Urgent

[Peytonkyle]

Hi my name is Peyton I am 17, and I am raising a calf to document and record. I bought the calf 2 days ago, she was a split, she is around a month to month and a half old. The man I bought her from took her and tried to put her on a nurse cow. She refused to take, but instead nursed off of his registered stock and he needed to get rid of her. This is when I bought her. The first night and next morning she didn't take to the bottle I offered her. The second night I got her to nurse and she drunk the entire bottle. I put a handful of feed out and a clean water bucket. The next morning she also drank the entire bottle but she had light brown runny diarrhea. I went back for her third feeding tonight and she wouldn't take the bottle. I also noticed she had white drainage from her nose. Not sure if it's milk or snot. She still has diarrhea and didn't eat any feed. Any tips or help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Peytonkyle]

She is also coughing and has a temp of 103

 

[TCRanch]

Welcome to the Board, Peyton! If she's not sucking from the bottle you're going to have to tube her and at this point I would suggest electrolytes. Not sure what kind of milk replacer you're feeding her but I would make sure it doesn't contain soy & also that you're giving her enough (only 1 bottle a day for an appx 6 week old calf?). Have you taken her temp? If its elevated & the scours continue you may want to give her Sustain III calf boluses (1 per 50 lbs). OR take her to your vet.

 

[cowmilker]

Yes.Get a temp.

 

[Peytonkyle]

Welcome to the Board, Peyton! If she's not sucking from the bottle you're going to have to tube her and at this point I would suggest electrolytes. Not sure what kind of milk replacer you're feeding her but I would make sure it doesn't contain soy & also that you're giving her enough (only 1 bottle a day for an appx 6 week old calf?). Have you taken her temp? If its elevated & the scours continue you may want to give her Sustain III calf boluses (1 per 50 lbs). OR take her to your vet.

I did take her temp. It was 103, I offer her a bottle twice a day at 12 hour intervals. The milk replaced contains soy flour, what do I do about that?

 

[Craig Miller]

:welcome: Yea it needs at least two a day. It's not going to just take a bottle if it's not used to drinking from it. It is going to need a good bit of work to get it done. You'll have to kinda force it.

 

[Briar Ridge Angus]

This may or may not be the wrong way to do it and if it isn't I am sure someone else will let you know. I have always had good luck with making the nipple hole larger so that the milk is pouring out when you turn it upside down. Then force the nipple into the calves mouth so it know exactly what you are trying to do to it. I have had 4 bottle calves and they all have survived and turned into decent cattle. Good luck!

 

[cowmilker]

Get another milk replacer without soy.

 

[TCRanch]

If she still has scours & a 103 temp, if it were me I'd give her the Sustain III boluses & Resflor Gold. And switch milk replacer. Briar Ridge, I've cut the holes larger before. I've also put a little molasses on the nipple. Sometimes I've had to insert the nipple, literally hold it in their mouth & even stroke their throat to get them to nurse.

 

[TennesseeGrassGrower]

Soy milk replacer is not the best milk replacer, but it will work if that is all you have on hand. On force feeding the calf, straddle the calf with his/her rear end backed into a corner. With its head up put the nipple in its mouth, now is the tricky part. Either have the hole to big as suggested before, then you will clamp your hands over its mouth under the jaw and over the nose forcing it to drink ( it can still breath through its nose). Another way is to put it in the corner again still straddling it, put the bottle in its mouth and moving the nipple back and fourth attempting to get it suck. Either way you go, try to rub your hand on its but in the same fashion that its momma would be vigorously licking it stimulating it to suck (this has been very effective for us the first couple of days). Also, don't just put out starter gain for them the first week or so. Open their mouth and put in 3 - 4 handfuls of gain and for them to eat it. This gets them used to the taste of it and stimulates them to eat the grain you leave out faster. Always change the water and grain everyday. Starter grain that has molasses works wonders around here (who doesn't love sugar). CLEAN all of your milk mixing tools and bottles between EVERY bottle you give the calf.

The calf has scours because her milk diet has changed from a cows milk to the milk replacer. It can last a week or two, but should start to take on a more solid form soon enough.

Good luck with your calf,

 

[angus9259]

Maybe I'm misreading this thread. It sounds like the calf will take the bottle, it's just sick. The calf has already taken at least one bottle.

I would give some antibiotics for the fever - I'm not best at knowing which one but my go-to for stuff like this is Nuflor and banamine.

I would definitely get an all milk replacer - not soy.

I would tube the calf if it won't eat but would want to keep it a little hungry so I would tube it in the am with electrolytes and at night with the milk replacer but I'd always see if it would take the bottle first.

Need to get the temp down.

 

[farmerjan]

From what I have read I do think that you said the calf did take a bottle a couple of times. I think that the antibiotics, like sustain bolus and or a shot of nuflor or even just penicillin will help to bolster the immune response. I think that the change from real cows milk to milk replacer was a big part of the scours and the color of the manure. And yes, get some all-milk milk replacer as the soy just doesn't give the calf what they need as babies. You could mix the soy milk replacer in with the real stuff to use it up so it is not wasted once you get the calf back to eating, but right now it needs the real stuff or as close as you can get. Do you have a dairy closeby that you could get some real milk from? Sometimes that will help the transition to milk replacer since the calf was stealing off a cow before you got it. I think the trauma of pulling the calf off from stealing from the registered cows and the switch to the soy milk replacer just threw it's system into a tailspin. Antibiotics for the fever and cough etc.

 

[dun]

Get rid of the crap soy milk replacer. 20% fat 20% protein all milk and milk byproducts milk replacer only. That soy crap has killed more small calves then most anything else.