Well im about to shoot a calf any one got any last min ideas

Bigmudder,

Do you have any books on "how to raise a calf", or anything like that? It might help to avoid bad situations like what you just went through. Sorry you lost the calf.

__________________
A good dog may be hard to find, ...but a hard dog usually means it's been dead for a while

I regret your loss but I am bothered why you ignored my post back on 3 July. Was I unclear or did I lack credibility?

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Agmantoo
If they can do it,
you know you can!

Ronnie, Although technically you are correct in that BVD often doesn't show up until later in life, calves can get the disease and can be carriers and infect your whole herd without showing outward symptoms themselves. And a calf born to a mother with BVD is usually born with a whole host of issues, from weak calf syndrome to cataracts on the eyes, heart defects, etc.

From the University of Utah Extension office;
A serious health problem of newborn calves was recognized 20 years ago and termed
“weak calf syndrome”(WCS). The Bovine Virus Diarrhea (BVD) virus was often isolated from
affected calves and from these herds. In recent years, veterinarians have again been looking at the
effects of the BVD virus on the fetus. The two conditions seem to be the same, with the only
difference being the terminology used. Several herds in Utah showed signs in the spring of 1993
similar to these diseases and four of these herd problems were investigated. The conclusion was
that each of these herds suffered an outbreak of WCS or the effects of a BVD fetal infection.
The signs and history for both conditions are very similar. There are 15–20 different
clinical signs and problems listed for WCS and BVD. Not all occur in every calf, but on a herd
basis, MANY of those conditions do occur in a given herd and they occurred in the Utah herds
evaluated. Some of the common signs for both conditions include:
! Calves weak at birth
! Unable or reluctant to rise
! Immature (small calves)
! Occasional abortion or mummified fetus
! Dummy calves
! Dome shaped head
! Abnormal haircoat—“karakul” coat; sparse hair; frost on back in spring and heat
intolerance in summer
! “Coyote” face and muzzle
! Red, crusted muzzle
! Cataracts
! Blood clots on white of eye
! Occasional skeletal defects
! Arched back; gait problems
! Poor doing
! Die later from scours, pneumonia, abscesses (immune deficient)

Agmantoo he was tested for that stuff and it came back negative same with the black one i have but he is has a big belly and skinny rear so i dont know

and i talked to some stupid lady from the USDA and she said that 90% of calves die and said i would be lucky to have the other 2 still live

with is a bunch of bull cause how do we have so many adult cows?

or how do we have so much meat in the stores

when we had our farm we lost maybe 20 out of 100

where my dad works now they loose 2-5 out of 100 and they come out dead most of the time

so to say 90% of calves die is just stupid

i just think the lady was lazy and didnt wanna do any thing and keep making up bull crap stories

but i just laughed at her when she said that and asked her why are there alot of adult cows if 90% of them die when there babies? and she didnt have an answer like i thought just thought id let you guys know

I imagine what she was trying to say is that 90 percent of bottle calves raised by individuals die. Now, while I personally think that number is something of an overstatement, I can say that things like scours, shipping fever, etc. kill many, many bottle calves and market calves every year.
Most beef animals sold as feeders were born and raised with mama, which makes a world of difference in the numbers game and relative success of cattle raising, in my opinion. Sure, you can perfect your bottle-calf rearing skills to where you only lose 10 or 20 percent in any given year, but then, in other years, you're going to have higher losses. Rarely will you have lower.

we use to pull our calves after the mom had them and cleaned them off we pulled them out and put them in i pen the next day. 2-3 days worth of feeding moms milk then it was on milk replacer

same with the farm my dad works at first day they get pulled from the mom and raised on the moms milk for 2-3 days then its on milk

it didnt have the scours or shipping fever its temp was normal and its poop solid we treated for scours with re-sorb any ways just to be safe and then like a week before it died we used this one day responce (which i love it made him have lots of enegry) then he just cut back eatting but still drank most of his milk then he died and is now in a hole

i just think that lady was full of crap and didnt wanna do any thing about it