Abandoned Calf

[I luv herfrds]

Found one of our twin calves bawling for her mom yesterday. We had moved the cows to another area. The cow never came back for her. Got the calf up with the herd and she was still bawling for her mom. No response. I checked her a little while later, there's the calf sucking on a first year heifer.
The cow has never come back for her.

Now we do have a cow that lost her calf awhile back and I saw her tonight and it looks like she has not fully dried up yet.
Is it too late to try to get these two together and try a graft?
The calf was born the end of Febuary and the cow lost her calf the end of last month.

 

[milkmaid]

Did the cow lose her calf at birth, or was she lactating for awhile first?

 

[msscamp]

Is it too late to try to get these two together and try a graft?
The calf was born the end of Febuary and the cow lost her calf the end of last month.

4 weeks with no calf nursing? I'm thinking it's too late, but if she appears to have milk then you have nothing to lose by running her in the chute and checking - nothing ventured, nothing gained.

 

[Chris H]

Found one of our twin calves bawling for her mom yesterday. We had moved the cows to another area. The cow never came back for her. Got the calf up with the herd and she was still bawling for her mom. No response. I checked her a little while later, there's the calf sucking on a first year heifer.
The cow has never come back for her.

Now we do have a cow that lost her calf awhile back and I saw her tonight and it looks like she has not fully dried up yet.
Is it too late to try to get these two together and try a graft?
The calf was born the end of Febuary and the cow lost her calf the end of last month.

It's possible the cow that lost her calf has been letting others nurse and would have milk. The longest we've let a cow go and bring her back into milk has been 1 week. Check the cow for milk, if possible. If she has milk then it's worth a try to pen her and the abandoned twin together to see if she'll take it. If she's dry, then you've got a bottle baby, or an extra $100 from the salebarn. If you have more cows to calve you might consider bottling the baby for a while in case you lose a calf.

 

[bigbull338]

it wont hurt to put that cow in the chute.an see if she will take the calf.if she does id leave her in the corral a few days.to see if she has enough milk to feed the calf.

 

[I luv herfrds]

milkmaid she lost the calf at birth. It was coming tail first and by the time we caught it it was too late.

Going to catch both her and the calf this morning and check her and see what happens.
Thanks for your advice everyone.

 

[Victoria]

If it doesn't work then bring the cow with the twins in for a little while. It seems some cows will choose which calf they want to raise and leave the other one. It is usually the smaller twin that is left. Often it is the cows that are more instinct driven that do this for obvious reasons. The cow will probably feed both but will only call for one. The other one as it gets older will learn to go find its' mother instead of waiting for her to come to it. You also may need to supplement the cow that has the twins or supplement the twin. If a cow doesn't have enough milk that is one reason instinct kicks in and she leaves the (usually) weaker calf to die so that her favourite will survive.
Hope it does work. One other thing, if the cow that lost the calf has no milk and the twins mother has enough run them all together for awhile. We had one set that the mother fed both but the other cow took over bathing and protection duties. You just got to go with whatever works. ;-)

 

[milkmaid]

You'd have a better chance of it if the cow had lactated for some time... but it can't be helped. Might be possible the cow will still have milk; especially on older, heavy-producers, they tend not to dry off very easily. Give it a try; nothing ventured, nothing gained.

I do wonder about the calf though; a 2 month old calf that just "lost" its mother? were it 2 weeks old I could understand both cow and calf forgetting the other, esp since there's a twin, but two months???

 

[I luv herfrds]

My husband had to chase the calf up to the corral.
I did see her with her "mom" today, but the cow just pushed her aside when she tried to walk in front of her to get her to stand still so she could nurse. Cow was bawling for the other calf.
Did get the cow caught, but not the calf. Gave up after a few laps around the manure pile. Going to get everything in the corral tomorrow and we are going to check the cow for milk. If she is dry I did pick up a bag of milk replacer. My daughter wants the calf if we end up caring for her.
Hindsight is 20/20 now I wish I had grabbed that calf when that cow first lost her calf and tried to graft them then. Going to chalk this one up to a learning experience and a Don't listen to the husband and just do it. I have several of them.

 

[msscamp]

Hindsight is 20/20 now I wish I had grabbed that calf when that cow first lost her calf and tried to graft them then. Going to chalk this one up to a learning experience and a Don't listen to the husband and just do it. I have several of them.

All you can do is your best, and it sounds like you did that. No point in beating yourself up for something you can't change.

 

[I luv herfrds]

A golden oppertunity arose today.
After getting home from town I went to the barn to check on our last 4 cows to calve. Found that one of them had calved, but the calf was dead.
Now I couldn't let this pass.
I went and hooked up the trailer grabbed the oldest kid and headed for the corral. The easy part was getting the calf cut off from the herd because she was standing right there. Got a rope and caught her and dragged her on the trailer.
Hauled her to the barn. Now here is where most people will start gagging.
Went into the corral and grabbed what was left of the afterbirth, a bottle of O-No-Mo and another rope. Climbed into the trailer with the calf and started rubbing her all over with the afterbirth. Then I poured the O-No-Mo all over her, roped her again and dragged her out and into an outside pen. Left her there and went into the barn and dragged out the dead calf. Let the cow out and she did show an interest in the calf and she did lick her a couple of times. The calf went to nurse and the cow kicked her away. Put them both into a pen. Cow will not allow the calf to nurse.
Got a trick up my sleeve. I'm going to put the cow in the head catch tomorrow morning and put the Stop Kik on her and get the calf to nursing on her. I know I may have to do this quite a few times, and for quite a fews days.
Does anybody else have a way they graft a calf onto another cow?

Sorry if the dragging term bothers anybody, but when something does not want to walk on their own and they drag their feet they get dragged.

 

[milkmaid]

Unless I have a good nurse cow that will accept a calf instantly, I always rope and snub the cow when I'm grafting calves. I do have a Can't Kick device, but haven't used it when grafting in almost 4 years. My attitude is that they'll just have to accept the calf and I'm not making it optional. Stick with it; you'll have them grafted in a few days.

 

[fourstates]

I grafted a 2 month old bottle calf on a cow that had aborted late 3 weeks prior. The key was the calf's persistance. Once he figured out where the milk came from, he wore her down. I would feed her cubes if she stood still and let him nurse, but that would last as long as the cubes. He took a few kicks and butts, but he chased her, when she would stop to graze, he try to nurse. It took about 3 or 4 days before she mothered up, but she really did a great job. Don't give up.

 

[I luv herfrds]

Good news this morning.
Let the cow out this morning for water and she went back to the pen calling for this calf. Calf was bawling for her too.
I did put the cow into the head catch pen and got her caught. Got the calf in the pen, she wouldn't try to nurse. Pushed the calf so her head was under the cows flank.
Waited.
Cow didn't kick :shock: so the calf went to nursing :banana:
She drained the bag completely. We are going to keep them together down at the barn for at least a week.

How long do you leave a grafted pair together in a pen?
Didn't even use the Stop Kik.

 

[bigbull338]

id leave emm penned up 2wks to make sure she took the calf.an then turn them out in the pasture.an they should be fine.

 

[Chris H]

We've got a pair that's been penned for about a week now, the cow accepted the calf but just didn't acted like she would claim it, if turned out. 3 days ago we added another pair to the pen, that heifer was so distraught about losing her calf that she let both the calves nurse, we really didn't want that. Then two days ago we put in a 3 year old with her brand new calf. For some reason, that seemed to trigger the first heifer got real possessive with the calf we were trying to get matched up with her; that solved the problem of the second pair we were matching up; and the 3 year old didn't have an issues with getting confused. Maybe she butted away the other two calves and triggered some protective & possessive instincts in the 2 heifers, I'm not sure.


Anyway, we've turned them out anywhere from 2 days to 2 weeks, just watch and see how possessive the cow is.

 

[mnmtranching]

Looks to me like you got it made. No kicking, calling for the calf. They will get used to each other fast.

 

[I luv herfrds]

Just checked them and let them out so the cow could get some water. Bag looks completely drained.
Put them back in the pen and now she is not so willing to let the calf nurse, kicked her off a couple of times. She was licking the calfs neck a little earlier, there is still some O-No-Mo on the calf, so I grabbed a cup that was down there and got some water and poured it on the calfs back, hoping that it will bring up the scent a little better. Got another couple of bottles of it and will take it down to the barn.
Good sign, the calf peed.
Thanks for the advice bigbull, we will leave them in for 2 weeks.
mnmt just won the first battle, I haven't won the war yet.
Chris H we got 3 left to calve. The last date for a calf to be due is the 25th of this month. Do not know if having a new born calf in there would trigger a possessiveness in this cow for the calf we are grafting or for the new calf. Would rather not find out.

 

[FFACOWGIRL]

It may sound crazy but i have heard on here that it you milk the cow and cover the calf in that milk and sprinkle lots of salt on the calf that the cow will lick it and start bonding. the milk makes the calf smell like them? I don't really know but it worked the the person that tried it. You can also rub poo, afterbirth, or vics vapor rub on the cows nose. the after birth helps her match the scent to the calf and the vics hinders her smelling so she dosen't know its not hers. just a few things i've herd. Good Luck! I hope it works out.

 

[milkmaid]

Just my thoughts, but... the calf is 2 months old. The cow would have to be a complete idiot not to realize it isn't hers and can't possibly be her calf. In fact, there's nothing you can do to that calf to disguise it in such a way that she mistakes a 2 month old calf for a newborn. You can put any amount of poop, afterbirth, milk, salt, o-no-more, vick's, etc on that calf that you want to, but the only thing that ultimately will work is persistance on your part and that calf's. The cow is just going to have to accept the calf and it's not optional. And she will accept it, eventually.