Hauling 2 week old calf to the vet

[jschoolcraft86]

One of my new heifers appears to have been born without a right eye. The eyelids seem fused together or just won't open and she has no sensitivity to any movement or light changing on that side. The eye is also runny/mucous-y pretty much all the time. I'll attach a picture although it may not be too useful. Other than the eye she seems to be a happy and healthy baby. I've got an appointment with a vet on Thursday to take a look and figure out what needs to happen, I'm guessing he'll make sure the socket is empty and then stitch it up but I don't have any experience with this kind of thing.

I was told not to worry about bringing the mother in with her so I'm planning on bringing a couple bottles worth of milk along on the ride so the baby can get some food and hydration since she will be away from the mother for most of the day. I'm thinking I should bring enough for about a gallon of milk to split into two feedings throughout the trip. I'm looking for feedback on the milk idea and amount, and any other input that might be useful as this is my first time moving one this young around.

Also, if anyone is curious about the eye I can try and get some better pictures after work today and upload them. It's a problem I can't find anything about online so far.

 

[MurraysMutts]

Well I'll be dipped! Never seen that either.
As far as a bottle, calf will make it just fine for a day without

 

[kenny thomas]

Unless the calf is already sucking a bottle it's probably not going to take it. As said it will be fine away from the cow for a few hours.

 

[jschoolcraft86]

Awesome, thank you for the input. That makes life easier.

 

[wbvs58]

Well Murray said it well," I'll be dipped" also.

Ken

 

[Mat Man]

I would not give her a bottle if she is not use to it.
Make sure to put mom in a good pen so she does not go looking for her baby.

 

[Dusty Britches]

You said she'll be at the vet most of the day? And she's 2 weeks old? Personally, I've found it is a whole lot less stressful to keep momma with baby. I'll bet the vet doesn't want to deal with an overly protective mother but if you aren't worried and it's no trouble, I'd recommend keeping them together. Otherwise, like others have said, it is pointless to bring a bottle. The calf won't take it and won't need it.

 

[J Hoy]

Being born with one or both eyeballs missing was a rare birth defect we began seeing on wild and domestic animals after the other very common or more common birth defects, especially underbite, overbite, reproductive malformations, heart defects, inflammation of the lungs, underdeveloped and/or inflamed thymus and missing digits or limbs began being observed on vertebrates in 1995. Prior to 1995, nondevelopment of the eyeballs or extremely small eyes and blindness had not been observed by my colleagues or by me. Some of the species that I remember documenting with similar disrupted eye development to the calf in the photo included a horse foal (no eyeballs formed in the sockets), a beef calf (no eyeballs formed in the sockets), a domestic goat (no eyeballs formed in the sockets), a Black-billed Magpie (very small eyes and blindness) and a western toad (right eye not formed at all).

 

[puzzled in oregon]

If you have a trailer with a center gate, I would take cow and calf both. You can haul the cow up front, vet won't have to deal with her
and you know she is secure, and she can still talk with her calf.

 

[jschoolcraft86]

It sounds like the consensus is to haul them both so that's what we'll do. Thanks everyone for the feedback. I'll post a followup after we get finished.

 

[puzzled in oregon]

I have seen eyelids that had not opened at all. There was a faint line where the the top lid should have separated from the lower lid. I very carefully used a razor to open both of them, they both opened with a very healthy eye inside. It was really cute to suddenly have two bright little eyes looking back at you. Have dealt with inverted eyelashes also. Whatever you are dealing with should be easily corrected with or without an eye inside.

 

[faster horses]

Glad you are taking the cow to ride along too.
Both cow and calf will be much happier.
Good luck with finding out what is going on with the eye.
Let us know, please.

 

[MurraysMutts]

Being born with one or both eyeballs missing was a rare birth defect we began seeing on wild and domestic animals after the other very common or more common birth defects, especially underbite, overbite, reproductive malformations, heart defects, inflammation of the lungs, underdeveloped and/or inflamed thymus and missing digits or limbs began being observed on vertebrates in 1995. Prior to 1995, nondevelopment of the eyeballs or extremely small eyes and blindness had not been observed by my colleagues or by me. Some of the species that I remember documenting with similar disrupted eye development to the calf in the photo included a horse foal (no eyeballs formed in the sockets), a beef calf (no eyeballs formed in the sockets), a domestic goat (no eyeballs formed in the sockets), a Black-billed Magpie (very small eyes and blindness) and a western toad (right eye not formed at all).

I'm curious, what what the conclusion of your observations?

 

[J Hoy]

I based my conclusions on scientific studies. The most common birth defects on wild and domestic grazing animals were shown by a study published in Nature in 2019 to be caused by deliberate exposure to imidacloprid in white-tailed deer (Berheim, E.H., Jenks, J.A., Lundgren, J.G., Michel, E.S., Grove, D., Jensen, W.F., 2019. Effects of neonicotinoid insecticides on physiology and reproductive characteristics of captive female and fawn white-tailed deer. Sci. Rep.9:4534. https:// doi: 10.1038/s41598-019-40994-9). A few newborns of nearly all the species of wild and domestic grazing animals here in Montana had an underbite at birth beginning in 1995 and a high prevalence of males of wild grazing animals had reproductive malformations. We did not examine male domestic animals because they are neutered fairly young. Almost no ranchers would admit that their livestock had birth defects, so it was difficult to track the birth defects on most livestock, except for domestic goats, which had and still have a high prevalence of underbite. Not likely a coincidence, large amounts of imidacloprid began being used in the fields of the states directly upwind of Montana and here in Montana in spring of 1994. The birth defects like no eyeballs formed or small eyes, blindness or other eye malformations and missing ears, digits or limbs were very low in prevalence However in 25 years of rehabbing and observing animals prior to 1995, those birth defects had not been observed on any animals, so the over 30 animals combined with those birth defects I documented since 1995 would seem to be important. Other studies show that the glyphosate in Roundup causes mineral deficiencies and mineral deficiencies can cause disrupted development in fetuses. Many studies have shown that glyphosate works synergistically with imidacloprid, causing some animals to die 1000 times faster than when exposed to either alone. In 1996, huge amounts of glyphosate based herbicides began being used here and upwind on Roundup Ready crops. By spring of 1997, it was very difficult to keep a newborn animal alive and three doctors told me I would likely die in 6 months if they couldn't get rid of the extreme inflammation that had suddenly occurred in my lungs in summer of 1994 and continued to get worse, especially in summer of 1997. Fortunately for me, I found that taking MSM, commonly used on horses for lung issues, helped and I am still alive, but I eventually got pulmonary fibrosis - not good for lungs. Several friends got pulmonary fibrosis also and a couple just stopped breathing. I still miss them. Quite a few young birds and mammals just stopped breathing since 1995, but I could never get anyone to address the birth defects and death to vertebrates and invertebrates and that of course includes the humans.

 

[jschoolcraft86]

The trip was uneventful. The vet said she does not have an eyeball and it's a small socket that is already mostly fused. She's too young to do any procedures on and because she looks to be doing well to just observe and when she's more like 6-8 months if it is still weepy they may clean out the socket and sew it shut. Perhaps this is a time for the benign neglect I have read about on here.

 

[MurraysMutts]

The trip was uneventful. The vet said she does not have an eyeball and it's a small socket that is already mostly fused. She's too young to do any procedures on and because she looks to be doing well to just observe and when she's more like 6-8 months if it is still weepy they may clean out the socket and sew it shut. Perhaps this is a time for the benign neglect I have read about on here.

Very interesting.
So just an odd birth defect?

Did the vet give any clues as to cause? Too much round up? Sick cow? Cow ate something it shouldn't have? Just a freak thing?

And did the vet check that calf for an underbite? Or any other underdeveloped stuff?

 

[jschoolcraft86]

They didn't venture any guesses as to the cause but the rest of the calf was normal. Now the only major questions I can think of are how it will look at 6 months and if there's anything odd about the reproductive tract when she's old enough to breed. Hopefully this is the only surprise.

The cow wasn't exposed to roundup or herbicides that I'm aware of so I think it's safe to cross that one off the list. I've got my fingers crossed that I was just the lucky beneficiary of one of those rare defects!

 

[uplandnut]

Not having 1 eye won't effect her ability to grow. If nothing else you can fill your freezer when she gets filled out. I have one this year that was born without a tail, thinking I might do the same with her as I'm sure I'll get docked at the sale barn.

 

[MurraysMutts]

without a tail,

thinking I'll get docked at the sale barn.

That's fun stuff right there!

You'll have to sell her wholesale, cuz ya sure can't re tail her....

 

[bird dog]

I had a bull calf without a tail last spring. Ironically it was probably the best steer in the group as far as looks and growth. I took it in with the rest after weaning and backgrounding weighing 725 or so. The ones closest to it brought $1050. No tail brought $875.