Jersey calf drank fence paint

[Leslie]

The boys were painting the fence (it's kinda like tar) and they left a bucket open. Minnie came over and drank about two cups of it. Has anyone else had this happen. I have no idea what to do. I would appreciate any feedback I could get. Thanks

[ChickadeeL]

latex?

[gone-a-milkin]

Good grief!

Need more info. What kind of paint? how old is the calf?

They do think up some silly stuff (kids and calves, both)

[Leslie]

Not Latex. It's goopy, a bit like tar. The many gallons of paint came with our house and there's no label so I really have no idea what is in that paint.

[Leslie]

And the calf is about 4 months old.

[gone-a-milkin]

Okay, since you dont know what kind of paint it was, I would give activated charcoal as a matter of course.
It absorbs toxins and doesnt hurt anything. You can pour something sweet on it to get most critters to eat it (syrup, jam, etc)

Is the calf showing any signs of discomfort?

[gone-a-milkin]

One time I watched a calf drink a good long swig of hydraulic fluid from a bucket.
I thought for sure he would at least get squirty?

Nope, that little dude was just fine and never missed a beat.

[Leslie]

Minnie looks just fine, except for the black paint on her side. Where does on buy this charcoal? BTW, she chews everything. Do you know what's up with that?

[TwosCompany]

Hmm, could she have pica? I've had puppies with pica. I don't know if it's possible for a calf to have pica, but I thought I'd throw that out there. I hope she's ok!

[Leslie]

She looks right as rain today. Will be looking up Pica. Thanks.

[gone-a-milkin]

Glad to hear she is fine.

You can buy ACTIVATED (not deactivated, whoops) charcoal at most pet stores.
It is good to have on hand and keeps forever.

[randiliana]

We had a mature cow drink used oil one day. DH had just finished changing the oil in the tractor, when the neighbour came along. While they were chatting, a little ways away, this cow came along and slurped up a bunch of the oil. They kinda watched in amazement, couldn't really believe that she would do that! She got in 2 or 3 big slurps before they could get her chased away. That was about 5 years ago, and she is still raising calves for us. Didn't hurt her any.

[Chixarecute]

Yes, cows can get pica, it's usually driven by a phosphorous deficiency.

[haypoint]

Cows will eat some strange stuff. In the past few years I've heard of two cases where the farmer had a scrap metal pile in the pasture, took the iron to the scrap yard and the cows got into the old, broken car batteries and ate the lead. Will take forever for those cows to be safe to eat or milk. In another case, some calves got through a gate in the barn and ate part of an old bag of organophosphate and about 30 died.