Helping my dad calve his cows out and we've lost 3 calves because the cows can not get all the mucus off the calves nose and mouth area. Very thick and calves are suffocating. If we hadn't caught on we would have lost a 4th. But we were watching and had to assist the cow and wipe the calf's face off. Cows are licking calves and claiming them. Any idea as to why it's so thick and hard to clean off. Cow's had salt/mineral all year and 20% protein licks 6 weeks before calving. Thanks!
Cows are having problem cleaning calf
- Thread starter Tep
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rockridgecattle
Well-known member
Eventhough they have had free choice mineral, still might be lacking. Not all minerals are created equal.
I would suggest selenium, a, d, or e.
We also fed the 20% protien tubs. Had expereince with this the last two years. This year no tubs. Will that make a difference? dunno, only time will tell. We offically start in 12 days.
I would suggest selenium, a, d, or e.
We also fed the 20% protien tubs. Had expereince with this the last two years. This year no tubs. Will that make a difference? dunno, only time will tell. We offically start in 12 days.
2 Years ago the folks around here had a plague of new born calves licked sompletly clean but found dead. For some reason the sacks that year were very tough and by the time the cow could get the sack off the calves had suffocated. When the vet pulled calves he was needing to use his knife to cut the sack open rather then them tearing. Only happened with a few calves here and generally only a coupel here and there in other herds. After some pondering, question answering, and checking around we kind of layed it to the fescue. That was the only common thread of all of the herds. Don;t know if that was in fact what caused it, but last year no one had a problem. They year before was a bad drought year and the fescue hay was stressed first from too much rain then all of a sudden no rain for a couple of months. If others are having the same kind of problems, try to find the common denominator.
jkwilson
Well-known member
We had the same thing this year. Thick mucus that made it hard for the calves to breathe. Lost one. I had to do compressions on another. That started it coughing, and it would breathe until it quit coughing. Never did find an answer. Ours are on a good mineral, and have plenty of water.
Thanks alot, we've been in a drought for 7 years. But last spring we had a lot of rain (5 inch's a day for 3 days) and more rain before that. My cows are on tall praire grass and dads go to a short grass, that's our only difference. Never heard of selenium before, but will look that up. 75 degrees yesterday, snow and 41 today. Gotta love calving season. Thanks again!!!
