves) Gave her aspirin, she was really grinding her teeth. Vet says we have tried just about everything. We contacted a local dairy and are going to try some whole milk from them and see if she can take it. If not that we are out of options. We can try to get her on grain/hay but presently she won't eat anything. When do you let nature take it's course or choose to put them down? Then we'll have to try and find another calf - they are so hard to come by here, the dairies don't want to let them go. We'll see if she makes it to morning.
 
Could consider a partial twist or defective digestive tract... When a calf drinks milk, there is a groove that is designed to send their milk directly to the abomasum, where it is digested and then sent on through the rest of the calf. An adult animal no longer has that capability, as all their food gets sent to the rumen where bacteria break it up and digest it. Were that groove not present or not working correctly in the calf, all their milk would be sent to the rumen (where fermentation of hay and grain normally takes place in an adult animal). Now picture a calf's milk sent to the rumen and the lactose being fermented... there's a cause of bloat. Could explain why she does better when just on electrolytes.

In your place... well, 1) I know what holstein heifers are worth (I'd easily pay $500 for a week old any time), and I'll personally do about anything to keep one, to the extent of spending way more on them than any sane person would. LOL. Any long time member of the forum can testify that MM gives animals way more chances than anyone should. :p
2) The calf may be fine if it's on hay and grain -- and off milk. We had a lamb a year or two ago that was a chronic bloater after feeding, but was fine once weaned.
3) For a heifer, my criteria for calling it quits would be when the animal is costing more money than I paid for them, or the animal is sick or injured to the extent that they cannot recover (say a shattered, broken leg, or a downer that's given up). In your place I'd continue working with her.
 
milkmaid":3up1nv7i said:
Could consider a partial twist or defective digestive tract... When a calf drinks milk, there is a groove that is designed to send their milk directly to the abomasum, where it is digested and then sent on through the rest of the calf. An adult animal no longer has that capability, as all their food gets sent to the rumen where bacteria break it up and digest it. Were that groove not present or not working correctly in the calf, all their milk would be sent to the rumen (where fermentation of hay and grain normally takes place in an adult animal). Now picture a calf's milk sent to the rumen and the lactose being fermented... there's a cause of bloat. Could explain why she does better when just on electrolytes.

That is exactly what happened to all of our calves back in the 70's when we quit using a bottle. Every single one of them doggied on us. We went back to the bottle and I've never used anything else since (except the nurse cows of course).
 
Well she is up and the bloat is gone again this am. I think milkmaid is correct and everything is going into her rumen. We have always had freechoice grain in her pen - how do you get them eating enough to take them off the bottle? I suppose we could keep her on electrolytes but that would mean no nutrition for her until she figured out to eat enough grain. I think we are going to try the whole milk from the dairy and see if that still causes the bloat. I will let you know this afternoon how it goes.
 
Well, she's what, 4 weeks old now? I've weaned them around that age before, and a lot of the large dairies have them weaned by 5 weeks. Just not economical to feed milk - esp milk replacer - at the current price.

My thoughts-- give her free choice grain (my preference is straight corn mixed with Purina Growena, provides the nutrition they need and they like it too) and a little bit of high quality straight alfalfa hay (necessary for digestion of grain since a cow wasn't designed to eat only grain) and feed less milk. When they're hungry they're more inclined to search for alternative feed sources, LOL, which is what you want.

Just expect she'll lose weight until she starts eating grain well, so keep her on electrolytes, probiotics, and in a stress free environment since her immune system is compromised, and you don't need her getting sick on top of everything else. Once she starts eating grain like she ought (preferably 2.5% of her body weight per day) then she should catch up, and you won't see much difference between her and her contemporaries by fair time. Absolutely no reason she can't do as well as any other bottle raised (or cow raised!) calf. My heifers are usually 800lbs+ as yearlings regardless of whether I raise them on a bottle or nurse cow.
 
Once again she is doing well. She has always had free choice grain but doesn't seem very interested. The whole milk seems to be settling better and she has not bloated. She is feisty and acting normal. I'll keep you updated but for now all is well - yea! :D
 

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