Jersy Calf

[D_skro]

I am new to farming and I had a jersy calf die today. she didnot seem very healthy when I brought her home from the auction 2 weeks ago but I fed her electrolites the first two days and she seemed better. then after that she had diarea and I fed her electrolites with a little powered milk and gave her scour pills every day 3 penicilin shots and last nite I gave her a shot of LA200 is there anything elese I could have done for her. her scoures never were that bad and I stoped giveing powered milk as she had scours should I have given her any powered milk. thanks you for any help

 

[msscamp]

Did you, at any time, give this calf milk replacer? If not, that is probably a good part of why she died. Powdered milk is not suitable for raising calves because it does not have the proper formulation of vitamins, minerals, protien and fat needed for health and growth. The scours did not help her chances of survival, either, but with proper feed she probably would have gotten over the scours. You don't mention what type of scour pills you used, but are you sure they were only supposed to be given once a day? Generally speaking, scour treatments are usually given twice a day. Scours don't have to be 'very bad' to kill a calf of this age, the dehydration as a result of scours messes up the metabolic balance of essential elements (potassium is a big one because it plays a pretty major role in regulating heartbeat), and can cause systems to shut down because of it. Electrolytes will rehydrate and help maintain a proper metabolic balance, but they have to be given on a regular basis, and some brands of electrolytes cannot be given in conjuction with milk. Unless there was some type of secondary infection, LA200 is generally ineffective against most scours because scours are usually caused by a virus or a parasite - the only exception to that (that I can think of) being e-coli which is a bacterium. I don't mean to come down on you, but why did you not find out how to feed this calf before you bought her? And why did you not call the vet when she was not making any progress?

 

[Gary J Gale]

It sounds like you probably got a batch of bad advise, from neighbors.....possibly!! Many out there give it freely about topics they actually no very little about! A veterinarian is probably who you should have called, if nothing else for the knowledge you would have gained for the "next time." Baby calves are always kind of a risky, sometimes heart breaking business any way. I agree with msscamp. I would have done my homework before bringing calf home....and.....the next time.....if the calf "doesn't seem healthy" I would not buy it. That was your biggest goof! Your instincts were right! Were you coaxed into the purchase ..maybe?

 

[D_skro]

THis is the 10th calf I had bought over the last 2 years the other 9 are doing fine we have fed milk replacer all along. I did call the vet and the first time i talked to them the said they were going to give me somthing and then i called back and the said to keep giving it what i was scince it got better on the second day i think my bigest mistake was not talking to the vet directly but talking to his assistnces, and I was feeding it scour pills twice a day.
And the reason i thought it would be alright is becaus it was just born that morning. anothering thing is all the farmers tell you not to bay a calf from the auction because they pickup sickness but we have stoped at over 40 farms and no one will sell a calf.

 

[D_skro]

What exactly is LA200 we got it from a farmer down the road and at that point we were willing to try anything

 

[msscamp]

What exactly is LA200 we got it from a farmer down the rhoad and at that point we were willing to try anything

LA200 is an antibiotic - Oxytetracycline I think. You stated this calf was just born that morning - did she get colostrum? If not, that is another pretty big part of why she died. I don't understand why you stated powdered milk when you were feeding milk replacer. Does your milk replacer have at least 20% fat and protein, and made from milk byproducts as opposed to soy? I apologize for misinterpreting your statement about scour pills. What kind were you giving her?

 

[D_skro]

I refer to milk replacer as powdered milk or milk replacer sorry. I will have to check on my milk replacer,and scour pills, what should I look for in a milk replacer. and they said he fed it but they did not say what, and i bought powered colostrum for it but it drank very little and i was going to buy more for it today but it was to late

 

[msscamp]

I refer to milk replacer as powdered milk or milk replacer sorry.

It's ok - it just threw me off because I interpreted 'powdered milk' to be just that.

I will have to check on my milk replacer,and scour pills, what should I look for in a milk replacer.

The first ingredient in milk replacer should be milk byproducts, and it should be at least 20% fat and 20% protein.

and they said he fed it but they did not say what, and i bought powered colostrum for it but it drank very little and i was going to buy more for it today but it was to late

He shouldn't have had to fed the calf - the calf's mother would have provided the colostrum had she been allowed to nurse. Something to be aware of - a calf can only absorb the antibodies from colostrum for the first 24 hours of life, and the calf's ability to absorb them decreases with each passing hour. There is some argument about whether this is true or not, but I go by the 24 hours following birth just to be safe. If I'm buying a newborn at the salebarn, I always assume it hasn't and feed it colostrum for every feeding that day. It would not have done a bit of good to give the calf colostrum 2 weeks following birth and, considering that colostrum tends to be rather rich (even the powdered stuff), may have done more harm than good since she was already scouring. I apologize again because, I've been so busy trying to help you figure out what happened, that I forgot to tell you I'm sorry she died.

 

[D_skro]

The thing that was wierd was we went to feed her she got up fine a came and drank about the best she had in all the time we had her but seemed weak, then we went to see our nabers to see if they had any advice and when we came back she could not even get up. what exactly do you think she die from was it the scours or do you think it was somthing else

 

[Alice]

Jersey bottle babies are tough...

You said that you bought 10 and 9 are still alive. That's not bad. You also said something about withholding milk and giving electrolytes. Why did you give the calf electrolytes the first 2 days? I give electrolytes when I bring a calf home from the sale barn, but the next morning he gets milk replacer. Sometimes I'll give the calf powdered colostrum if the calf is obviously only hours old, but, like Msscamp said, colostrum needs to be given within the first 24 hours and it's tricky to tell how many hours old a wobbly baby calf is when it's going thru the auction ring.

How long did you withhold the milk when he began to scour? Common thought now is that you never withhold milk...you give electrolytes about an hour to 2 hours after you give them milk, in fact many electrolytes instructions now state that you not withhold milk; that's why it's important to read the label instructions on the electrolytes. Withholding milk too long will make them weak and there's no nutrition in electrolytes, ergo they don't have the strength to fight off the illness...and the illness perpetuates.

Chances are the calf had too many strikes against it in the first place...especially if it had no colostrum. You also had a lot of well meaning advice, perhaps too much of it. I'm not dissing you...I know how that is.

Learn from your experience and research raising bottle baby calves. Read, read, and read some more. Raising sale barn baby dairy calves is not for the faint hearted...I tell myself that over, and over, and over....

Alice

 

[msscamp]

D, that is impossible for me to say since I never saw this calf, I don't know how much you were feeding her each day, how much of the electrolytes you were feeding, exactly how bad her scours were, etc. There have been a number of posts on here about Jerseys being hard to keep alive, and I've never tried to raise a dairy bottle calf simply because they are not popular in the area I live in. That does sound a little strange, though. Where was she being housed? Any chance she could have gotten into something she shouldn't have been in?

 

[D_skro]

9 out of 10 is not bad excpt number 10 was the one I made a pet out of. my electolites say to not give milk replacer untill she starts to get better but every time she got better we would put 1oz of milk replacer and she would get worse again .

She was in a pen in the barn so she could not have got into anything

Alice just wondering how much do day old calves sell for in you area?

 

[Alice]

9 out of 10 is not bad excpt number 10 was the one I made a pet out of. my electolites say to not give milk replacer untill she starts to get better but every time she got better we would put 1oz of milk replacer and she would get worse again .

She was in a pen in the barn so she could not have got into anything

Alice just wondering how much do day old calves sell for in you area?

Next go round, make sure you get electrolytes that are compatable with feeding milk. Not too terribly long ago farmers and calf raisers and even vets swore that milk replacer had to be withheld until the scours were gone...and literally starved the calves to death.

One other thing...the calf was kept in the barn. Was it on a cement floor. If it was, then that could have contributed to the calf dying. Cement floors and baby calves just don't work.

Around here, lately at least, a new bottle baby Jersey bull calf in good condition might bring 30 bucks, high end...heifer calf, $75 absolute tops. In average condition $20 for a bull calf, $50 for a heifer, and not good condition, heifer or bull $5 all the way down to give away.

Alice

 

[Gary J Gale]

My heart goes out to you, I've been where you are now, Not with Jersy calves but for a long while I was buying 2 to 3 week old Holstein Bull calves. As was said before, if they have not had their colostrum early on they are probably destined to die, despite any ones best efforts!! I've broke down,called the Vet. over the years, twice.........both times the calf died after treated by Vet? Now, I try to buy the buggers a litlle older. It can be heart breaking sometimes. My guess is your calf probably dehydrated due to the diarrea / scouring and all else...respiratory problems no doubt? They stop drinking you need to get the fluid to them by drenching. Even then, unfortunatly sometimes they still die. As far as the LA200, Bio-Mycin products(oxytetracycline), I have never had much luck with it, at all! I have saved a lot of calves with Nuflor and/or Baytril though...you'll have to get that through a Veterinarian. Do you have any local Dairy's? Most of the time they contract out to someone for all of their Bull calves.......but as in my case there were always some available that were born late/early.......maybe some cross bred holstein heifer calves were available? By buying them directly from dairy at least they are not so stressed with trip to sale barn and all that invloves. I wish you luck in future, each calf is a good learning experience if nothing else. In the end you'll save more than you lose!

 

[D_skro]

jersey heffer calves here are going from $2.00 to $4.00 dollars a pound, holstine jersey cross go for $3 to $5 dollars a pound and holstines go for up tp $6.50 a pound and the big Dairy's would sell you a bull but not heffers.

I Had put 2 bales of hay on the floor when we brought her home.

 

[Alice]

jersey heffer calves here are going from $2.00 to $4.00 dollars a pound, holstine jersey cross go for $3 to $5 dollars a pound and holstines go for up tp $6.50 a pound and the big Dairy's would sell you a bull but not heffers.

I Had put 2 bales of hay on the floor when we brought her home.

They don't sell bottle babies by the pound here...just by the head. Those little jerseys can't weigh much...but just by what you are saying, they must be considerably higher where you are. Here, you can buy them at an average of $20 per head.

Cement floor: I caution you strongly about putting a calf on a cement floor even with 2 bales of hay. Hay shifts and gets really, really nasty when a calf scours. And, the cement floor won't give and will stay cold and damp. Make a pen out of hog panel and tin, and if it's cold where you are, put hay on the ground inside of the pen under the shelter part. Those babies need fresh air and sunlight. The pen needs to be large enough that the baby calf can move around easily...be able to run and buck a little bit.

Alice

 

[cowspider]

I have found Jersey calves are hardier Than Holstein calves.
has anyone else found this to be true?? :?: :cboy:

We can buy jersey bull calves foe $2.oo ea.

 

[mystery74]

jersey heffer calves here are going from $2.00 to $4.00 dollars a pound, holstine jersey cross go for $3 to $5 dollars a pound and holstines go for up tp $6.50 a pound and the big Dairy's would sell you a bull but not heffers.

I Had put 2 bales of hay on the floor when we brought her home.

I think all the cards were stacked up against this calf, for the first time i bought a calf on the day it was born, they pulled it off its mom immediately normally all of our calves we buy are on their mom for the first day, well anyways, since i brought this calf home 8 months ago i have had nothing but problems, pneumonia 3 times numerous bacterial problems and now whatever he has is a mystery he is still living , but i will never ever buy a calf unless it has been on his mom 24 hours, just some helpful advice,

 

[Alice]

I have found Jersey calves are hardier Than Holstein calves.
has anyone else found this to be true?? :?: :cboy:

I would have to agree, but not by alot. I think maybe they're quicker to stand and look for a meal.

Around here, both Jersey and Holstein bulls are whisked off the second their found, especially if it's on a sale day...so there's sure no guarantee they've had colostrum.

Alice

 

[mystery74]

the price where you are is extreme I think, we pay by the head , we DO NOT buy calves at sale barns, we stick with people we know or we stop and ask,, I made the mistake of buying a couple of hours old calf, i would recommend NO ONE doing that unless you know the person, we didnt know him he was recommended ,
also on another note I would pick a holstein over a jersey any day, but I would also choose a good brown swiss over either of those two, sorry to hear your loss, though its just trial and error from here on out, i think at least you tried some wouldnt have really done all that much