(***Moderators efforts
All I did was add spaces!
It is long, but hopefully easier to get through for everyone.
Sincerely yours, Wendy
)
Hello, hoping to get a little advice on a sick calf.
I will share her history and try to be as brief yet detailed as possible:
I have a 4 month old Holstein calf that I purchased from a very large dairy farm here in Ohio.
According to the kid I bought her from she was his "best calf"
(it turned out that after dealing with her constant sickness for a couple months I called him
and he finally admitted that he got her from his neighbor the morning that I picked her up
and had no history on her - seems that he didn't want to sell one if his calves
and tried to make some extra money by selling me this calf from a neighbors farm. Who knows.).
The day after bringing her home she got sick, runny nose, scours, mucousy cough and all that.
I treated her for pneumonia and she seemed to get better until a couple weeks later
she had a 106 temperature so I had the vet come out.
Prior to that I called the same vet and he instructed me to give her a round of penicillin, which I did and it seemed to help.
When he came out he gave her a long acting antibiotic and said that it wasn't her lungs but an infection in her throat.
Again, she seemed to get mostly better but had an occasional cough that was pretty mucousy after drinking her bottle.
I was again instructed to give her another round of penicillin.
I would occasionally call the vet and ask him questions but he just said that some calves tend to have that
and that she will probably get better with time - especially once it warms up.
Over the time that I was bottle/bucket feeding her, it took awhile to get her to start eating solids.
I finally got her to start eating hay, then pasture, then weaned her off of milk replacer.
She has never really eaten much grain even though I provided it to her daily.
She would nibble at it then ignore it - regardless of me adding molasses and trying multiple kinds of grain and starter feed.
More recently, she had just been on pasture with the other cows and seemed to be doing fine apart from the coughing and occasional heavy breathing.
She never really had much energy though.
Over the past two weeks I noticed that she looked a little thin
and was considering calling the vet again but thought I'd give it a couple more days.
I gave her a vitamin B-complex shot on Saturday and Sunday.
On Sunday, she laid down in the pasture and hasn't been able to get up since.
I called a different vet this time and he came out on Monday morning.
He gave her quite a few shots - selenium, steroid, and something else
and instructed me to give her a shot of 10 ML of Thiamine every morning for a few days to see if she improves.
By this point her breathing was almost always labored and very mucousy sounding-
she also coughed a lot and would occasional pant like a dog after drinking or eating.
I told him about my experience with the other vet and he disagreed with most of what that vet did
- in hindsight, I wish that I would have called this vet the first time.
He said that her lungs sound like they're "burnt up".
Today is day 4 after the vet visit and she isn't doing any worse but not doing better either.
I still cannot get her to stand.
She is eating and drinking though and seems to be more aware and awake that she has been the past couple days.
I talked to the vet this morning and he thinks that, at this point, it's probably best to put her down.
After this very long story, my question is...
does anyone have any last minute ideas or experience with this?
I planned to put her down myself this evening but wanted to see if there were any other ideas that I can try before giving up on her.
I realize that in a large cattle operation, she would have been culled probably right after birth
but we only raise about 2-3 cattle at a time just for meat for ourselves.
We grass and hay feed our cows which is why we tried a bottle calf for the first time.
It's hard to find a 6 month old steer or heifer that hadn't been grain fed it's whole life.
Nothing against it - we just prefer grass fed.
Right now she is actually eating a decent amount of grain
which is surprising but I think it's only because she can't get up to graze.
She is also eating hay..and I'm not sure if this is a good idea,
but I have been giving her milk replacer again in the mornings and evenings which she gets very excited for.
I figured that it might help to get some calories in her.
Again, not sure if that is a good idea or not but figured that I'd give it a try. Sorry that this is so long, let me know what you think.
Should I put her down now, or try something else and give her a little more time? Thanks!
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