Cleft Palate in Cattle

Help Support CattleToday:

Shelby96

New member
Joined
Apr 23, 2012
Messages
2
Reaction score
0
Does anyone have any experience or advice for caring and bottle feeding a calf with a cleft palate?
 
In my life i've only seen one. At the stockyard. It was also a dwarf. Sorry. I doubt many people have experience. Is it not able to suck. My grand father used to make calves drink milk from a bucket like water. Stuck his finger in there mouthand lowered it in bucket. Might try that, before you loose him.
 
She is able to chew on the bottle and get it to come out, I just dont know if she will ever be able to eat feed. She tried eating some hay and it came out of her nose.
 
Depends how bad the cleft palate is. Some can survive, the rest cannot get adequate nutrition and/or will be extremely susceptible to pneumonia. Depending on the severity of the cleft palate it may not be humane to keep her alive.
 
We had an Angus calf with a cleft palate. He could suck a bottle and eat some calf starter and hay, but most of it would come back out of his nose. We found out the higher we held up the bottle, the better. We fed him for about 2 months to see if he would be able to survive, but put him down when we saw he wasn't growing.
 
I would put him down.
And maybe even put wheels under his momma.
Then I would take a serious look at your supplemental feeding practices and palpitation practices.

Congenital and Inherited Anomalies
http://www.merckvetmanual.com/mvm/index ... /50803.htm
Nutritional Factors:
Deficiency of one or more nutrients during pregnancy may result in congenital defects in the newborn.
As will an overdose.
 
I just wanted to share my brother's experience with a calf having a cleft palate. At first George was awkward to say the least at trying to nurse. My brother began bottling him in addition to leaving him on the cow. Before long though George learned to cover the hole in the roof of his mouth with his tongue when he nursed. Ugly as he was, he gained weight and grew at the same rate as his herdmates. I kept waiting for other defects to surface but none did. George dressed out 900 lbs of meat the following year. I guess my point is to not give up too soon on the cleft palate as younguns of all species are adaptable and do not realize their handicap. Try to help them adapt if needed.
 

Latest posts

Top