Huge newborn calf that now has weepy eyes....what do I do??

allenslabs · #1 06/01/11, 09:29 PM

Ok all, calf question. We had a calf born Monday, HUGE bull calf. Biggest I have ever seen honestly. He ended up paralyzing his momma and we weren't able to get any colostrum out of her (it was 95 and very hot and humid here and she didn't make it. Thinking heat stroke possibly from overexherting herself trying to get up). So we had to give powder but seeing as it was a holiday and an evening at that and I had no powder I had to work with what I had so I mixed goat milk and electrolytes and gave him that. Then the following morning I got some milk from a dairy that had a cow that had been fresh two days and have been feeding him that milk. Also gave him colostrum powder from the vet but it was several hours after he was born.

Despite being extremely large, he is doing ok. He was walking all hunched up with a very weak back end and so I gave him some BoSe yesterday. Noticed last night his eyes were weepy (when I first saw him in the field he had some blood in the corners of his eyes I assume from the pressure of coming out) and so made yet another trip to the vet and bought some Terramycin gel and went out to put it in his eyes and he is acting as though he can't see hardly in either eye. The eye is REALLy goopy so I cleaned it with a warm cloth and put the gel in it. What else do I need to go??? Don't want to lose his momma and then him too. Thanks all!!!

allenslabs · #2 06/02/11, 10:44 PM

Well, the eyes are not weeping any more but odd as it sounds...it looks like he has pink eye in the right eye but he has a clouded section over both eyes. Is is possible for a newborn to get pinkeye? The gel seems to be working on drying up the weeping but don't know if it will help with the vision. He has a huge appetite and stumbles around, just hoping he gets all better soon.

ozark_jewels · #3 06/03/11, 11:44 PM

Are you sure he doesn't have inverted eyelids?? This can be hard to see and can cause weepy eyes and cloudiness.

allenslabs · #4 06/04/11, 10:39 AM

Not sure. Never heard of that. How do you know if they do???
He is still cloudy in his right eye but the left one seems all cleared up now and neither one is weeping now. So hopefully he'll make it now. When he went to not seeing and stuff I thought maybe he was going downhill but hopefully not now that he is improving. Appetite is great and stools are good so keeping everything crossed. LOL!

ozark_jewels · #5 06/04/11, 10:42 AM

If you look very closely, you will see the lower eyelid is turned inwards against the eye. The easiest thing to notice is that his lower lashes will not be there. If you pull the lid down with your thumb(like you're checking his membrane colour), it will roll out the way its supposed to be. Keep doing this and it usually rights itself after a while. The reason for the tearing and cloudiness is that the hair is irritating the eye.
But if it seems better this morning, thats probably not the issue. Good to hear!

linn · #6 06/04/11, 11:17 AM

Put some Terramycin Eye Ointment in his eyes. This is for pets, but it worked great for one of our baby calves.