Okay, this is gonna be a long one but I want to get all the details to you for opinions.
Had a cow calve 5/15/16 had heifer calf seemed healthy. We check our cows daily more often when we can (weekends) seen calf up nursing and doing fine. Cow had even moved her into the herd. Well on 5/24 calf was up and sucking on cows flank. We watched for a while and calf looked gant never tried teat just stayed at flank. I told hubby we needed to get her up and see what's going on, possibly help her eat with cow in chute. Caught calf (should not have been able to catch a 9 day old calf) hauled her to corrals in back of truck got cow up there and seperated off from others. We noticed the calf had an odor, like infection. We got cow in chute and tried to get calf to nurse, calf refused. Started to milk cow out and all 4 quarters had thin yellow-orange tinged fluid with chunks and it smelled. While cow was in chute noticed she had what looked like urine constantly running out. Cow had same infection smelling odor but stronger. I figured cow must have bad infection and friends of ours that run a large ranch in Colorado said that her bag was bad and would not go back to milk. Tried to bottle feed calf with little success, she ate a little milk replacer but ate electrolytes pretty good. Put her in barn and kept cow in corral, was calling for severe thunderstorms. For the last 10 days I have been battling this calf. She would eat very little milk replacer then stop, she would eat almost a pint then I could coax her to eat the rest and get her to eat almost 2 pints. I knew this was not sustainable so I decided to feed her 3 times a day till she started eating better. We would give her electrolytes between feedings when we noticed dehydration. I noticed when she would nurse milk replacer from the bottle after just a couple swallows her belly would start gurgling and continue as I tried to feed her. Didn't do that with electrolytes. She has went down hill to the point where she won't eat yesterday she willingly drank electrolytes but no milk. I have had to tube her for the last couple days, I always offer bottle first. She has had penicillin, and then enrofloxacin and then penicillin again and then excede. Always with at least a day between, before giving next med and when she had a low grade fever 102.8. I have tried nutridrench as well, tried regular calf nipples, baby bottle, goat/sheep nipple. She hasn't had a fever for several days now so hasn't had any meds lately. My milk replacer is all milk, not soy. I'm using snowflakes milk replacer. Not sure what else to do, I have heard of calves being lactose intolerant but it's not common.I hate to keep tubing her. Any ideas or suggestions.
Had a cow calve 5/15/16 had heifer calf seemed healthy. We check our cows daily more often when we can (weekends) seen calf up nursing and doing fine. Cow had even moved her into the herd. Well on 5/24 calf was up and sucking on cows flank. We watched for a while and calf looked gant never tried teat just stayed at flank. I told hubby we needed to get her up and see what's going on, possibly help her eat with cow in chute. Caught calf (should not have been able to catch a 9 day old calf) hauled her to corrals in back of truck got cow up there and seperated off from others. We noticed the calf had an odor, like infection. We got cow in chute and tried to get calf to nurse, calf refused. Started to milk cow out and all 4 quarters had thin yellow-orange tinged fluid with chunks and it smelled. While cow was in chute noticed she had what looked like urine constantly running out. Cow had same infection smelling odor but stronger. I figured cow must have bad infection and friends of ours that run a large ranch in Colorado said that her bag was bad and would not go back to milk. Tried to bottle feed calf with little success, she ate a little milk replacer but ate electrolytes pretty good. Put her in barn and kept cow in corral, was calling for severe thunderstorms. For the last 10 days I have been battling this calf. She would eat very little milk replacer then stop, she would eat almost a pint then I could coax her to eat the rest and get her to eat almost 2 pints. I knew this was not sustainable so I decided to feed her 3 times a day till she started eating better. We would give her electrolytes between feedings when we noticed dehydration. I noticed when she would nurse milk replacer from the bottle after just a couple swallows her belly would start gurgling and continue as I tried to feed her. Didn't do that with electrolytes. She has went down hill to the point where she won't eat yesterday she willingly drank electrolytes but no milk. I have had to tube her for the last couple days, I always offer bottle first. She has had penicillin, and then enrofloxacin and then penicillin again and then excede. Always with at least a day between, before giving next med and when she had a low grade fever 102.8. I have tried nutridrench as well, tried regular calf nipples, baby bottle, goat/sheep nipple. She hasn't had a fever for several days now so hasn't had any meds lately. My milk replacer is all milk, not soy. I'm using snowflakes milk replacer. Not sure what else to do, I have heard of calves being lactose intolerant but it's not common.I hate to keep tubing her. Any ideas or suggestions.
