Calf dies in 12 hours

Help Support CattleToday:

Eugen23

New member
Joined
Oct 21, 2016
Messages
2
Reaction score
0
On the dairy farm where I work 10 days calf died in 12 hours. we feed them 3 times a day. So in the afternoon at 12.30 it finished the milk replacer without any help. At night at 8 p.m. the calf was little sad and I helped it to start drinking. A baby girl finished only a half of her portion. At 5 oclock in the morning was laying still and did not want to move and did not drink at all. At 8 o'clock it was dead. I could not see any signs of dehydration of diarrhea.
What it can be?
 
I do believe it's time to have a competent vet check things out.
 
Things can go south on a dairy and with dairy calves very fast, as Dun said, time for a good vet to come out. You're only going to get guesses from the responses on the Internet.
 
Koffi Babone":zqki0243 said:
How was the hind end?
Completely clean?
Did you see the calf pass any manure at all?
Yes, the calf pooped yellow, as they normaly do, but in the morning it changed to brown-grey.

The problem is that I am only a trainee on this farm and farmers dont realy care what happend with it and this situation is not an alarm for them and i cannot understand this attitude.
 
Yes, the calf pooped yellow, as they normaly do, but in the morning it changed to brown-grey.

The problem is that I am only a trainee on this farm and farmers dont realy care what happend with it and this situation is not an alarm for them and i cannot understand this attitude.

I'd start by asking questions... you're a trainee, they're the owner, not your monkeys, not your circus. Some owners are incompetent, many are not and really do have reasons if you take the time to inquire politely.

For instance, is this one calf out of 3 on the farm, or one calf out of 3000? The latter situation isn't a cause for concern.

Be careful... if I had a clueless student with a bad attitude who wanted to grill me about my concern level for the random calf who died (of likely either pneumonia, diarrhea, or enterotoxemia - the reasons apparently healthy 10 day old calves die are not that complex)... that student likely wouldn't get the response they were hoping for. Be cautious how you've been perceived and how you present your questions.

Following that, realize you're asking for an answer that can't be given over the internet. There are so many variables raising calves, including management and feeding, that short of taking up several pages of posts asking and answering questions, there's no way to determine what killed this one calf. A necropsy would yield more information. You likely need a veterinarian to visit the place (this may already be happening at a management level)... but again, remember, not your circus. Do your job, look for additional ways to help out, be a good employee and *learn.*
 

Latest posts

Top