Calf not well.

[Taylor farm]

Ok have an older cow with bull calf born 5/13. Had some pneumonia issues on Tues.vet came caught early gave antibiotics. Was doing good. Today seemed off . Got him to his momma and he nurses on her for a while. Could it be she's rejecting him to feed sensing he was sick? Should I try to bottle feed him. He drinks water from the creeks

 

[M.Magis]

Call the vet back, there are to many possibilities to guess. The cow won't "reject" a calf because it's sick.

 

[Ky hills]

Did the calf go from one quarter of the the udder to another real fast or punch around soon after starting to nurse?
I'm wondering if it's a situation where the cow doesn't have enough milk.

 

[bird dog]

How old is the cow? What antibiotic was administered.

I have a cow and calf similar to what is going on here. She is a Charolais I bought bred 2 months in 2017. The vet had called her a solid mouth. She is very fertile and has given me 9 calves since.
All the calves have been good and weaned off better than average weight wise. This years calf was born April 9. I really didn't pay much attention to it or the dam until the I gave the calf its first work at about 6 weeks of age. I noticed then it was just not very full. Like a baby calf that hasn't ate.

After watching the cow for a couple days it was apparent that the cow was just not putting out much milk. The cow had changed dramatically since the last calf. The calf also came up sick. I gave it a generic Draxxin Meloxicam antibiotic that a local vet makes in his lab.
Like the calf mentioned by the op, it was much better the next day but regressed a few days later. The vet told me that the product is designed to work for up to 10 days and I was about to give the calf another shot with a different product but it seemed better once again.

The calf is still not quite as good as the others of the same age but appears to be growing again and not sitting around like they do when they don't feel good. If nothing changes, the calf will be weaned in the fall and the cow will be culled even though she has already bred back.

So KY's theory may be correct and the cow may be the problem. It may be worthwhile to see if the calf will eagerly take a bottle. The vet should give you some better advise if he's paying attention to both animals.

 

[sunnyblueskies]

Just because they were sick once and treated for it doesn't mean they can't relapse or get sick with something else. And what somebody else already said....... a cow won't reject her calf because it is sick.
The only way finding out on the milk situation would be to bring the cow in and see what's happening on all 4 quarters. Once you know the situation check on the calf again and try another round with different antibiotics as per Vet.

We had one too this month which had pneumonia first, treated it, got better, then came down with necrotic laryngitis.

 

[OBAX]

Unfortunately sometimes you get a calf that’s just not a do gooder, for lack of better terms. I remember a specific incident that I treated a calf for pneumonia several times during his first 6 months of life. He was always slow and lethargic and just didn’t grow like the other calves. But he was out of a proven cow and got to weaning age, only to die at weaning after being worked. But since then, and before, the cow has had and raised other calves that did just fine and even topped the group as far as growth and condition.
Should I have taken the calf to the vet and figured out what was wrong? Looking back I probably should have, but it’s normal practice to treat calves in the pasture for pneumonia and most get over it. Draxxin is as close to a miracle drug as I’ve ever seen, but can’t fix em all.
I say all that to say this, sometimes the problem is not the cow. Sometimes if she’s been good in the past, another calf might just clear her name.

 

[Dave]

Of course I am dealing with older purchased cows. But it seems like one every year that the calf isn't doing good. Run the cow into the chute and find out that she isn't giving any milk. Cow gets a trip to town and the calf gets a bottle, get grafted to another cow, or with the present price on bottle calves he might get a trip to town also.

 

[Silver]

Of course I am dealing with older purchased cows. But it seems like one every year that the calf isn't doing good. Run the cow into the chute and find out that she isn't giving any milk. Cow gets a trip to town and the calf gets a bottle, get grafted to another cow, or with the present price on bottle calves he might get a trip to town also.

Sometimes here the teats are just plugged / blocked. Cold winters can cause that so you need to be on the lookout and be prepared to get them opened up.

 

[bird dog]

If they are plugged or blocked, is the bag swollen up like its full of milk or does it have to flow for a day or two to get everything back to normal?

The old cow in my story had a decent udder before this year. Now at first glance it still looks okay at times, it just does not recharge like it should.

 

[Katpau]

When a calf has unexplained health issues and isn't growing like the others, there is the possibility that it could be a PI calf. I would take ear notches and test the herd for BVD. Even if you regularly vaccinate for it, there is still a chance it is in the herd. I would at least test the suspect calf. If the calf is PI, it could be spreading it through the whole herd.