orphan calf with the runs

[Anonymous]

your site helped us a great deal as we were given our first orphan calf. in the beginning, she was too weak to suck. with the info from your site, we finally got her sucking after trying for 2 days. now its been 2 weeks and shes doing great except the milk replacer has made her bowel movements very runny. is this normal? she does not appear to be sick, just very runny. can i add something to the replacer? any suggestions would be much appreciated. thanks.

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[Anonymous]

Since your calf had a slow start, it may not have received all the proper immunities from colostrum. It will be a prime candidate to get sick so keep watching closely. If you are sure the calf is not starting to get sick (taken the temperature), you may be overfeeding. First, be sure that you are feeding the BEST MEDICATED milk replacer you can get. Follow the feeding amounts. Is the calf in a place where it can eat grass? Grass is fine, but it does "loosen" the stool for all the animals. If it is not on grass, you might offer it some nice grass hay. Jeanne
> your site helped us a great deal
> as we were given our first orphan
> calf. in the beginning, she was
> too weak to suck. with the info
> from your site, we finally got her
> sucking after trying for 2 days.
> now its been 2 weeks and shes
> doing great except the milk
> replacer has made her bowel
> movements very runny. is this
> normal? she does not appear to be
> sick, just very runny. can i add
> something to the replacer? any
> suggestions would be much
> appreciated. thanks.

Simme Valley in NY
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[Anonymous]

Nothing is better than real cow's Milk, there is a possibility that the milk replacer is too rich. I would suggest, lessening the concentration of the milk replacer and watch the calf to see if the stool firms up. It should.

If this calf has scours I would recomend adding some electrolites to the Milk Replacer, or just give in place of MR for one feeding to try and get the calf rehydrated. You can also give the calf some probiotics, FastTrack, or Probios, to help get its rumen up and running, if you have another bovine, get the calf with that one so it can learne to eat and graze.

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