took on a new calf tonight........

[Cheryl aka JM]

The neighbor came by and asked me if I would take on a new calf from someone he knows. I'm not all that exp at it but it was too good a deal and a challenge to pass on. The calf is a beef bull calf~ about 2 weeks old that was failing to thrive in the pasture with his momma. They plan to send momma to the auction this week and the calf was to go with her if I didn't want him. The deal is~ IF he lives I pay $75 and keep him as a beef calf. IF he dies they will come pick up the carcass and dispose of it for me.

Okay~ I love a challenge........
And if I do well I'll get a chance at any heifer calves (and bulls too) they have in the same situation later (the man who used to do this for them stopped due to health issues so they are looking for a new go to person for if a calf fails to thrive).

so~ here I am with my limited expierience taking on a sickly failure to thrive calf. Haven't tried to do anything with him yet~ he was pretty stressed in the trailer and looked active but the gentleman who brought him told me that was not the behavior he had been showing before and he was sure the activity was stress related. Tomorrow morning I'll try him on a bottle of 1 qt weak MR..........and being that he was on a Momma I'm expecting him to refuse it. If/when he does I'll tube feed it to him. Planning on three feedings tomorrow and until he is "normal" acting~ morning MR, afternoon Electrolyte, evening MR. I'll take his temp Monday morning if he is still alive and if he is running a fever or showing signs of pneumonia I'll get a shot of the good antibiotic from the vet for him.

Sound like a good plan?

Oh~ I forgot to add~ when he was dropped off I asked if he was scouring and the man said no and pointed out a pile of very hard, dry looking poop as being what he did on the ride over. I was not expecting that~ I was expecting he might be scouring.

And don't worry that I've put him in with mine~ I've not. He is in the Turkey pen mine were in when they were very small like he is now~ with the two dairy goats and one very young meat goat.

[copperhead46]

I've never know a beef herd that had enough calves that fail to thrive that they needed someone to take them. That is very fishy sounding to me. I know a lot of beef producers and have had beef cattle for years, and it's a rare occasion that a calf "fails to thrive". I really hope it works out well for you, I just never heard of such a thing........good luck and let us know how he does.
P.J.

[Cheryl aka JM]

I hope he does well too. I have high hopes from him based on what I saw this evening~ he looked and acted more energetic than the calves I bought 6 months ago and then realized where sick. In fact~ he doesn't LOOK sick to me at all~ he doesn't look underweight and did not seem lethargic.........but according to the gentleman who dropped him off he WAS lethargic earlier today (and before) and acting sick. When I agreed to take him on I was expecting a much weaker calf than was dropped off with me. But as I mentioned I have REALLY limited exp and am so far a lucky novice at this. Now I"m hoping this will be easy.........but we shall see what tomorrow brings.......I don't expect it to be easy......but I'm hoping to succeed.

[Allen W]

very hard, dry looking poop

Sounds like the calf was on a cow that wasn't milking, and already trying to graze. Wouldn't hurt to go ahead and offer him some starter feed and see if he will eat it along with the milk.

[haypoint]

Trailer ride or not, I think I would have offered a bottle last night. Hard to tell when he was last fed.
The income from raising beef cows is the sale of calves. Failure to thrive should be rare. If momma was dry, he could have put him on another cow. If he's so short on pasture they can't thrive, he needs to unload more cows. Like Copperhead said, fishy.
Full of worms? Whatever, please keep us posted.

[Cheryl aka JM]

well I've got him up and working with him now. He's afraid of me and my dog had to help me catch him up. SO proud of her! I've never asked her to help with something like this before~ but I let her in the pen and told to "Go Slow" in my most commanding voice and we gently walked him into a corner where I jumped on him!

He would have nothing to do with the bottle~ even after I forced it into his mouth so I tried pouring it into a dish before resorting to the tube. He drank that after a bit of struggling! So about a qt of goats milk in him this am. I poured a 1 1/2 in the bowl but between the two of us I'm sure we spilled at least a 1/2 qt. Since that went well I went ahead and put 2 cups of Calf Manna in the dish and he's eating it now! I'm watching through the window.

I've drawn up 5cc of vitamin B I'm planning to give him when he's done with the grain. And I've got the Cydectin out ready to pour across him too. Thinking about giving him some Red Cell since it helped with the goats so much.......but honestly.....he is much stronger and healthier than I expected and I'm not really sure he needs all the help I was anticipating he would need. He is MUCH stronger and healthier than the "Healthy" calves I bought 6 months ago and HE'S the Failure to thrive calf? Wow~ I'm even more amazed I kept the first 4 alive now that I see him!

I took a pic~ I'll put it up later.
His temp is 101.5F
His chest measure is 31 1/2"

I'm going out to sit with him and talk to him while he eats some more now

[Cheryl aka JM]

He drank the bowl of milk and at almost the whole bowl of Calf Manna. I gave him the vitamin B and RedCell just for good measure and I poured about 100# dose of cydectin down his back. Gonna offer him some more milk and Calf manna this afternoon and evening~ if he keeps up as good as he did this morning then tomorrow I'll just offer 2qt twice a day and some calf manna.

The man said he was between 2-3 weeks old. This is him this morning eating the Calf Manna

[DairyGoatSlave]

oh my! hes a handsome little bugger eh? I hope it all goes well for you!!

[deineria]

He is a cute little fellow.

[dezeeuwgoats]

I always give my holstein calves kefir to give them a boost. Lots of good probiotics in there. I raise them on kefir and goats milk - they've all done very well. I've raised six so far. Not lots of experience - but successful thus far.

[Allen W]

That's a good calf. He is not pot gutted or dried out, but momma wasn't feeding him real good. Looks like he is older then 2 weeks, too.

I think your on the right track with the milk and calf mana. Some grass to graze or a hand full of good hay wouldn't hurt him either. Looks like you've done good.

[lasergrl]

he's cute, kinda looks like a bison calf with that color. I think you got a good deal on that calf.

[gone-a-milkin]

Cheryl,

How is the calf doing today? Pouring milk in a bucket sure is easier than bottle feeding, isn't it?

You better watch out or you will soon have a whole yard full of calves, probably they will be able to mow the whole lawn. LOL.

[Cheryl aka JM]

Pouring milk in a bucket IS much easier than the bottle!

The little cuss wouldn't eat this morning so I was a bit worried. But I just went out with about 3/4 qt and offered it to him and he drank it down so I'm not as concerned. I can tell he's lonely~ doesn't want me to catch him but once I do he leans into me. I don't think the goats are being buddies with him and we had a cooler than average night last night~ so maybe that put him off some this morning. I'll keep an eye on him but so far I *think* he's doing okay. Haven't seen any poop from him at all~ either he is constipated or doing it when I"m not looking.

[Cheryl aka JM]

Well it's been a week and the little boy is still alive! He did begin to run a fever and snot up a little so I got him a Draxxin shot on Tuesday and we did a 5 day drench of Corid because I saw a little blood in his stool. Not a lot of blood~ but a little and I figured better safe than sorry. He did go off the feed and I did have to tube feed him Tuesday and Wednesday but he seems to be back on it now. He won't have anything to do with a bottle~ but he drinks about 2qt in the morning and about 2qt in the evening from a bucket and grazes during the day. He won't touch the Calf Manna now~ I keep putting some in his mouth trying to remind him that he liked it last week.

I do have a couple questions~

The milk replacer is not mixing completely. We moved to MR when I'd used up all the frozen goat milk I had left (my goat only gives 1qt a day so she can't keep up with him). I'm mixing the MR exactly the same way I did before~ very hot water, add the MR, Whisk, add cooler water, whisk again. Maybe because the other calves were drinking from the bottom of the bucket through nipples I never saw the residue before~ but with this calf drinking from the top of the bucket I can see how much of the MR residue is not mixing completely and being left in the bottom of the bucket as sludge........is this normal?

And the little cuss is constipated. You can see him really straining to poop.......and when he does he produces what looks very much like several goat pellets. I'm planning to put a couple dollups of Karo Syrup in his MR tonight unless y'all have another suggestion?

Thanks!

[gone-a-milkin]

Cheryl,

I am glad to here he is still standing up.

Is he drinking water at all? See if you can trick him with a 'special' feeding of nice warm water in his milk pail.

About the MR mixing, yes it is hard to get it to completely mix up. I usually put just enough really, really hot water (almost boiling) into the powder, and whisk it til it makes a paste, then dilute it with cooler water. It still clumps up some, but not as bad.

I dont know about the Karo syrup, never done it. I doubt it would hurt him though. I think that he will go back to his grain on his own, once his tummy is better.

As always, good luck!

[PaulNKS]

Cheryl,

A couple things to remember. A calf doesn't begin to ruminate until they reach about 300+pounds so don't feed any grains yet.

He is older than a couple weeks in the pic.

Changing his milk and/or feed can cause him to go off feed, and the other problems you mentioned such as blood.

There is definitely nothing wrong with feeding goats milk to a beef calf. BUT.... always keep a close eye. Goat's milk is much richer than the milk of a cow, especially beef cattle. The rich milk can scour a calf fairly quickly.

As to the milk replacer. The cheaper milk replacers will not mix well with water. The expensive milk replacers usually will mix just fine (my experience working in a co-op for several years.)

The others are correct. A good stockman will NOT have trouble with calves thriving UNLESS there is a problem. That problem is usually if the momma cow's not giving enough milk.

He's a good looking little dude.

Paul