Bill Elliott
Well-known member
I'm two years new to raising cattle. The Angus heifer in question is 27 months old and bred to a Limosine bull. Heifer seperated from other cows and started labor...pushing, getting up and laying down..getting back up. This lasted for about an hour. Determined she was having problems and moved her into the handling area. Called the Vet..he arrived about 20 minutes later. We lasso'd her and tied her to the side of the chute..she was not docile..at first but calmed down. Vet determined calf was to big and not coming out on it's own. Pulled calf. Hip of calf was displaced...can't stand up. Heifer was very protective and did not allow me to approach the calf. Decided to let them alone until next morning...about 6 hours later. First light went to check and mother still did not let me approach. After about an hour the heifer walked away and started grazing...did not get excited when I approached the calf...few grunts but did not challenge me...eventually joined the other cows. The calf appeared to have been cleaned up but no indication of nursing...could not stand. I decided to move calf to another area and gave it some bag commercial colostrum....calf took about half a bottle (large)...took remainder this evening. Calf can't stand. I also fed it some whole milk, about one cup.
Guess the wife and I are bottling feeding a calf...any chance the mother will take it back? Vet seems to think it will gain enough strength in a couple of days to stand on three legs. I'm going to build some sort of liter to put under the calf to lift it to help leg/hip heal itself...do you think this will work? Thanks for any advice...cheers, Bill
Guess the wife and I are bottling feeding a calf...any chance the mother will take it back? Vet seems to think it will gain enough strength in a couple of days to stand on three legs. I'm going to build some sort of liter to put under the calf to lift it to help leg/hip heal itself...do you think this will work? Thanks for any advice...cheers, Bill