new calf

[memanpa]

went down to the corrals this morning to feed and a hiefer gave me a gift a few minutes before i got there, a little bull calf, she was cleaning him very attentive figured him to be less than an hour old so i fiigured there should be no problems, fed her, fed the others and went to an auction, got home about 7 hrs later went to check things out, calf was up but every time he tried to nurse she would kick him away! calf seemed a little weak, so i got her into the chute, managed to get a little over a pint of milk into a bottle and fed the calf, then got him to nurse a little! she was not happy with me hand milking her,
my question is was i too late to get the colsterum into him? probabally a total of about 8-9 hrs after birth.
i am not 100% sure he hadn't nursed but i would rather err on the side of precaution.
after i turned her loose she did let him nurse a little, and he seemed to be a little less shakey!

opinions?

 

[bigbull338]

as long as you get the clostrum in him with in 12hrs .he should be ok.id keep an eye on him.an see if he is sucking her.scott

 

[memanpa]

thanks scott, i fully intend on checking again at first daylight, but feel better after seeing him suck after i turned em back out!

 

[bigbull338]

him sucking her is a good sign.just got to make sure he keeps sucking her.scott

 

[msscamp]

While the colostrum is not going to do the intended job at 7-8 hours as effectively as it would have at 1-2 hours, you should be fine. First-calf heifers are funny critter's and you never know just what to expect from them. Congratulations on a job well-done!

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

You did a great job - responded quickly & properly. Could easily make the difference of the calf surviving heathily. Sometimes, heifers will kick when you are watching - kind of out of a nervous response. When you go back to check, try staying as far away as possible. Of course, if it's like when I check on things, the calf never is willing to TRY to nurse when I'm around. If in doubt, I would put cow in chute & try to get calf to nurse while she's in chute. OR, I would put food coloring on her teats so you will be able to tell if the calf sucks. I buy teat tip at TSC (it's light blue & thick) and I add blue food coloring to it - but you can't see it on black teats. When I am in doubt of a calf sucking, it reinforces me to see the teats all cleaned off.
Remember, a pint of milk is not very much, so be prepared to give the calf 2 quarts of powdered milk if it looks gant & you can't collect it from mom.

 

[memanpa]

just got back from checking on calf, he is trying to suck, she seems to be willing, still just a little dark to see much and wouln't ya know my flashlight has low batteries, my bad, usually have spares, couldn't see a lot am going to stay home today to keep an eye on em, and am ready with milk replacer if i need to!
i bought the heifer from a guy who bought it as a calf
for his kids to play with(old story) kids got tired of playing with it, he got tired of feeding it, made me an offer that i could not refuse
i was going to put wheels on her when i discovered she was preg!
not sure what bull or anything,not one of mine for sure, but she definatly never was meant as a keeper, probabally will sell em both as a pair soon!
thanks for the help, will keep ya posted if anything happens noteworthy!

 

[memanpa]

i do not think she is giving much milk! gave him a quart of milk replacer this morning he wnt to her and sucked for a few minutes and stopped, came back to me and drank another 1/2 quart!
then went back to her for a few minutes then laid down seeminly content!
almost the same thing at noon!
put her in the chute this after noon barely got 1/2 quart out of her, thinking she needs wheels sooner than i thought? as i said before she is not a keeper at all!, if i gotta bottle feed one what do i need her for?
milkmaid need a corrente cross bull calf? already drinking from a bottle
earlierist acution is wed! i kind of suspect they will put a price on them as a pair if it dosent get met they will spilt em!
i also kinda suspect he might be a little bit of a preemie, real small maybe 60 # still pretty shakey and wobbly
didn't know she was preg when i bought her,niether did the owner, have no history on her at all, other than she was bought as a kid's toy and they lost interest (bad bad) but the price was right for me, figured that a few # of good feed and i could make a few bucks, then i disciverd she was preg so decided to keep her till she dropped the calf,
opinions?

 

[bigbull338]

if you dont think she will milk enough.show her the trailer.an keep the calf at home an bottle it.b/c the calf is your profit.an she will go for weigh price.scott

 

[msscamp]

Don't give up just yet! We have had heifers calve with little milk and within a day or so their milk increased enough to support the calf. I'm not sure if this will do any good, but you might want to talk to your vet about giving her a shot of oxytocin. I'm not sure if there is a set window of time where that will work or not, I just know that in the case of cesearan sections the vet will give a shot of oxytocin to help the uterus contract back to it's normal size and it also helps the milk drop. Asking your vet about it can't hurt and it might help.

 

[tapeworm]

I vote for leave em alone and give em some more time..why do you want to meddle now when you didnt even take time when the calf was born to see it suck??

 

[milkmaid]

Oxytocin can be given at any time. My new nurse cow really held her milk the first couple times I put the calves on and I had to give her 1-2cc's so the calves could actually drink. This cow hasn't calved in at least 18 months and she is open right now.

Usually go 1-2cc's for milk letdown, 10cc's or so for uterine contractions.

The heifer may well be holding her milk - if she didn't like the calf that well in the first place it's perfectly logical to suspect she's holding it. If the calf doesn't appear hungry (bawling) then I wouldn't worry too much. Esp since they don't need that much the first couple days and if they do get too much milk they'll have scours. Not good in a day-old calf.

I had a heifer calf this spring that didn't get colostrum for ~24 hours after being born...long story, but she's about 575lbs right now and doing good. 8-9hrs isn't bad; I wouldn't fret that much.

 

[Susie David]

Had almost the same situation with a heifer we bought last year, 2004 ear tag, all her baby teeth and dropped a bull calf in April...probably first cycle bred. She didn't know what to do with the calf either another heifer helped her clean it...wouldn't nurse so I bottle fed and on and off the teat...finally settled and the mama started to nurse. He was a small little guy but is right at 450+# now. To my knowledge the calf only can asorb the colostrum for the first 24 hours and the ability declines rapidly after eight hours. DMc

 

[memanpa]

tapeworm!
read the entire post!
why am i meddling now /then because i was/am concerned!!
perfect world we would all have time to devote every second to each animal!! irriegardless of other duties!
i do not see how my presence for the whole duration of the time mentioned would have increased the heifers milk production!!!!
perhaps you could explain how this could happen????
based on prior experence i done what I felt was an acceptable practice!!
incidently SIR apparently others feel the same way!!!!
also SIR my meddling at such a late date 7 to 8 hours may/or may not have saved the calfs life, YOU nor I will ever know!!!!
also to have you know the calf is doing well, sucking mom. and recieving a supplimental bottle 3 times a day!!!
what you suggest is to keep my hands out of it and if the hiefer is not giving enough milk let the calf die! i refuse to do that!!!
have a good night MR TAPEWORM

 

[memanpa]

thanks to the REAL people of this board! those that read the entire post and offer good advice!!!
just to let you know calf was up sucking at daybreak, still wanted a bottle when i got there, but was trying to run a little, falling more often than not!
have a call into the vet but being the only large animal vet in the valley might not hear from him until morning cause i did not say it was an emergency!!!! do not feel it is at this point

 

[Beefy]

i didnt read the entire post but here is my opinion. you dont have much of a problem. the calf is nursing, the cow is allowing it now, he got colostrum within 24 hours. i would be more concerned about her milking. why did you only get a pint? was that all you could get? did you just try to get enough to start him on? if so then you dont know how much he got sucking on his own so she may be milking normally? did you try all four teats? if she is not milking the best thats not too uncommon for a heifer, especially if the calf was a few days early. if she was stressed out she may not have let her milk down but will under normal circumstances. calling the vet sounds like overkill to me. but if you got the extra $ i dont guess it could hurt.

 

[tapeworm]

tapeworm!
read the entire post!
why am i meddling now /then because i was/am concerned!!
perfect world we would all have time to devote every second to each animal!! irriegardless of other duties!
i do not see how my presence for the whole duration of the time mentioned would have increased the heifers milk production!!!!
perhaps you could explain how this could happen????
based on prior experence i done what I felt was an acceptable practice!!
incidently SIR apparently others feel the same way!!!!
also SIR my meddling at such a late date 7 to 8 hours may/or may not have saved the calfs life, YOU nor I will ever know!!!!
also to have you know the calf is doing well, sucking mom. and recieving a supplimental bottle 3 times a day!!!
what you suggest is to keep my hands out of it and if the hiefer is not giving enough milk let the calf die! i refuse to do that!!!
have a good night MR TAPEWORM

I did read it MR MEMAPA SIR...maybe your the one that needs to go back and read it. Do you just look for things to get chapped about?? Go back and read what you asked...your first posting had 2 questions marks in it...Ill repeat them for you since you forgot
MEMAPA questuion #1 "my question is was i too late to get the colsterum into him?"

MEMAP question # 2 "opinions? "

What I did was to give my OPINION about you being to late so dont get so uptight...you asked for opinions. And everbody cant pay attention to ever calf...I know that..ive even said that before...if you have to go work at the auction I undrstand....your job is more important. But you were talking about a HEIFER..you watched her licking her calf and assumed everthing would be okay because of that?? Key word here is HEIFER MEMA SIR...you do what you want to do but if I am around when a HEIFER is licking her calf Im going to try to be sure she lets it suck..not go on a computer and ask a bunch of strangers later that night if it got colostrum to late. If you want ME to jump in with everbody and tell you that you done good youve got a long wait


Good day MR MEMAPA SIR and good luck to your little pair

 

[msscamp]

Oxytocin can be given at any time. Usually go 1-2cc's for milk letdown, 10cc's or so for uterine contractions.

Thanks, Milkmaid.

 

[memanpa]

tapeworm
my original post was 9-08-2005 8:48
your first post was 9-10-2005 2:24
buy the time you decided to criticize my decision, the problem was well underhand! thanks to jeannie simme valley. and others!.
not once did you address the issues i asked about! other than ask 2 days later why i was meddiling at such a late date! i took what steps i felt necessary at the time which was same day!
and yes i did ask for help, that is what this board is about,to recieve help from others who have had similair experences!
no matter how experenced we might be sometimes it helps to get an outside opinion at the time!
thank you for the well wishes on the calf and hiefer, both are doing very well, vet was out today SHE said that from what she saw and heard every thing i done was all good, never once said i was medeling!
thanks to all of those of you that are knowledgable enough to know what i am talkiing about and understand the issue
:heart: :heart: :heart:

 

[Medic24]

Ok fellers..... back to your respective corners for a while eh?

keep it happy and fun and enlighting, huh? Please? :cboy: