Rejected calf - 1st timer

[Lisal]

Hi, I'm new to this website and to raising cattle. Had a calf born Sat. morning and the mother would not let the calf stand. Each time it would try to rise, she would head butt it and send it flying. We separated them, purchased the colostrum and medicated milk replacer and have been bottle feeding the calf twice daily. It's taking the replacement great and seems to want more than the 2 quarts I'm giving it. I have read to give the calf water also. Do I give it water from a bottle or can it drink the water from a pail? What else should I be doing at this point? This is a first for us. Thanks for any advice! Lisa

 

[Workinonit Farm]

seems to want more than the 2 quarts I'm giving it. I have read to give the calf water also.

Is that 2 qts per feeding or 2 qts total for the day? If it 2 qts total for the day, it needs at least 2 qts per feeding. A minimum of 1 gallon a day.

Water, leave a bucket of fresh water with the calf. It will figure out how to drink it.

By next week I'd get a good quality calf-starter feed and start putting some out for the calf. You can put it in a pail, or a ground feeder or a feed box, whatever you have on hand. When you are finished feeding it its milk, slip a little feed into its mouth, eventually it will start to eat the feed as well.

It would also be a good idea to have some good quality, fresh hay available to the calf.

If you do a search of this site, you will find lots of good info on here.

Just recently there were a few threads covering this very subject. If they weren't discussed here on the beginners board. Scroll down on this board, and look at the titles "Bottle Feeding" and "Read Thread About Bottle Feeding"

I'm sure you will be getting many more suggestions.

Good luck.

Katherine

 

[Lisal]

Katherine,

It's 2 quarts per feeding, two feedings per day so a total of 4 quarts (1 gallon). But it doesn't seem like enough...he sucks it down in less than 10 minutes then follows me and bumps me with his head for more. A few hours after he was born he weighed about 100 lbs. Should I feed him more milk? After reading about scours, I'm afraid to give him much more. We are learning so much about these little critters!...or actually...not so little critters!

Lisa

 

[rockridgecattle]

Are you going to pull the calf for good?
have you tried atrevet a sedative? give a dose and let her calm down. Pannel her if you doen't have a materity pen and help the calf to suck. This might calm the cow down with the first suck.
You can atrevet a few times for calming her down until she gets better.
If she does not get better...sale barn.
If she gets better have her raise the calf and then...sale barn the cow. She will only get worse next year.
this is from experiece...we had a cow llike that, tried for a few years, every year she did this until
1. the calf was completely dry
2. the calf had it's first suck
3. she had cleaned
in that order.

 

[dun]

Katherine,

It's 2 quarts per feeding, two feedings per day so a total of 4 quarts (1 gallon). But it doesn't seem like enough...he sucks it down in less than 10 minutes then follows me and bumps me with his head for more. A few hours after he was born he weighed about 100 lbs. Should I feed him more milk? After reading about scours, I'm afraid to give him much more. We are learning so much about these little critters!...or actually...not so little critters!

Lisa

The calf will try to bum more groceries even when it's pretty full, just the nature of calves

dun

 

[Putangitangi]

Hi, I'm new to this website and to raising cattle. Had a calf born Sat. morning and the mother would not let the calf stand. Each time it would try to rise, she would head butt it and send it flying. We separated them...

This is of no help now with this calf, but for your ongoing future in cattle care, how high was "flying" and how long did you leave them together before rescuing the calf? I've seen a great range of new mothering behaviour from cows and heifers and some of them appear really quite rough and you'd wonder if the calf was going to survive it; but they're tough little blighters and I'd just like to check how long you left them to sort it out before you intervened. Many of mine continue to knock their calves over until the calf has enough steadiness to maintain itself upright regardless of her knocks. I've always seen it as a survival mechanism: get the calf as steady as possible as quickly as possible by making the muscles work!
Pushing the calf into the ground or barelling it across the paddock might be a different story.