calf with a twisted neck at birth

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fiddle889

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My neighbor who is very much a large scale farmer offered me a calf yesterday. My neighbor will not bottle feed as he doesn't have time but I will try anything. The calf has a neck that seems deformed and cant move its head side to side. he can eat milk replacer from a bowl but wont take a bottle. so I have several questions.

1) does feeding a calf from a bowl or maybe a bucket harm them?
2) is there a name for this birth defect so I can maybe do some research. My neighbor took it to a vet and said bottle feeding it should be ok.
3) if it is something anyone has dealt with before, what information will be helpful?

thanks in advance
-Mat
 
A bottle is prefered.

Drinking from a bucket doesn't make the esophageal groove work right and it goes to the wrong compartment of the stomach.

That being said, I've seen calves raised on a bucket. So I can be done
 
Big dairy's often use buckets, calves grow fine for them. I prefer bottle's myself, but you gotta do what you gotta do. Did this calf get clostrum?
 
yes it did. they milked the cow in a squeeze gate and then bottle fed it colostrum. He is doing fine i just feel bad for the little guy.
 
Might try opening the nipple on the bottle larger. Where the calf is doing more drinking than sucking. Most of the bottles I have bought over the years have a tiny opening and the calf really has to work to get it's milk ,
 
Here is something you can try if you want to. Go to a health food store and get a bottle of Hyland's or any other brand of Calc. Phos. 6X or 30X if they have it - it works better than 6X. Give the calf ONE tablet under its tongue of the Calc. Phos. 6X every three hours or every 6 hours with 30X. The bottle on Hyland's brand says to give 4 tablets once in the morning, but that just wastes three tablets and the effects still stop working in three hours with 6X and in 6 hours with 30X. You definitely want the calf's cells to keep working well. The cell salt called Calc. Phos. is an electrolyte that stimulates the cells of a critter to uptake the calcium that the cells need in order to work properly. Those effects on the cells stop working as stated above. To keep the cells working at optimum level, I give one tablet every three hours with 6X or six hours with 30X, except at night when I am sleeping. On critters with contracted tendons, it took less than three days for the tight tendons to loosen and then they could walk normally. I never had a critter with the neck problem you describe, so I don't know if the Calc. Phos. 6X will work on that issue or not. However, I didn't know if it would help contracted tendons until I tried it and it worked great. I didn't know it would help the cells grow the facial bones to normal and make critters with an underbite or an overbite have a normal bite until I tried it and it worked every time, even on hatchling birds. It also worked for parents with children with an underbite who tried it, resulting in a normal bite without the $10,000 dental bill. I don't get anything for telling people to try the cell salt tablets, except satisfaction if it works and helps the little ones live and thrive.
 
is there an online health food store you recommend because I don't really want to drive to Dallas. that place has terrible traffic
 
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