Newbie to Calves- Looking for answers and help.

[AmyL]

Hi, My name Amy I am trying to learn and help an appx 18 day old calf. Who was kind of dropped on us. She is a Jersey/ Angus Cross. She was brought to us Nov 3 about midnight. The only information i received was she was a jersey/ Angus cross, she was 3 days old and had colostrum from mom and she had already been feed for the evening. Calf is on a dumor milk replacer ( Soy Based). Got 2 calves in and down for the night in small padlock. next am 7 am, feed both girls from bottle- no problems, 12 hours later go to feed and Holstein cross is weak in back legs like jello. I gave her b12 complex for a few days. feeding is going good. 5 days after getting the calves Jersey cross has the sours and is weak, no interest in bottle. Start tubing fluids, electrolytes- Bounce-back. Reached out to a few cattle friends. they suggested a type of Bollus- They were brought to me so i never got the name. We started them on save a calf diarrhea and pneumonia treatment that is mixed in to formula at 1 ounce per pound. Calves got better thru the week. eating good, normal stools. 7 days later they are both floppy back legs, diarrhea and no interest in bottle. Oh course on a Sunday, I reach out to 3 different vets. No response ( Our area is literally only good if you own horses for a vet). Reached out to Cattle friend who suggested penicillin at 1.5 times dose, and follow up on another dose 2 days later. That was done. Girls were good on Monday both Drank in the am. jersey cross drank pm bottle, Holstein cross only about half. I checked on them at about 12:30 am when coming home from work. they were fine, perked heads moo'd at me. Got up at 7 am on Tuesday and the Holstein cross was dead. The Jersey cross since Tuesday will only freely take her am bottle and drink electrolytes from a bucket thru the day. Stool seems to be firming up. However she is now alone and will only get up to feed in am. Usually with some coaching. Any ideas or suggestions, she is was 39 pounds on Nov 5th and on Nov 15th she was 33 pounds. The calf the died lost weight also. I might also add that at any point I took temperatures they were between 102.4 and 102.8.

We raise pigs, chickens and boer goats and thru fair season my daughter shows Beef Steer. I know how and what i would do with a goat.... but I'm not dealing with a goat. Any input? Please remember I've already reached out to a few vets and have gotten nowhere.

 

[Rafter S]

Hello Amy,

I haven't fooled with bottle calves much for a number of years, but nothing jumps out at me. It sounds like you're doing the right things. Hopefully someone else will have an idea. Welcome to the forum.

 

[rla442]

I have bottle fed both Holstein and jersey's as that's the way I started out. They have to be the hardest animals to try to keep alive. Eat fine one day and the next day they tailspin down. If you search the archives here there's been a ton of info on bottle raising Holsteins. One thing that I learned was don't over feed them. I think some of my problems with scours was actually just getting too much milk. Another thing, is get the best milk replacer you can. loose the Soy based. If your buying the milk replacer from Tractor Supply or one of the other box stores, it may pay you to go to the local feed mill and see what they carry. You'll pay more but its better quality--you can smell the difference. Once I stopped using TSC's milk replacer I had better luck. I also mix a little electrolytes -I think its called Power Punch (its a liquid) in with the milk replacer at each feeding.

 

[Rafter S]

I forgot to mention it earlier, but when I was raising bottle calves I was told by someone that feeding a raw egg in the milk once or twice a week would help prevent scours. I usually did that, and didn't have much trouble with scours. I can't say for sure that the eggs helped, but it can't hurt.

 

[msplmtneer]

:welcome: to the board, sorry for your loss good luck with the the other one. I agree to get rid of the soy based milk replacer.

 

[AmyL]

Thank for reaching out. Thankfully one of the ladies I'm working with own beef cattle and a feed store. The other has been raising beef cattle for several years. This morning I hit bottom and just sat and cried( something I really don't do anymore- I thought I had become numb at the loss of livestock) the Jersey calf wouldn't take her morning bottle and as I sat there rubbing her talking to her about drinking. I see she now going bald!!! Just comes off in clumps. I talked to my mentors and we decided to use a dewormer and add pro-bios . change feed to 1/2bottles 4 times a day with pro-bios morning and evening. I read somewhere online people treat with dimethox at 25 ml per pound. Have any of you treated this way?

 

[regolith]

probios is a good idea. Dewormer at that age probably completely unnecessary.

Calves already weak from scours very susceptible to other infections - which may be what happened when they appear to recover and then relapse.
39 lb is a pretty small calf. If your bottle is a 2 litre one (or the equivalent in your measurements) then four half bottles (of milk) is four litres which is sufficient for a 90lb newborn. And grossly overfeeding your 33 lb Jersey. Okay, I do feed calves that size that much milk, but it's whole milk straight from their vaccinated mothers (vaccinated to increase rotavirus protection) and I've been doing this for a lot of years now.
2 half bottles of milk with the probiotic twice a day. Two half bottles of electrolyte in between, and at least four hours after, the milk feed. Use a whole-milk replacer rather than a soy or whey based one. Encourage the calf to start eating an appropriate grain-based feed - she needs the energy, and while she's scouring she may not be able to absorb enough nutrients from her milk feeds. When she's fully fit the milk can be increased, and the electrolyte phased out.

I don't know anything about dimethox.
I'm presuming the baldness is around her rump/hind legs and maybe nose? Milk and milk scours can cause that.

 

[AmyL]

Thank you for your advise. I will be headed to find non soy based formula in the am. Thank you all again....

 

[dun]

Besides the milk replacer being milk and milk by products without soy, it should be 20%fat and 20% protein