Problem Calf

[lennie]

Okay, a while back I came to all of you with my woes about my calf with the broken pelvis, well to that issue, the calf is better, he is finally walking on the back leg and using it, although he has a limp. There was a hemotoma on the leg, that got infected and we had the vet lance it and treated it with antibiotics.
Now for the next drama......

This calf keeps bloating. I have had the vet out twice to tube him and my dairy farmer cousin has tubed him twice.

I can't figure out why he keeps bloating, he has free access to hay and water and feed. I just started adding probiotic to the feed, but read somewhere that you should feed hay and not mix hay and feed (Calf starter feed). Could the bloat be from the antibiotics we gave him, (that was over a month and a half ago) ? Should I take him off the feed and put him on just hay? His coat is dull and he isn't overly perky!

I have so much $ into him it is crazy and he isn't more than a few packages of vealburger at this point. If this every happens to me again, I will never let the vet talk me into keeping him alive............However, at this point, I feet I have to get him at least big enough to get something off him.

Any idea's on the bloating problem.

Also, when you tube, do you have to go through the nostril or can you go right through the mouth?

 

[Alice]

Okay, a while back I came to all of you with my woes about my calf with the broken pelvis, well to that issue, the calf is better, he is finally walking on the back leg and using it, although he has a limp. There was a hemotoma on the leg, that got infected and we had the vet lance it and treated it with antibiotics.
Now for the next drama......

This calf keeps bloating. I have had the vet out twice to tube him and my dairy farmer cousin has tubed him twice.

I can't figure out why he keeps bloating, he has free access to hay and water and feed. I just started adding probiotic to the feed, but read somewhere that you should feed hay and not mix hay and feed (Calf starter feed). Could the bloat be from the antibiotics we gave him, (that was over a month and a half ago) ? Should I take him off the feed and put him on just hay? His coat is dull and he isn't overly perky!

I have so much $ into him it is crazy and he isn't more than a few packages of vealburger at this point. If this every happens to me again, I will never let the vet talk me into keeping him alive............However, at this point, I feet I have to get him at least big enough to get something off him.

Any idea's on the bloating problem.

Also, when you tube, do you have to go through the nostril or can you go right through the mouth?

Go right thru the mouth and down the throat. Make sure it's long enough get where it's supposed to go, and make sure it's slender enough not to do any damage.

If he's bloating, make sure he has lots of real grassy type hay...like coastal...not alfalfa. You might try taking him off the dry feed for a little while, or cutting it back. He'll probably eat more hay as a result, and that's what you want.

Does he move around much? From the way it sounds, he might need to be made to move around a whole lot more rather than just lying in one spot.

I've read on here that people have poured a whole bottle of tums down a calf when it bloated...and it worked for them. Just something to keep in the back of your mind.

Ask the vet for a dose of something like multimin...and keep the probios going...

This is what I would do.

Alice

 

[I luv herfrds]

Lennie the calf could also be a cronic bloater. No matter how many times you tube them they will always do it. We shipped a heifer calf that was that way. Every time we turned around we were tubing her.

 

[TNfamilyfarm]

i would work on his nutrition proein,vitamins,electrolytes. protiens are easy- even if you breaksome egggs for him.
vitamins via injection- vit a,d +e. your doing the lytes with the probios.
help his elimination by deworming him. also give a good helping of honey with his hay/grain.