Sick bull baby update

[jdcopkid]

Well.. this guy is a little bastard. He was up when I got there this morning, eating a little bit. A couple hours later I couldn't force him up. Hadn't seen him drink in a while, got a bottle of electrolytes and hi chugged it down while still laying down. Then I got up to leave and he jumped up and starting sucking on my leg.. clearly he COULD get up.. fast forward a few hours, he looks half dead, I try to get him up, not happening. Tried for 15 minutes to force him up, he was as limp as a noodle every time I tried to pick him up, finally got his legs locked under him long enough to cradle him, took him to my truck and to the vet.. I start driving.. he stands up and continues to stand, and and pee inside my truck.. after an hour and a half standing in my truck he finally decided to lay down right before the vet is ready to see him.. dragged him out.. and he walked just fine for the vet… bastard.

Long story a little less long.. fecal exam, negative. Temp, fine. Lungs, great. So much for the "pneumonia".. vet said his ruman is jacked up and not digesting. Got him some oral meds and told to get calf starter. Got amplicalf..

Get back home and he's comfortable in the AC in my truck, curled up, not gonna move for me.. I drag him out, he won't stand.. just goes limp next to my truck… finally I get him to lock his legs, he starts walking, sees some grass, and decides to graze for 15 minutes… and then follows me to the pen and eats his new calf starter like he hasn't eaten all day.. I think this punk is too comfortable with me

 

[Warren Allison]

I think you got this, and he is gonna be alright. l dunno of anyone else who would do a better job of taking care of him. Keep us posted!

 

[MurraysMutts]

He's very thin. Needs good quality feed for sure and probly for quite some time. Was he a bottle baby?

 

[jdcopkid]

He's very thin. Needs good quality feed for sure and probly for quite some time. Was he a bottle baby?

Yea he's about as skinny as I've seen them. No he wasn't a bottle baby for us. I think he was split from his mom at the sale barn before I got him from a guy, and I was told they were "weaned". But he got scours and we bottle fed electrolytes and milk for 5 days, he got better, but then off the bottle his weight plummeted and stopped eating much. So I think we may have messed his rumen up bottle feeding him while he was sick. I got him on amplicalf 20% started now and his "corrective" meds from the vet

 

[MurraysMutts]

What he weigh?? No scale at the vet?

I think he would've done well on a bottle for a couple.months!

Feed him good and hope for the best I reckon

 

[farmerjan]

Should've kept him on the bottle and he would have been eating feed better too and his rumen would have developed, better. I have never had a calf that would go back on the bottle, that didn't do better until he was older and bigger to try to wean him off again. Granted some calves will want bottles until they are 90 yrs old and no longer a "calf".......LOL... but I bottle feed my calves until a minimum of 8-12 weeks... and they have to be eating really good to wean off... face it, calves on cows will be 5-10 months old before they are weaned... and eating alot of feed. The true "milk stomach" does shrink down once a calf gets to eating more "feed" and roughage... but they still will process the milk. Except for dairies that are trying to get the calves off milk and onto feed since it is expensive to feed milk replacer... and time consuming for them... 90% of the time no beef farmer is trying to get them off the cow and on to feed at 8 weeks.
When I graft calves onto nurse cows they usually are on there for months... and they do really really good.
Except for the expense of milk replacer, it makes me shake my head why everyone is always trying to "wean off" calves so young, when they would benefit from a longer time on the milk.
Granted, extreme situations like very severe devastating drought or something else, but under fairly normal situations, they are better off on the cow, or milk replacer or some sort of bottles for 3-4 months at least.