rainy weather, muddy mess, putting out hay, and mean mommas

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Did you give her colostrum while you had her in the house or will wait for her to get her own? I'm chicken. If I have a calf that doesn't jump up right away & I have to do anything with the calf, I go ahead & give it LifeLine Colostrum. That way, I don't wonder if it did what it was supposed to do. I can sleep peacefully. Most of them, I just sit back & watch with "glee". Isn't it an amazing sight! Pretty much the only time we have to mess with the calf is abnormal presentations. We figure the calf has been stressed enough, we just go ahead & feed it.
 
Well I learned my lesson on that one today. It was up walking around following its momma so I thought it would be fine. I went down there this morning to find it in the deepest mudhole we have nowhere near any cows. I thought it was dead but when I walked up on it I could see it breathing. I brought it home, warmed it up, gave it a bath to get all the mud off and get it completely warm. It quit shaking but still acted like it was dead. I didn't have any colostrum so I called everywhere looking for some. Ended up having to drive an hour to a tractor supply store. Got the calf eating and it finally stood up on it's own and started bawling for its momma. I put her back out with its mom and she took it. Now I am going to go back every hour to make sure its ok. If not I guess I will be bottle feeding this one until I can get her mom in the head chute. Any tips for this situation? I've never done this before.

Josh
 
How's the calf this AM?
If you know FOR SURE that it is sucking, great - if not offer it another bottle. If the cow & taking care of the calf & the calf gets strong enough, he/she should start sucking mom.
If you need to intervene to get the calf sucking, you will have to get mom in the head chute. If the cow will stand, get the calf sucking a bottle (or your finger) and lead it to the teat. Works lots better if you can get it to follow the bottle or your finger than to push it & force a teat in its mouth. When you fight them, they don't think about sucking.
If the cow kicks, you can put a rope around her body - in front of the hips, down under the bellie right in front of the udder - pull TIGHT! & sinch it up with a quick release knot. With the pressure in front of the hips & udder, she can't (shouldn't) pick up her legs. But, if she really fights it, she could fall down, because she doesn't have good control of her legs - that's why you need a quick release on the rope.
 

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