This is what can happen to a Newbie

[Arkyrick]

Hi everyone what a great Forum! I just wanted to point out what can happen to a Newbie (Me)
First off I have raised 2 other calves in the past so I have a very limited experience. My wife and I purchased 5 bottle calves from a man who advertised on Craigslist that he sold healthy calves that have received colostrum, I called him and made arrangements to meet his son to look at the calves, we went to his farm and he had several calves walking freely around in his fenced yard they were all over the place and very tame and healthy looking. The son turned out to be about 15 years old and was a very polite young man he showed me several calves and consulted his Dad via phone about pricing. I asked about each calf and he said they had just been bottle fed and I paid him $2,350. and loaded 5 calves onto my trailer. As soon as we got home about 45 min later I suspected that one of the calves may have scours because he was pooping water, I called the man I bought them from and he told me to treat it with Resorb, I isolated the calf and began treating it with resorb and a scours antibiotic.
The calf would drink a bottle easily until the 2nd day and became so weak I took it to the Vet. My Vet kept it overnight and started it on a intravenous medication the next day the Vet called and told me it was responding and to pick it up. When I got there the calf was laying down to my Vets surprise because he said it was standing earlier and took a bottle slightly. He carried it to the truck and gave me medication and instructions, I paid him $72. and took the calf home this was at noon, by that evening I could tell the calf was going downhill quickly because it couldn't get up and wouldn't take a bottle, by morning it had died.
While this was going on one of the other calves would not take a bottle no matter what, I called the seller and he said that he would call his son and see if he was taking a bottle before we bought it, the son said yes and for me to tube feed the calf because no matter what we did the calf acted like it didn't know how to take a bottle. We quickly learned to tube feed the calf and have been doing so for a week so far its doing good and seems healthy but will not take a bottle no matter what we do.
Its a bit of a struggle for us and the calf to tube feed it twice a day but we cannot get it to take a bottle. We have been able to hand feed it a little starter grain and he seems to chew it. The one thing we noticed from the beginning was the calf tried to nurse off the other calves leading us to believe it was on its Mother and never received a bottle.
I was in contact the whole time with the seller and he gave me lots of advice but became silent after I told him the 1st calf had died. I believe that he wasn't honest about the condition of both calves and I have learned to be more careful in the future.
Any suggestions on getting the other calf take a bottle will be appreciated we have tried a bucket - a smaller nipple - honey on the nipple - we just cant get him to take a bottle. I'm concerned about only him feeding by a tube.
By the way the other 3 calves are doing great! I just wanted to share our experience so other Newbies may learn from my mistakes.

 

[Rafter S]

I used to back a calf into a corner and straddle it so it can't back up. Stick the nipple in its mouth, hold the bottle in one hand, and with your other hand squeeze it's mouth closed and then release it (release the mouth, not the calf). That will force a little bit of milk into it's mouth. Keep squeezing and releasing, and after a while it s should figure it out.

 

[M.Magis]

I got side tracked at $2350 for 5 bottle calves. I know they’re higher now than a few years ago, but they’re nowhere near that around here. I can’t offer much advice except to keep tubing him until he comes around. Perhaps let him get hungry before trying a bottle.

 

[HDRider]

Ark - Hang tough.

You might want to go to http://www.homesteadingtoday.com/cattle/

That site has a lot of bottle calf people.

 

[Arkyrick]

Thanks for the advice everyone bottle calves around here are anywhere from $350. to $500. weaned calves are selling for $650 to $900 I have tried the backing into the corner and standing over him but maybe I didn't clamp the mouth,I'll try that :D I also have 5 other weaned calves and am beginning to think for all the labor and cost that may be the better route in the future. This being a Cattle Baron is tougher than I thought :cowboy: :D
Thanks again

 

[Texas PaPaw]

Buy an extra nipple for your bottle and at the X cut where the milk comes out use a good pair of scissors to cut off a miniscule bit so there will be an extremely small amount of milk that will come out by gravity only. This will allow a small amount of milk to come out with no suction. Just back calf into a corner and open it's mouth and place nipple into mouth. When the milk flows into calfs mouth it will be forced to swallow and should eventually start sucking. May have to use the modified nipple a couple of times but calf should learn that more milk will come if it sucks.

A word of caution-the amount you cut off the nipple should be extremely minimal, maybe half the size of a fly speck. Just enough that an extremely small amount of milk comes out when bottle is turned up. First time cut off the absolute least amount of nipple possible. If that doesn't allows a very slight amount of milk to run out can always trim a little more.

 

[LauraleesFarm]

One good round with sick bottle calves can make you appreciate the role of a mama cow.

Baby calves are the most risky cattle you can buy. No guarantees on them and they are just looking for ways to die.

I would not recommend baby calves, much less FIVE at a time for a newbie.

I hope you have a good vet on hand. Good luck to you.

 

[kucala5]

Good luck with your babies from a fellow Arky. We've raised cow/calf pairs for 7 years now and I still feel like a newbie. This forum is a wealth of info, you've come to the right place! :cboy:

 

[Craig Miller]

Yea cut the hole i the nipple a little bigger and work its mouth as said earlier. I think the take the bucket easier too cause theres less suction required to get the milk moving. Will it drink strait from the bucket without the nipple?

 

[Arkyrick]

Thanks everyone for the great advice we will try the enlarging the nipple thing (good Idea) the tube feeding is stressful to the calf and us. :cry2:
I did buy 5 weaned calves a couple of weeks earlier and when you figure up the extra monies spent on Vet, medication, milk replacer and physical exercise and losing one of the newborns its really better to buy them weaned already, I don't think we saved that much getting newborns when you add it all up. The weaned calves are already grazing and take a lot less care. The 3 newborns are doing good and feeding normally even started to eat grain and hay a bit. We'll keep working on the bottle shy calf. ;-)
Thanks again

 

[Kingfisher]

Wow! $2350! Your a brave fellow!

 

[3waycross]

Good, beef orphans are going as high as $900 here.

 

[HDRider]

Good, beef orphans are going as high as $900 here.

That's crazy.

 

[BC]

Baby calves split off old cows or cows with bad teats are bringing $500 to $600 here in East Texas

 

[presmudjo]

The price of these new born bottle calves is why my pasture is empty. Now we get to mow it. Bummer. Our freezer will be empty before I can raise another. I finally get hubby health back after the surgeries and we just can't put out that much money for an orphan.

 

[wacocowboy]

IF you are going to raise newborns buy a couple of nurse cows. Hope the larger nipple hole worked I have used that in the past.

 

[backhoeboogie]

Getting straddle the calf a force feeding does work exactly as previously described in this thread. Bigger hole in the nipple too.

Before you do that, get an old towel. Rub that calf from head to toe. You're simulating momma bathing it with a rough tongue. Rub hard. Massage the heck out of it. That will cause the calf to vigorate. Maybe even jump around a little. Then force feed it.

I have a tube kit. Have never used it. Have done hundreds of calves.

Get a nurse cow. You've got a lot of nickels invested. And time. Maximize your profits. That's what a nurse cow will do.

 

[Luca Brasi]

Actually, what happened to you could happen to anyone with experience too. Congratulations for handling it in a much more sensible way than many newbies today, who usually let their emotions, wishes and speculations govern how they operate.

You've gotten some mostly good advice here, but please don't follow the suggestion to go to that other forum. In between a whole lot of crap you might fish out a good piece of advice here and there, but overall that forum is visited by a bunch of suburban housewife calf huggers whose biggest concern is what to name their animals, and they don't even have the intelligence to come up with them on their own. They need their fellow simpletons to come up with ideas, and of course the name has to be something quaint and cutesy, which says loads about the emotional retardation which most of them suffer from.

 

[M.Magis]

Actually, what happened to you could happen to anyone with experience too. Congratulations for handling it in a much more sensible way than many newbies today, who usually let their emotions, wishes and speculations govern how they operate.

You've gotten some mostly good advice here, but please don't follow the suggestion to go to that other forum. In between a whole lot of crap you might fish out a good piece of advice here and there, but overall that forum is visited by a bunch of suburban housewife calf huggers whose biggest concern is what to name their animals, and they don't even have the intelligence to come up with them on their own. They need their fellow simpletons to come up with ideas, and of course the name has to be something quaint and cutesy, which says loads about the emotional retardation which most of them suffer from.

Glad I’m not the only one that got that impression. Wow, there’s some bad information there. A few knowledgeable people, but their posts get buried in a mountain of “I heard xxxx will cure anything” and “why did my pet calf die” garbage.

 

[backhoeboogie]

Every bottle calf I have ever raised has been the same.

Every bottle calf I have ever raised has been different.