cleaning calves

[Dana Kopp]

So when you help a cow clean a calf what do you use? Towels/rags, hay or ??

What drives me nuts is that the cow's tongue does such a great job of cleaning (of course, ma nature at her best) and drying the calf and my towels and hair dryer seem to take forever. Is there an enzyme or something in cow saliva that breaks down the afterbirth and fluids?? Or is is just the rough tongue and probably her swallowing the stuff that works so much better. My rough towels stimulate the heck out of them but don't absorb the goo...anyone have any special secrets that they use?

We prefer to let the girls do it on their own but since it is 20-30 some degrees below zero (wind chill) we have to get them dry and warm NOW or there isn't a calf to worry about.

 

[dun]

We just use some the wifes good bath towels. If you don;t get them clean, not to worry, the cow licking them later on will clean off that dried goo. Never have found anything that reliably gets it out of the bath towels though

dun

 

[Bullbuyer]

And if she catches you stealing those bath towels, stop by the Family Dollar or the Dollar General and pick up an arm load of towels - about $3 - $5 each. Yard sales are the best place to find these but a little cold for that right now.

BB

 

[gendronf]

What drives me nuts is when the cow quit her cleaning job...and I got to lick the calf...

 

[rustydude]

LMAO... I am new here , but I have been learning and laughing for a couple of months and I just want to say thanks to everybody.

 

[jcarkie]

i have used newspaper to dry them with. it still won't get all of it.

 

[Victoria]

We just use towels. Our purpose is not to get them clean though - just dry. The more the calf tastes like fluids and the less like human things the happier the cow will be. It's that sandpaper tongue that can clean.

 

[msscamp]

What drives me nuts is that the cow's tongue does such a great job of cleaning (of course, ma nature at her best) and drying the calf and my towels and hair dryer seem to take forever.

Fabric softener in the rinse cycle will interfere with the towels ability to absorb moisture. I keep a stack of old towels that I don't use fabric softener on for drying the calves.

 

[Dana Kopp]

Personally I hate soft towels so I don't use fabric softener on any of them cow or human. I agree that fabric softener (or dryer sheets) would interfere with the cow and yes, when I say "clean" the calf I just meant dry it off. Though we literally cleaned one in our industrial sink on Friday night. A heifer that didn't look remotely ready calved and luckily we caught her seconds (maybe a minute or two) after calving but the calf was already pretty much frozen. We grabbed the calf, packed her into the house, I started rubbing while my husband started running the water, we set her in and basically I kept rubbing the hot water all over her and when she tried to climb out of the sink I figured she was ready to dry off. With a heat lamp and towels and two dogs licking we dried her off quick because she was fighting to stand and trying to nurse on my dogs that we wanted her back out with her mom ASAP. I gave her a couple cups of hot milk with electrolytes and she went nuts looking to nurse so out to mom (who was now penned up inside) to re-introduce them. The heifer's face was completely covered with frozen afterbirth from rooting the calf around trying to get her clean and up. It took a little while for mom to REALLY make the connection but she never kicked at the calf or did anything stupid, she just talked and sniffed and licked a little, thought about it, licked and sniffed and thought for about an hour while the calf fooled around trying to nurse everywhere but the right place and then the lightbulb came on and everyone is happy. Gotta love this stuff!

 

[TheBullLady]

Ahhh.. the sweet smell of success! It's wonderful to hear about things like that when they go right!

Good job Dana!

 

[AngusLimoX]

Why are we cleaning them off? You guys layin a guilt trip on me??
Lots of calves born colder than that without "human interference".

I can see it if there is a problem ( calf unresponsive,momma incapacitated, etc..) but otherwise - why. There really should be no reason for us to be there except to catch problems. If your calves need a towel at birth, maybe the breed is in the wrong climate?

( Nope I am not a lazy sob who doesn't care about the critters, I just like their lives to be as close to natural as possible ).

And sometimes we do more harm than good at calving.( Lots of biological action going on there between the licking cow and calf ).

Where do we get out breed reputations these days? Yes those TOWLIES are a darned good cold weather breed! LOL

 

[Dana Kopp]

Let's see, personally, the only time we help the mommas out is if the calf gets chilled or the mom isn't doing a good enough job for the weather she calved in (to prevent a chilled calf, and then she will probably go down the road). By all means we expect our cows to do everything on their own and never have to touch them until we tag and vaccinate. But I'd prefer to interfere a little in the natural process to keep a calf alive than just let them freeze to death. One of the things we want and expect in out of our herd is a very active calf that as soon as it is born is trying to get up. Between an active calf and an excellent mom you (in theory) shouldn't have to mess with them when they are born.

The temp varied from -20 (+ wind chill) to -30 (+ wind chill) for most of last week here, even the best mom in the world has no chance of drying her calf off fast enough to save them in weather like that. Even out of the wind what chance does that give them??

 

[CattleAnnie]

Actually, even with the cold, they do pretty well.

If it's really frigid out there (-20 or so with or without windchill factor) and a new calf is born (being as the Rockytop Ritz is just a glorified uninsulated tin shed), I'll just grab a mittful of straw and give the calf a good scrubbing (more to stimulate circulation than to dry), especially the ears and tail, as they're the most prone to frostbite.

Then I'll pop the calf onto a sled, drag him into the basement by the woodstove, let him dry off on an old rug, and back into the great outdoors he'll go as soon as he shows an interest in looking for the groceries.

Some days there might be four or five calves in the basement, but that's an exception rather than a rule.

I'll take that extreme cold weather for calving time over the gumbo and spring rains any day, especially the buzzards I've been hearing the Southerners discuss.

Take care.

 

[Dana Kopp]

Actually, even with the cold, they do pretty well.

If it's really frigid out there (-20 or so with or without windchill factor) and a new calf is born (being as the Rockytop Ritz is just a glorified uninsulated tin shed), I'll just grab a mittful of straw and give the calf a good scrubbing (more to stimulate circulation than to dry), especially the ears and tail, as they're the most prone to frostbite.

Then I'll pop the calf onto a sled, drag him into the basement by the woodstove, let him dry off on an old rug, and back into the great outdoors he'll go as soon as he shows an interest in looking for the groceries.

Some days there might be four or five calves in the basement, but that's an exception rather than a rule.

I'll take that extreme cold weather for calving time over the gumbo and spring rains any day, especially the buzzards I've been hearing the Southerners discuss.

I have to agree, we have to watch the later born calves for scours, etc more than any of these cold born ones. Though I have to say most people would think I'm nuts when I say that 15 - 20 degrees ABOVE zero is pretty warm. Actually the radio just said it is 27 out and the high today may be in the 30s - HEAT WAVE!!

 

[Medic24]

Rare occasion that we interfere here as well. But just such an occasion did happen here last week in the sleet and snow, when a calf was born to an older cow who unbeknownst to us.....never got her teets unplugged to allow the small week calf to suck.

We pulled it, let momma stand next to it as we used a hair drier on it, and yes, all that goo takes a while to dry. We were doubley blessed to witness our cow clean out in front of us as well, so we knew she was good to go as well when we finished with the calf.

We do take the newborns into the open sheds to get them out of the wind and weather, and protect them from the coyotes and stray dogs for a few days untill they get real legs underneath of them.

 

[msscamp]

I'll take that extreme cold weather for calving time over the gumbo and spring rains any day, especially the buzzards I've been hearing the Southerners discuss.

Take care.

I'm with you CattleAnnie. Nothing like a spring shower for an outbreak of scours.