: One of our Limousin heifers delivered a healthy female calf.<br>: Now she refuses to let her nurse. She simply won't stand<br>: still and kicks at the calf. We had no trouble feeding<br>: the calf with a bottle until last evening, when the mother<br>: turned violent and charged the gate. The baby seems to have<br>: been able FINALLY to nurse off another recent momma. <p>: What would have made her NOT want to nurse? She seems to have<br>: a full udder and it doesn't look discolored.<p>: Should we wait to see if the reluctant mother will ever let<br>: baby nurse, or is she just a good candidate for butchering<br>: in a few weeks? <p>I assume this is the cow's first calf. If the cow has some interest in the calf and the calf is strong enough to nurse I would pen them together and watch what happens. You may try putting on some of the Calf Claim (manufactured under several names) to see if she accepts the calf better. Stick around to see if she lets it nurse. Hopefully, she will get it figured out and let the baby nurse. If you can, you may wish to keep them together for a few days and keep an eye on them. Perhaps, if all goes well, she will go ahead and raise her calf, especially since she seems to have milk. If she still kicks at it, I guess you have a bottle calf for a while.<br>Good Luck.<p>We had a cow (past tense) that would deliver and lick off her calf, but would refuse to let it nurse (at least for about the first 12-24 hrs). Her first calf was born in a horrible wet snow. We barely got to the calf in time, had to tube it and bottle feed it for a couple of days, we then penned it back up (nested in a bale of alfalfa) with his mother - she reclaimed this calf and took great care of him. Her second calf was born, she licked him off; but when he went to nurse she kicked him to where he flew/rolled about 20 ft. Gave him clostrum/bottle . Later we put "Calf Claim" on him and she licked/mothered him and finally let him nurse. Another happy story - great calf. With her heifer this spring, she did the same thing to - but, kicked it so hard that it must have gotten internal injuries and died in about a week (despite clostrum/electrolyte etc). 5 year old good producing cow met sale barn. We gave her the benefit of the doubt after the first calf, but had her calf survived this spring, we were going to sell her this fall anyway. We did have one heifer that calved this spring that had a little trouble getting started. The calf seemed a little weak (didn't see him born or up, not sure if she kicked him), got cow in headgate, milked her and bottle fed him. Within a few hours he was up and nursing fine (on cow). Both are fine now. Hopefully, we are not asking for trouble again, but we plan on giving this cow another chance because we are not sure if he was just born a little weak or what. Sometimes heifers are just "goofy" and need some help. The calf kicking would make me leary, but if all goes well this year and you have the time and energy to watch her next year - you may wish to give her one more chance (especially if she is a good cow). Else, wean early and sell one (hopefully) bred cow.
