Sick calf

Gather App
lithuanian farmer

lithuanian farmer

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 16, 2012
Messages
2,608
City & State/Province
Europe, Lithuania
Have a sick calf. He turned one month old today, has a twin brother. On friday moved cows to the new pasture and he looked perfectly fine, spent time with his brother and other calves. Yesterday saw him out from the pasture and calling for his mom. Me and my mom walked to let him back to the pasture, but it was kinda strange that such age calf escaped. However, the first more serious sign of problem was that he actually let us near and haven't walked away. Brought him to the pasture. He was calling for his dam and walking in the herd, but wasn't able to find her even when she called him and was a couple metres from him. He was just mooing and walking. Moved him to his dam as he was very hungry, but he wasn't able to find where to nurse and acted like a newborn calf searching for the udder for the first time. His dam started walking and he walked by her side, but soon he separated from his dam and walked to the other direction. However, he still was very hungry and calling for his dam. All cows walked away, but he hasn't followed them. Decided t bring him home. Once we closed him in the barn he started walking and bumped into the wall. Fed him with milk replacer and he eats perfectly. He is in the barn since yesterday evening, but is very calm and not calling for his dam.
We guess that he has problems with his vision or with his brain. Would appreciate your thoughts.
 
My first thought when you said he searched for teat like a newborn was....What is he...blind?
He apparently has motor skills to get around so seems to me more vision than brain, but maybe he's not wired right in the head. I would give him a vitamin B shot it helped when an older steer of ours had polio, 1st sign of polio was
blindness. or Could he have some sort of a parasite? I guess a shot of multi-min wouldn't hurt.
 
We have alot of ticks everywhere. Maybe they have caused something for a young calf.
He doesn't react to people or any animals around. He reacts more to the sounds. Have looked at his eyes, but they look normal.
He was normal until yesterday and has changed completely in less than 24 hours.
 
Gave him a shot of vitamins. From the first sight the calf looks normal. His head and ears are lively. He drinks from the bottle well, eats hay and grass. However, haven't heard any sound from him since we brought him home and fed him. Actually he's very very calm. He isn't afraid of barking dogs, which he sees for the first time, but he showed some fear when we closed him in a small metal pen, he was afraid of the sound of the metal.
Will try to grow him at home. He had a good start and almost one month nursed his dam, so he should grow pretty well. Now just hope that his illness isn't lethal.
 
The calf got back to normal after a couple days. He's afraid of people and tries to run from us. However haven't brought him back to his dam. She always was on the skinnier side, not very meaty and now had a calf weaned almost two months before another calving, so was in quite a skinny condition. Has grown some meat, but pretty slowly as she ate only hay. She had twins now and after nursing them for a month she was only skin and bones left. When we separated the sick calf a couple days later she was abit weak, so gave her some meal. She already was on grass, but twins are hard to raise without loosing alot of condition. Now she's still skinny, but strong again, no risk for the health. We feed the separated calf with milk replacer now. We will have four bull calves to wean soon, so will keep him with them.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top