I know you most likely won't believe me, but while you are at the health food store, pick up a 500 tablet bottle of Hyland's Homeopathic Calc. Phos. 6X Cell Salt tablets. Give the calf one tablet every three hours. You can drop the tablet into its milk after warming it, but if you aren't feeding the calf every three hours, you need to put a tablet under its tongue in between feedings. Also, it sounds like what the ranchers in our area of Montana call Weak Calf Syndrome. Every calf I have examined or necropsied that was diagnosed with WCS had an underbite, so check its bite to see if the lower incisors actually contact the pad or if they are in front of the pad/underdeveloped premaxillary bone/underbite. As I said in a previous post, those are symptoms of mineral deficiency. Believe it or not, no one ever told the calves and other newborns that Homeopathic Cell Salts don't work, so they actually do work. Because Cell Salts are just a really good electrolyte in pill form, Calc. Phos. 6X will stimulate the calf's cells to uptake calcium and other minerals that you are providing in the colostrum and the cells will then be able to do their work much better. The calf's cells are not providing the energy that the leg muscles need to heal from being injured and function properly. If the calf recovers quickly as the wild and domestic animals I have given Calc. Phos. to have and if it does have an underbite, the underdeveloped premaxillary bone should also grow to normal size and the calf will have a normal bite after about two weeks. However, to make the underdeveloped bone (if it has an underdeveloped premaxillary bone) grow to normal size you need to continue to give the calf a tablet of the Calc. Phos. 6X at least once a day for most of the two weeks. But, that is a win-win for you and your little calf. I do not get anything for suggesting the use of Cell Salts. If your health food store doesn't have Hyland's Brand, they might have some other brand. Hyland's is just the brand that is carried in our area, so the kind that I and my rancher friends use. There are other brands and all brands of cell salts are all just really good electrolytes.
