holstein knuckled over

[ameadows]

Hi everyone. I am new to this site. I bought a 4 day old Holstein bull calf yesterday. The dairy farmer didn't want him because he was "knuckled over" on his front hooves. He weighed over 100 lbs at birth. He is drinking well from the botle I am giving him and tries very hard to stand up, which he can do it just looks uncomfortable and he doesn't have great balance. My husband has kind of sat him over his lap to feed him. Quite a big baby. I have been massagin his tendons at the back of his hooves in hope that will help his feet straighten out.

Does anyone have any suggestions or info. And please can someone tell me how fast these guys grow and what is the best way to handle him. He is pretty cute right now but I realize he is a bull and will be large. I don't know much about Holstein temperment.

Please advise
A meadows

 

[dun]

The rule of thumb is if you splint the legks they'll straighten out in 6 weeks, if you don;t do anything they'll straighten out ina month and half. Bumble foot is common, nothing to worry about unless he's walking on his knees. Excercise and groceries and he'll 99.9% straighten right out with out any inteference

dun

 

[Alice]

What dun said..

As far as holstein bull temperment...the only one that I've had dealings with up close and personal was about 30 years ago. My Daddy had a fantastic holstein bull that attacked the farm truck constantly while it was in motion, attacked my grandfather and put him in the hospital, attacked my brother when he was goofy enough to TRY to get even with him for attacking my grandfather (my brother was about 18 at the time, and wound up on crutches), and when my Daddy finally got him loaded went straight to the packer. After that, Daddy AI'd.

Now, I'm not saying that all holstein bulls have bad temperments, but I've never been comfortable around one since.

Alice

 

[Elaina]

As with any animal, different ones will have different temperaments. I raised Holsteins for many years, and was around in and helped out at many dairy farms. I have seen few Holsteins with bad tempers. But, ANY animal can be dangerous if the right situation arises. Especially a large animal like a full grown cow.

They grow fairly quickly, and can easily become pretty tame. Years ago, one that I was raising, I got it so tame accidentally, that it would follow me around the field and try to rub up against me.

Are you wanting to keep him as a bull, or are you going to make him a steer?

 

[holly heifer]

Be vary of a tame bottle raised bull. I have raised
2, the first being a Simmential. I was ignorant to the ways of
a "tame" bull. As a "baby" I played with him, he'd follow me around, head butt me, ect. Therefore, he did not
respect people and thought they were his playthings. We
did use him on the cows, he had wonderful calves. We had to
carry a club whenever we were in the lot with him. Dad had
a gun in the truck and we were told to " shoot the SOB if
he ever attacked him". Only once did dad hit the bull across
the nose with the" club"--- from then on he would keep his distance. :roll: i sold the old guy last year, he fetched
$1000 at the sale barn. The other is a reg Angus
that was a twin. He is 6 years old and is the bull I use on my
bottle heifers. His babies are small but nice. He was raised
differently than the first bull, I did not "play "with him. He is
gentle, but respects me. Still, I never turn my back on any bull
and never get in a situation where I can not get away safely.
When he had a foot injury, I medicated him and hosed the leg
without restraining him. His calves are also very quiet and easy
to handle.

 

[Beefy]

just massaging the tendon and flexing it will do wonders. correct it when he is standing but dont make him stand right the whole time, it might strain the tendon. a lot of times one will straighten out before the other one. the ones ive dealt with have pretty much all straighted out within a week.