Momma died and left 6-7 week old calf who is very weak.

[dun]

How much are you managing to get in to him per day?

 

[Nite Hawk]

There is no guarantee the cow he is feeding off of has enough milk for both calves , although most would have.
Also, unless he is an agressive feeder, he may have gotten pushed out by the other calf.
Easier to simply seperate him and bottle / bucket feed him for a while so you know exactly how much food he is getting and not guess about it. If he gets too much he can scour and lose condition, or not enough and he can go back down again...
Nite Hawk

 

[Baselinefarm]

It is possible for the little guy just to give up due to grief?

 

[dun]

It is possible for the little guy just to give up due to grief?

No! Giving up would be because he either isn;t getting enough to eat, he's sick, or in pain. When the light goes out of his eyes you'll know he's given up and it's best to just shot him.

 

[chippie]

It is possible for the little guy just to give up due to grief?

No. The bean plants and grass is not giving him the nutrition he needs. His digestive system can not utilize it. If he is not improving, it may be time to put him down. Better a day too soon, than a day too late.

 

[Beefy]

if the calf was strong enough to nurse off another cow out in the pasture, it should have been strong enough to survive if it had an adequate food source available even as young as it was. even if that was only grass and it had to learn to eat grass. so either it doesnt have anything at all to eat or it has something else wrong with it. since the cow died i'm leaning toward it probably has the same thing wrong with it the cow had. and not a spinal chord injury. in other words it is diseased or has a heavy parasite load. ive never seen a healthy orphaned calf starve to death over 2-3 weeks if it had anything at all to eat. sure they may get stunted and rough and look like crap. the gradual weakening and loss of weight sure sounds like parasites to me. did you just find the cow dead or did you find her unable to get up? is it not possible to pen him with the cow he was snitching milk from in the past? or even fix your fences better? sounds like hes too weak to get in the road now and hes given up on looking for mom by now.

 

[vclavin]

Interesting you mention that Valerie. I asked my husband the same thing last night. hum...... He is eating some green bean plants and grass we put before him. He isn't wanting to eat grain though. We have to push some in his mouth. He is standing up and moving but is very weak. His legs wobble. We still use a syringe feeder and force milk in him, although he doesn't seem to mind. We haven't done the tube feeding yet. Seems ok doing what were doing, still getting the milk and electrolites in. I am concerned about the grain though.

How's the calf? We had a blind bull calf we had bought from a dairy, years ago, we gave shots of Vitamin A, E and I've forgotten what else and how much. Some shots were daily and some were every other day. Doc said he had a virus or something in his brain? Anyway, after a week or so, he got his sight back he was several months old and had to be put back on the bottle.. We put him in a pen where he could easily find food and water ,and then didn't move anything so he'd get the idea of where it all was located.
Blessings
Valerie