Runt/Weak Calf

[WarEagle73]

This year we have calved 6 heifers and last weekend when I went home I noticed one of the calves out of a heifer seemed a little off. It looks thin, like it is all bone and skin and no meat and has an abnormally large forehead imo. The heifer it is out of is a big baldie heifer with plenty of milk. So on my way back to Auburn I stopped and talked to my cousin that is a vet and we came to the conclusion that the calf probably didn't get enough colostrum or the heifers colostrum was poor quality. Either way, he said that the heifer should do a better job the second year and that this is somewhat common among first calf heifers.

My question for you fine members of CT (the question I forgot to ask before I left the vet clinic) what can I expect out of the calf? It isn't really slow or too weak really so I don't see any indication of sickness, but isn't filled out. Right now the calf is 40 days old or so and is behind the other calves out of the heifers. Will this calf continue to be a runt or will I get some compensatory growth once the grass greens up and the calf's immune system begins to start working on its own?

Another question I had is how do you prevent this from happening? The calf looked fine until it was about 14 days old or so and the heifer had a large udder at birth for a heifer so I had no indication that there was a problem in that regard. The heifer was also in good BCS at the time of birth (5-6). If there is something to look for at birth, I could keep extra frozen colostrum on hand, but I'm just not sure what I missed.

TIA for your responses

 

[milkmaid]

Picture?

BVD tested?

 

[WarEagle73]

Unfortunately I don't have a picture and I won't go home for another 2 weeks, but Ill see if I can get one.

I haven't had it BVD tested, but we make sure heifers get 3 rounds of a MLV BVD vaccine prior to breeding (including weaning and annual Prebreeding) so while I think that is an option for sure, I don't think it is likely. We will test for BVD-PI when we do our first round of calf vaccinations in a couple months.

 

[chippie]

It sounds like she has a birth defect. I doubt that the lack of colostrum would cause the problem. Of course, I have been known to be wrong.
Have you ever seen how she acts when she nurses?

I'm sorry that this happened to you.

 

[WarEagle73]

It sounds like she has a birth defect. I doubt that the lack of colostrum would cause the problem. Of course, I have been known to be wrong.
Have you ever seen how she acts when she nurses?

I'm sorry that this happened to you.

She nurses normally. And thank you for your concern, but I'm not overly worried about the situation. The calf is eating, running and acting like a calf, she is just a little runty looking. I feel pretty sure that she will grow we may just have to keep her until she is closer to a yearling to get her to a better weight to sell.

 

[chippie]

Sounds good. The abnormally large forehead is what made me think of a birth defect. Maybe that could affect her growth.
Happy that she is a lively little thing : )

 

[dun]

2 years ago we had a calf that didn;t thrive and it had a bulgy forehead. Turne out it had a very slight hydrocephalic issue. We put it down since it just never did seem right. Had it posted and it did have fluid in the forhead bones but not the typical hydrocephalic head problems. That was the year we had a calf born completly without a tail and a couple of other birth defects. The state vet put it down to the cows having eaten something during specific stages of pregnancy that caused them.