need advice on a calf

[snickers]

we had a big bull calf saturday and it was snowing like crazy and about 20 deg. we found this calf still wet and not sure he had been up, the momma didnt seem to want him she wanted the calf that was born the day before. we loaded him up took him to shed and dried him off and put him in the barn with momma. the momma will talk to him but she doesnt really pay to much attention but she will shake her head if we get close to him. we ended up feeding him a bottle of colostrum and now the darn thing will not even look for the teats to nurse he thinks I'm his momma. i have only given him 1 bottle sunday and again yesterday and he sucked those down really fast so he's hungry but he doesnt look for mom. have any of you had a calf to get on the momma after feeding a bottle. we had that to happen along time ago but it didnt take this long for that to happen. I think he is just a dummy calf. today we are gonna get her in the head gate and try to put him on her but there's not enough room to do that so we have to do some moderation to the shute/head gate. ugh always something.

 

[randiliana]

I'd wonder if she kicked him and now he's spooked to try again? One thing that I find works well is to give him part of a bottle and then when he is still hungry and looking, aim him at her udder. That will usually work as long as she is restrained enough that she can't kick him again.

 

[snickers]

yes we tried that too but she wouldnt let us get close enough to put him on her, he would be looking but just couldnt get it figured out. today hopefully we get her in the head gate and able to get him on her and everything will be peachy. lol

 

[snickers]

we got our headgate and shute fixed so we could get the calf on the cow and he nursed with help getting the teat in his mouth but he did get on a couple by hisself. hopefully today when we go out he will have nursed i'm keeping my fingers crossed. the cow kicked at first but then she settled down and let him have all he wanted. I just hope once will do the trick because she is not the easiest to handle and she is big. we think she will go for a road trip and thats a shame because she is only 5.

 

[dun]

If it was a first calver that could explain the allowing it to nurse issues. First of all they don;t seem to remember when they were calves and nursing, second they're frequently kind of confused about where that thing came form and it caused her pain, the biggest one is frequently the udder and teats are very sensitive and having the calf nursing at first causes discomfort. After the calf nurses down the udder a little and the tightness goes away they seem to finally get it and realize that the calf nursing is what helped to get rid of that discomfort. Just my theorys

 

[snickers]

thanks dun for your theorys, the cow isnt to bad at kicking only when i was helping. but the problem is the calf doesnt know what those things hanging there are for. ha ha but since he did get on them twice by hisself maybe he will smarten up i hope.

 

[Suzie Q]

If the cows udder is too big and thus too low, then the problem is with the cow and not the calf. Calves naturally go up to drink. They will try and suck on the tail, the chest, anything but the teats.

This is not usual with a first time calver though, although she sounds too old to be a first time calver?

 

[snickers]

yeah she has had a set of twins that she took care of both, a big bull last yr. and she is really tall but the udders are alittle bigger but not bad. so i think he's just dumb.

 

[snickers]

quick update the dummy smartened up, we went to check on him and low and behold the little booger was out in the lot with mom and sucking like crazy on his own. thank God for small miracles.

 

[farmwriter]

Glad to see they are figuring things out. I love when people come back and post good news.

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

thanks for the update Snickers - nice when things work out.