I am so frustrated! We have a 5 day old calf. My husband found her Tuesday evening in the barn lot, it was very cold and snowy. He brought her in to the basement and warmed her up. I finally put a electric blanket on her and by the next evening she was warm. We are pretty sure now that she never sucked the mom at all. We have tried to get her to take a bottle but she WILL NOT! She can get up on her own and stand. I work at a vet clinic, so far she has had a shot of Banamine everyday, 3 cc of Nuflor, 1 1/2 cc of Draxxin, and 1 1/2 cc Multimin. She has slightly raspy breathing, but I don't think she has pneumonia. After we try to get her to suck the bottle (very small amount at a time), milk comes out her nose, so we know she is not swallowing it. So we end up tubefeeding her. We have let her go for 10 hours so she would be hungry but she still will not suck. She does not have a selenium deficiency because we feed the cows mineral. I know there are dummy calves, but this is ridiculous. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Will she ever learn to suck???? Frustrated so much!!! Please reply, this has never happened to us before.
5 day old calf will not suck bottle or mom
- Thread starter jagfarms
- Start date
hillsdown
Well-known member
Where is the mother, did you give her any colostrum when you first found her ? Stop the banamine .. Did you check her for a cleft pallet ?
We have the calf in the basement because it is so cold here. The mother is outside in the field, my hubby milks her at night and tries to bottle the baby, we are absolutely sure this calf never sucked the mother. We are trying to get her to suck a bottle so we can be sure that she will nurse when we put her back with the mother. But she will not suck a bottle either, so we are tube feeding her. If we can get her to suck a bottle we are going to put mother and baby in barn and keep a close eye on baby to be sure it is sucking and getting enough milk. Any suggestions on how to entice her to start sucking? She will not even suck our fingers....she works her mouth and constantly moves tongue but no sucking reflex. Help! Why do I need to stop Banamine?
hillsdown
Well-known member
I am in Alberta ,Canada it is not that cold for calves to be outside with moms .I start to calve in Jan and do it in -40 weather, they do just fine and they do not live in a barn. Put the calf with mom, I guarantee it is a dummy because it does not want you, it wants it's mom. Put the calf back with mom. As long as she can stand and mom takes her she will figure it out. How to make sure she has had some groceries,,,,,,, check her mouth if it is warm, it has drank. Meaning stick your finger in it's mouth.
Banamine is hard on the gut, especially a newborn and should not be used for more than 3-4 consecutive days . also since you have been giving this calf antibiotics you also need to give it probios.
Beef calves are stubborn sob's and some of them, especially if mom has payed any attention to them at all after they are born, do not want human contact at all ,so get the calf back to mom asap. Once back with mom re-evaluate. I would tube it milk put it back with mom and then leave it with mom for 12 hours, check it's mouth and if it is nice and warm baby has drank from mom.
Good luck.
Banamine is hard on the gut, especially a newborn and should not be used for more than 3-4 consecutive days . also since you have been giving this calf antibiotics you also need to give it probios.
Beef calves are stubborn sob's and some of them, especially if mom has payed any attention to them at all after they are born, do not want human contact at all ,so get the calf back to mom asap. Once back with mom re-evaluate. I would tube it milk put it back with mom and then leave it with mom for 12 hours, check it's mouth and if it is nice and warm baby has drank from mom.
Good luck.
Thank you for your reply, most likely we will put mom and baby in the barn for a few days. It will be easier to check her and baby for results of nursing. We have raised many calves and have never had one to not suck at all. I hope this works! I will post the result. As I said earlier, we are very sure this calf never got much milk when she was born. We found her down in lot and very weak, that is why she is inside until she could get her strength back.
backhoeboogie
Well-known member
I would have your husband get straddle of the calf and back it into a wall in that basement. Hold a little pressure with his legs. Lift his chin straight up with the left hand, open his mouth, put the nipple in, and hold the bottle upright with the right hand. He may need to then gently squeeze the jaws with the left hand a time or two to trickle milk into his throat. Not a lot but enough to cause the calf to swallow. While he is doing this, if you can massage the calf with a hand towel simulating a mom licking it with her tongue, it will calm the calf as well as stimulate it. It might be worth while to massage it a little before the bottle goes into its mouth. He may have to gently squeeze the jaws a few times. At any point, if that calf starts to nurse on its own, gently release pressure.
Most of the times I do this it is solo. A secondary person rubbing that calf would help. This "force feed" method works for me quite well.
Most of the times I do this it is solo. A secondary person rubbing that calf would help. This "force feed" method works for me quite well.
Hillsdowns!!!! We put the calf in the barn this morning after we tried to bottle feed her, she actually tried to suck this morning for the first time, so hubby put mom in barn and then took baby calf out there to her. Baby calf started jumping and went straight to mom and with a little help started sucking!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We have learned a valuable lesson, so now I will allow you to say.....I TOLD YOU SO!!!! Reply back to me---and accept a big THANK YOU!!!!!!!! Jag Farms.
hillsdown
Well-known member
That is great news, lets hope that she continues. Just keep checking her mouth for the first little while (with clean hands) ,if it is warm then she is drinking.
Like I said some beef babies are just stubborn and want their mommies. A set of twins I had born last year, the last one couldn't stand on her own because of an injury during birth. I thought I would take her and bottle feed her. NOPE,, wrong. That little turkey would not take the bottle no matter what I tried ( I have bottle fed thousands of calves) so I tubed her a few feedings and got her to where she could stand if she leaned on something. Put her back out with mom and she learned to lean on mom while nursing. After a few days she was running around with her sister. Sometimes no matter what you do , they just need their mommies.
Like I said some beef babies are just stubborn and want their mommies. A set of twins I had born last year, the last one couldn't stand on her own because of an injury during birth. I thought I would take her and bottle feed her. NOPE,, wrong. That little turkey would not take the bottle no matter what I tried ( I have bottle fed thousands of calves) so I tubed her a few feedings and got her to where she could stand if she leaned on something. Put her back out with mom and she learned to lean on mom while nursing. After a few days she was running around with her sister. Sometimes no matter what you do , they just need their mommies.
