Calf help

[bluesky10]

so I have basically been given this calf to see if I can save her. She is the same breed as the two I have so am familiar with them.

The story of her is she was on the bottle, went off the bottle, got weak to the point of having to be helped up and lost alot of weight. She is back on the bottle now and eatting fine, can get up on her own again. However she is still thin and needs a bit more TLC than she can be given where she is at.

I am home all the time and only have a few animals so time isnt an issue for me. I havent went and got her yet but figure why not give her a shot. What and how much should I be giving her to eat? I know she is for sure on 2 bottles a day and all the grain she wants.

What is the best feed program options for her to bring her back?

 

[hillsdown]

What is the breed, age and weight of calf ?

 

[bluesky10]

I dont know the exact weight or age but would guess based on the two claves here(came from the same place) that she is 3-4 weeks old. She is a watusi and probably about 30 pounds or so. When they are born they only weigh in that range and take awhile to fill out. The bull calf I have here is only 6 weeks and maybe 50 pounds if that.

 

[regolith]

and why was she sick?

Little and often with the milk feeding - 2 bottles a day is that 4 pts twice a day? to a 30 lb calf?
Possibly the only reason why you should not pick her up would be if she has infectious scours that could contaminate your buildings for other stock.
Otherwise an ad-lib calf starter, plenty of fresh water available and maybe cut the milk back a little and split it into three equally-spaced feeds till she's fully recovered. Replace a milk feed with electrolyte at any time she seems to be weakening or dehydrated.
10% of the calf's weight daily in milk is enough - they can drink more than that but be careful of overfeeding milk to a calf recovering from scours.
That's my thoughts.

 

[bluesky10]

There really is no known reason why she went off. She is suspected of being a little bit of a dumb calf. I know where she is at is healthy as I got my other two calves there and its family. They dont have nor have had any outside stock come in in years. They might have upped her to 3 feedings a day to increase her weight. It would only be 2-3 pints a feeding. They never go up to a full bottle as they are tiny calves. Even my older ones here are not on a full bottle a feeding. We also feed these guys milk for 4-5 months unlike a traditional dairy calf.