randiliana
Well-known member
Hi, I posted this on another board, but thought that I should post it here too. I see a lot of people suggesting Selenium deficiency, but there are times when there just seems to be NO other reason, so here is what we do....
We don't often see this, but we had a bad run one year with a bunch that wouldn't suck the cow OR bottle. It usually happens with a big calf that had a hard birth, but not always. We would fight with them (quite a few swear words) and of course in the end you would get so frustrated that you would finally have to just give up and tube them anyway. In a few days they would usually start to suck anyways.
NOW, when we run into this I quit the fighting part. We leave the calf in with the cow and we may or may not milk her depending on HER attitude. And we simply tube the calf for the 2-4 days and then just "forget" to feed the calf one night. Of course you have to make sure that the calf gets colostrum in the first 18 hours. Everytime we have done this we go out in the morning, and the calf has either sucked, or is up sucking. By tubing them for a couple days they are able to build up enough strength to handle a night without feed. We would tube them twice a day, so they would go at least 14-18 hours without milk. That should make them plenty hungry enough to get that sucking instinct to kick in!!
If they still haven't caught on I think that I would just tube them again in the morning, and then miss that evening feed again.
It is worth a try and it is MUCH easier than fighting with a limp noodle calf that has absolutely NO intention of sucking!!
We don't often see this, but we had a bad run one year with a bunch that wouldn't suck the cow OR bottle. It usually happens with a big calf that had a hard birth, but not always. We would fight with them (quite a few swear words) and of course in the end you would get so frustrated that you would finally have to just give up and tube them anyway. In a few days they would usually start to suck anyways.
NOW, when we run into this I quit the fighting part. We leave the calf in with the cow and we may or may not milk her depending on HER attitude. And we simply tube the calf for the 2-4 days and then just "forget" to feed the calf one night. Of course you have to make sure that the calf gets colostrum in the first 18 hours. Everytime we have done this we go out in the morning, and the calf has either sucked, or is up sucking. By tubing them for a couple days they are able to build up enough strength to handle a night without feed. We would tube them twice a day, so they would go at least 14-18 hours without milk. That should make them plenty hungry enough to get that sucking instinct to kick in!!
If they still haven't caught on I think that I would just tube them again in the morning, and then miss that evening feed again.
It is worth a try and it is MUCH easier than fighting with a limp noodle calf that has absolutely NO intention of sucking!!
