Probably did it all wrong...need advice

[Bill Elliott]

Milkmaid...Thanks. I understand everything you are telling me. Where I am now...calf is standing on his own and taking small steps. Not putting much weight on right rear leg. He is taking bottle pretty good...up to about 4 qts per day. Starting to nibble on calf starter. Talked with Vet and he will come back out in two weeks. At that time we will re-evaluate. I know this goes against most thinking but I'll continue to work to keep this animal alive...unless animal's pain becomes noticable. Again, thanks for the advice...I do appreciate it. Cheers, Bill

 

[DavisBeefmasters]

Admirable effort in my opinion...

I hate to give up on an animal with the spirit to live as well -- vets have been wrong in the past, you never know.

I try to limit my mistakes to one a day (don't always succeed).

Let us know how it works out.

P.S. The bulls performance may not be a bad pairing. Track his performance and birth weights, if he generally throws big babies then think of getting a "heifer" bull, but if this is your last year of first time mommas, he'll be just fine.

Best of luck to you and the little calf.

 

[Victoria]

Bill,
I am wondering why the leg can't be casted. When you said hip I was presuming further up. We had a calf with a break about where you are talking about (I think, hard to tell without seeing your calf) and we had the vet cast him. He had to be lifted to get up because the calf was heavy but then he could run around once up and it healed straight. Don't know if it is too late for that but I would ask the vet why he didn't cast it to start with. Our calf ended up being sold in the fall and the leg healed perfectly.
I don't know if I agree with you or not, I'm not there to see the situation but I know where you are coming from and I wish you the best of luck. Keep us posted.

 

[holly heifer]

Is this a bull calf? If he does survive will he be a pet or will
he be destined for a feed lot? Or your freezer? We do not
eat the ones we raise, we get one of the neighbors. Any way,
i have raised lots of bottle calves, the heifers I have kept and
are raising calves that are sold at weaning age. (Pays for my
horse hobby) :lol: My point is a feeder calf that has a
limb issue may not do well in a feedlot . The competing for
feed, ect. Also a pet steer is not the most economical critter
to keep around. ( I have done that in the past- never again
) Just some food for thought ;-)

 

[Bill Elliott]

Holly, I raise one calf a year for feedout and donate the beef to the local Food Bank Brown Bag Program for the less fortunate elderly. As much as I hate to think about it...this is my first "bottle calf"..if we can get this calf healthly...I feel he is destined for my Brown Bag donation. Am getting "attached" to the little critter but trying to stay "detached"...if you know what I mean. I made a promise to myself when I started this a couple of years ago...as long as I owned the cows...as long as they were on this earth...I would treat them humanely..make sure they had the nutrition they needed...all the fresh water they wanted...regular checkups by the Vet...some are destined for my feed-corral...some are destined for the local market and the rest join the herd and hopefully live a relatively long "comfortable" life...making calves.
This little bull has started walking around,allbeit slowly,...getting up and down on his own...drinks about 5 qts of milk a day...trying to get that up to about 8 qts a day...he has started nibbling calf starter feed..not really interested at this point. He is gaining weight...up to about 105lbs now. I'll continue to work with him...kids love him...like a "petting-zoo" at times...Vet comes back in a couple of weeks to check progress...another decision time. Cheers, Bill

 

[Bill Elliott]

Thought I'd provide an update...calf is up and walking..still slowly but walking...getting up and down on his own. Drinking 2 gallons a day of milk from bottle. Has not started eating calf starter yet but is nibbling on hay. Gaining weight. He still has a way to go yet but believe he's gonna make it. My other calves were born w/o incident. Thanks everyone for the advice and thoughts. Cheers, Bill

 

[Victoria]

Glad to hear that the calf is OK. Hope he makes it through until fall for you. You do get attached but if you use him for your Brown Bag donation that will be a great thing.
Congrats on having no problems with the rest of them!

 

[Bill Elliott]

Been away for a while so thought I'd provide another update. Calf is now almost 4 months old and weighs around 250lbs. Leg doing better but still limping...something he will have forever. Vet checks in on him about once a month. I'm still bottle feeding him but starting to wean him. Would like to get him weaned by 5 months. Since the limp is so pronounced and he is distined for the Brown Bag program...thinking of getting him to about 700lbs...should get about 250lbs of ground beef....albeit the most expensive ground beef in the world!!!! Good learning process for me...won't do it again....or at least I don't think I will. Everything MILKMAID said was true...all good advice. Most often you learn more from a "negative" than a "positive"...thanks everyone. Cheers, Bill

 

[Aero]

27 month old angus heifer??? and you blame the limousin? if you live in the U.S your limousin bull would of been a %limousin bull graded up from angus as i am yet to see a "real limousin bull in america, do you only have one cow?? as it was the only one with calving dificulty? if you have 100 cows and one cow has calving dificulties i wouldnt sell the bull. 8)

go visit Running Creek Ranch in Elizabeth, CO if you want to see some real Limousins (and yes they are red with plenty of muscle).

 

[Aero]

The next bull will be Angus.

the breed has nothing to do with it.

according to MARC data, if you have a Limo bull with a +0.0 BW EPD, there is the same BW potential in a +5.0 Angus bull.

it's more dependent on information (EPDs) than breed.

do you know what the BW and/or CED EPD for the bull is?

 

[r and s peckman]

Don't blame the bull, just because he is a limousin.

 

[Beefy]

i will never breed another limousin bull to an angus heifer as long as i live. i dont care what his epds look like.

 

[gertfan]

ok, just in my opinion we all blame ourselves when something goes wrong, at least I know that I do as well as my husband if we have something like that happen.
I wouldn't necessarily say the bull is the problem. We have used low birth weight bulls on heifers and still ended up with HUGE calves at birth. This has been a rough calving year for alot of people. No one is immune to these kinds of problems. I think if it was me I would put the calf down. We had a calf early in the season that couldn't walk at all, he could run but not walk, had a hard time getting up even to eat most times mom would come over to him and he would sit up like a dog to nurse. We took him to the vet and he said he will either get better or he won't . No real reason for the problems, I think he had an issue with his spine. We finally ended up putting him down, I just couldn't stand to see him suffer.
Good luck and try not to beat yourself up over it, as hard as it is.

 

[3wishes]

Really enjoyed the sharing of your experience Bill. Thank you.

 

[milkmaid]

You're welcome Bill, I do hope he turns out OK for you in the end. FWIW I just had a crippled one butchered the other day - and she wasn't very big. My vet explained that "pain takes energy", which certainly would have explained why I could not get her more than half finished and she was a lot smaller than she should have been for her age and the feed she was on. But you live and learn.