Worry Wart Syndrome

[MurraysMutts]

I stand corrected. Now have a 2nd heifer that won't claim her calf. How do you like the chute, wench? And yet even that and copious amounts of Orphan No More aren't working so it looks like I have a bottle calf and she's taking a ride - no second chance with her. :devil2:

Dangit!

I will share something I found helped if u wanna try a bit longer. Last one took a couple weeks in the chute twice a day.
Try not locking her head in the head gate. Run the calf up to eat. Once it's going good let a couple side bars down so mama can stick her head out the side and SEE what's nursing her.
I've also poured karo syrup on the calf so mama will lick the calf. Found that helps as well.
Keep them penned up together. No other animals in the pen.
Sometimes introducing a dog in that pen will make mama come to life as well...
I'd try it a couple weeks and see. Bottle calves are fun and all, but 2 weeks or even 3 weeks of that, is sure easier in the long run than bottling.
Good luck either way!

 

[Chevy]

Cows only job is to raise a calf.
I've never had one that would not take her own baby.
That one would make her gone like yesterday!

Round here anyway...

She rejected hers yesterday so she has a date May 11th.
She cleaned it, was concerned of it, but then pushed the living daylights aggressively out of it.

Weird thing we noticed is her bag is hard and you can't get much milk out of it. Same thing happened last year so something isn't right with her anyways. Live and learn! Only three heifers left to go

I had one with a hard bag once like that. She also was a bad mother but also kinda a good mother. She would aggressively nudge at her calf in the field and her calf would cry out to her all day and she would just dance around it. Turned out she had no holes in her teats! She only had one tiny hole for milk to come out. I ended up bottle feeding her calf and she ended up jumping a fence and getting hit by a car. But, she was a bad mother yes, but there was more going on

that's horrible.

 

[Chevy]

Poor babies orphan!! We ended up with one yesterday while helping deliver some cows for my maw. The mother wouldn't ever claim it. She sniff it a few times and wasn't having it. We watch her all afternoon trying to get her to take it. We didn't want it to starve so we brought it home.

 

[TCRanch]

I stand corrected. Now have a 2nd heifer that won't claim her calf. How do you like the chute, wench? And yet even that and copious amounts of Orphan No More aren't working so it looks like I have a bottle calf and she's taking a ride - no second chance with her. :devil2:

Dangit!

I will share something I found helped if u wanna try a bit longer. Last one took a couple weeks in the chute twice a day.
Try not locking her head in the head gate. Run the calf up to eat. Once it's going good let a couple side bars down so mama can stick her head out the side and SEE what's nursing her.
I've also poured karo syrup on the calf so mama will lick the calf. Found that helps as well.
Keep them penned up together. No other animals in the pen.
Sometimes introducing a dog in that pen will make mama come to life as well...
I'd try it a couple weeks and see. Bottle calves are fun and all, but 2 weeks or even 3 weeks of that, is sure easier in the long run than bottling.
Good luck either way!

I did try molasses right off the bat but she wasn't having it. They are penned together and the calf tries to nurse but the wench keeps kicking her off - she absolutely knows who's nursing her in the chute. Weird thing is, they hang together. Picking my battles on this one and not dealing with another couple weeks getting her in the chute. The calf is brazen enough she'll most likely rob off any cow that will let her in addition to the bottle. But thanks for the tips!

 

[MurraysMutts]

She sounds like a hot mess... lol

Been thinking about that mama I grafted the orphan on. The one I spoke about above.
She has raised all her own calves since, with no issue.
Just makes me laugh about the chute thing.
When I would show up morning or evening, she would actually run into the alley for the chute. Like that was the only place that calf was allowed to nurse or something. LMAO! What a twat!

It got to where the baby would try and nurse outside of the chute area as they were quite bonded, but not enough that mama would stay still, if that makes sense. Cow (was a heifer that lost her first calf) would dance around and anytime the calf would get close enough to nurse would kick at it.
I spent an evening babysitting once when I was bored. Sat by the pen have a beverage and what not. Every time that poor confused first calf heifer would kick, I would yell profanities at her. She would focus her attention on me just long enough for that baby to get latched on. She hated profanity I guess, because eventually mama and baby were one with nature.
Well, shoving a trough full of cubes in front of her with hay piled in it too seemed to get her attention as well.

Anyway..... just felt like sharing I guess.
Best of luck!

 

[Chevy]

https://youtu.be/pn1rKdFcdwU
Check out Chevy. Our poor baby orphan.

 

[Chevy]

Oh and I like to mess with my husband. imagine that.

 

[TCRanch]

Little update on my rejected/bottle calf. Best friend had a cow lose her calf and grafted mine on to her cow. The adoption took less than a day! A win-win for both of us.

 

[MurraysMutts]

The easy way!
Glad it all worked out.
Good on that new mama

 

[cowgirl8]

Sometimes when I think i'm all chilled and good but deep down i'm stressed out, I dream my teeth are falling out. I've always done this, yet, I didn't know that was why occasionally I had these tooth dream until I read it on FB... so it has to be true right...lol.... But, I've kept a note on when I dream them and sure enough, something big is going on that is driving me to have these dreams..