We have a baby boy!

allenslabs · #1 09/07/12, 11:59 AM

We have us a baby bull calf out of miss Evie Lee. She had him this morning and both seem to be doing fine. I am trying to keep stress down so am letting her stay in her small pasture with him hopefully for a day or two before bringing her to start milking. Her nose is nice and wet and her ears are warm but then again it is close to 90 here. I took her grain and she ate every bite and a bucket of water which she drank right down. She is talking to the baby a lot and I held her so she would let him nurse. She is out on grass and has minerals out there. Should I do anything else? I am nervous of milk fever because of my ordeal with Elenore. She was panting but again...90 degrees and just had a baby. Thanks all! Will put a pic on here once I figure out how to from my phone lol.o

springvalley · #2 09/07/12, 01:07 PM

Congrats on the BABY. Best of luck. > Marc

ozark_jewels · #3 09/07/12, 02:02 PM

How old is Evie Lee?? If you are concerned, you can give her calcium as a preventative.
Don't milk her out all the way for a few days.
Keep plenty of fresh water available.
Do NOT overfeed her grain.
Keep plenty of good hay/graze available to her.

Congrats on the calf!

Rocktown Gal · #4 09/07/12, 02:12 PM

Congrats on the calf

allenslabs · #5 09/07/12, 08:17 PM

This is her second calf so I think 3? I gave her a tube of the calcium right after she had him this morning and then again this evening just to be sure. I'm giving her about a gallon of grain twice a day right now. I've not touched her udder because I thought someone had said not to milk out until about the third day. She looks like she could use some relief but I was afraid to bother her. I'm scared to death to face milk fever again if you can't tell! LOL!

Cliff · #6 09/07/12, 08:53 PM

That's a lot of grain for a cow who hasn't been milking. Way too much imo.

ozark_jewels · #7 09/08/12, 07:46 AM

Two gallons of grain a day for a just fresh Jersey(she is Jersey, right?), is a LOT.
Back off on the grain a little and milk that poor cow.LOL!! You want to milk her to keep production coming up and to relieve the pressure. Just milk all quarters evenly(calf probably favors one or two already), and only milk her 1/2 to 2/3rds out for the first few days.
After the first few days you can start milking her most of the way out as long as the calf is full.

allenslabs · #8 09/08/12, 08:47 PM

Ok so today I just gave her some grain this evening and milked out some of the colostrum and froze it. I gave her maybe a half gallon of grain and she is out on pasture full time. And yep Emily...she's a jersey! So far the calf seems to be doing great and her too. Acts just like she did before when I milked her. The calf seems to favor just the ones on the left side but although her udder looks huge I think there is some edema in there too. I will do it again tomorrow and get her up in the barn to do it. Tonight it was just boyfriend holding the rope and when the calf got up she got all stupid for lack of a better word and so I made her stand still and then turned her loose.
Thank you so much for the help and advice!