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

[bigmudder77]

had the vet out 3 times on this one and he is not getting better any one have any cheapish ideas to what to do next? i know the vet said we can run all kinds of tests do a bunch of stuff but it would just be like writing a check for nothing cause theres not much of a chance hes gonna make it

he is back on milk AGAIN cause he stopped eatting as much as he needs to stay healthy. he still eats about 1-2 lbs of grain a day

he cant get up on his own i have to pick him up im getting tired of doing all the work and him just falling down

he is breathing normal has some what solid stool heart is beating fine temp is around 100 i think the past 2 times the vet checked him it was 101. some thing

vet gave him some shots that i cant spell so ill have to wait till i get the bill before i can let you know

any one else know what to do with it now other than start digging a hole?

here is a pic of him i pushed him over to get his legs streached so he can stand a little better when i get him up but he has like no strength to even lift his head on his on let alone get up or even make and attempt



with him like this he poops and pees so the maggets are gonna be back soon if there not there already the spray stuff gets sprayed off like every time he poops cause i need to keep it clean

im just lost right now with him and i hate seeing him like this and id like to make him better i have over $500 in him right now so killing him would just be a waste of $500 but if he cant get better thats what i have to do

let me know

[ozark_jewels]

He does look bad, I am sorry.
What has the vet treated him for already??
Do you know if he got colostrum?
If he didn't get colostrum, the outlook is very grim.

[ozark_jewels]

How old is he??
How long has he been like this??
Were you trying to wean him??
Grain is not the best thing for a sick animal, it is hard to digest.
I know you don't know what the vet gave him, but can you tell us what he treated him for?
He is probably dehydrated....did the vet give him liquids?
Going out to milk, will check back when I get finished.

[cindy04]

This is going to sound odd and is probably not what you are dealing with but here goes.

We had twin bull calves (Jersey) born last month. Both nice, strong, healthy boys. I'll say about 48 hours( maybe a bit longer)after birth one starts to go south on us. Stopped nursing, so we try the bottle. He drank some from the bottle and then wouldn't do that anymore either. I started giving him small amounts of electrolytes frequently by mouth. He would lay just like your calf and if we picked him up he would be limp as a wet rag.

His temp was normal, his stomach appeared full and he was not dehydrated! The red flag flew up out of no where!! Having twins you know some one is peeing and pooping but don't give it much thought. This guy was not going pee and had not pooped. I grabbed him (struggle here) up off the floor and used a warm wet rag and started rubbing his sheath area and he peed a river!!! I also new that he would die very soon so I threw caution to the wind and gave him an enema (water & saline). Within about 2 minutes he pooped out the enama liquid. I them took another warm wet rag and started rubbing his rectum and around it. This calf was so constipated it was unbelievable. His poop looked like multi colored clay and play-dough. We did this every couple of hours for the next 12 or so hours and you would not belive what came out of this calf.

He is now perfect and normal in every way. He surely would have died if we had not thought outside of the box on this one. We all worry about scours--never constipation. I feel that he was maybe (who knows) a bit immature in the bladder/rectal function area.

Good luck

Cindy

[topside1]

great advice cindy...mudder is the calf dehydrated?

[topside1]

You calf looks about one month old, how long has the calf had this standing up problem?

[topside1]

If you haven't been picking up poop piles from the pen lately....

[TSYORK]

I had one with the same exact thing last week. We lost ours. The fecal showed a parasite overload on ours. Keep him hydrated and offer hay. I would worm him with Valbazen. Our's died on his own, he was just too far gone. Good Luck!

[randiliana]

Have you givemn him a shot of Selenium?

[Madsaw]

Check your PM
Bob

[bigmudder77]

he is pooping and peeing ALOT like he pees for about 5 mins stright and poops like 10 times a day in small ammounts unless its over night then the morning is like a huge pile of poop so i get him out of it spray him off and stand him up and he pees alot

so i dont think that is it

[Ronney]

Mudder, these are always hard ones and I take my hat off to you for spending the money to try and find out what the problem is when many would have knocked him on the head as not being worth it. I also understand the resulting dilemma of having spent that much money with no obvious improvement and now sort of wanting to recoup what you've invested. We get ourselves into some terrible binds don't we.

I've been guilty of perservering with an animal that with hindsight I should have let go. Conversely, I've also perservered with animals that were a dead loss and pulled through. It is difficult to know where the cut-off point is in welfare terms.

Are you able to ascertain whether the calf is unable to stand through a physical disability or through weakness? As somebody said earlier, if it didn't get colostrum it will have a hard row to hoe but in my book that doesn't necessarily mean a death knell - I have reared several calves and lambs through to adulthood that never got colostrum but it was hard work.

So what would I do? Going on your last post I would carry on. Give him milk twice a day if he will take it, Response in-between times, I would keep him on grass through the whole day because that's what cattle eat (mine are on grass from the day they are born), and the best calf meal you can buy. We have a stuff over here called Moozlee - it's sort of small pellets of I suppose grain, rolled maize, chaff, molasses and other things and it tastes lovely (I pick at it too) and calves love it. I wish I could send you some. Offer a small amount of hay with no great expectation that he would eat it but he may snooze on it in the sun. Your obviously doing all the other things - making sure he has water, shelter etc. If there is a bit of a chilly breeze or temperatures drop a bit, consider making him a little coat out of a feed bag and baling twine.

I feel that if this calf can stand for 4-5 hours and graze he has the will to live and as long as he has that, I will help them as much as I can. Good luck and I will be following for the updates.

Cheers,
Ronnie

[Naturaldane]

can you dont get him in a sling, i may not know cows, but i do know its not good for any large animal like that to get down for a long period of time.
I made a sling for one of my horses out of straps, then made a cusion out of a comforter so the straps wouldnt cut into him and hosted the horse to a tree that was able to hold the weight.
Just a thought

[agmantoo]

I know the calf is thin and has been a poor performer but from the picture it appears to me to have a heavy load of parasites. The gaunt boney hind quarters and the bloated appearing gut create that impression of parasites. I have a more calloused opinion and I never would have had the vet past the first trip. Either they recover from my efforts or I cover them with dirt. My experiences from the financial aspects is that vet fees significantly exceed the losses

[bigmudder77]

if i put him on a sling its not gonna help his muscles any just hanging there he needs to get up and move around to make them work i dont know much about horses so if it works for you id stay with it.

he seems to do better when its cold out the heat just knocked him out it seems. and i got so much money in him i NEED him to stay with me you dont know how many times i walked out there with the gun and loaded it. but that would be a $500 or more ill have to add it up bullet. then i would still have to dig a big ass hole to put him in (im not gonna do that if he dies he is getting thrown at the sellers drive way with a sign stuck by him. there is really no shade in the grass so i keep him locked in the barn where there is wind or a fan on him at dusk he gets taken out after his milk and he can stay out there most of the night i put him away around 10 cause we have wild dogs and wolves running around at night and with him not getting up thats a good meal for them so its better to put him in the barn and lock him up.

i should of shot him as soon as he went down the first time but then i would of lost $150 with him and gas getting him so i wanted to try to save him the other 2 vet visits my mom is getting the bill cause she checked on him and called and said she would cover it so i said call him

now all this money and time and i have a calf that i think is getting better but dont know and if he lives im gonna have close to $1500-2000 in him when hes ready to eat which i could of got one ready and had him butchered for $1400

here is a pic about 20 mins ago after having his 2 bottles about 2 hours apart (fed him at 8 and 10 this morning cause he didnt drink it all at 8)



any one else think he looks better? or is it just me?

[darbyfamily]

definitely looks better !!!

[Naturaldane]

yea, but in a sling you can avoid pnumonia and also, you can do a bit of physical therapy to exercise his mussels as well, its more than most would do for a calf, however you seem to be willing to go the extra mile so I threw it out there.
Horses can crush themselves by laying down to much and pnumonia is a huge threat, along with mulitpul organ faliures. As i said it may not be so bad in cows since you see them laying a good bit more than horses.
The people here are a bit harder than most, and I cant say I dont agree with them however if I was in your shoes, and euthinisia wasnt the ideal thing, this is what I would have done.

Good luck with the calf, I really do hope he makes it, now back to my world

[Key]

So glad the calf looks better. I had a calf get alittle sick on me yesterday (it seems to strike them exactly 7 days after I bring them home from auction?!? The first week they do well, and then BAM! ) We put some antibiotics in her and switched to electrolyte/vitamin solution as she didn't seem to have the desire or interest in drinking. This morning, when I expected my daughter to tell me that the calf was down or dead, she told me that the calf was bawling for its breakfast. YEAH! Hope yours continues to imporve as I know calves are a battle sometimes.....

[bigmudder77]

if it was a $25-50 calf i would of just shoot it to start with but it was a $100 calf and should of been healthy but i found out the seller has did this to MANY other people he buys sick cows at auction for like 10-30 then sells them for $100 and puts a ton of like sugar water and milk in them to make them look ok and full

so im calling the health department on him saying he has sick calves that he is selling and i have 3 other people that got calves from him and they died and got the rest of there cows sick

so ill let them worry about it but right now i gotta keep trying to get this one good

i gave him corn syrup and milk this morning and he walked all around and ate a ton of grass (i wish he would drink more milk or eat more grain for the higher protine but thats him) so who knows i shoed the vet both pics and he was like well maybe he has the want to live cause he came out and said to just put him down. well he said if it was his calf he would just put him down. but after seeing the pic of him a little better he said try to keep him alive he might pull through it.

[6ncounting]

Looks 100x better.