How long..

[Stacy Adams]

can a newborn calf go before getting colostrum?? I'm curious, I was just visiting a neighbor, when their field hand showed up with a 2 hour old calf, soaking wet and freezing 'cause of course she had to be born the only day it snowed! yester day it was in the 70's! we got a bunch of towels on her (it was a girl) and rubbed untill she was fairly dry and looking around.. they're going to put her up at their barn in lots of hay to keep her warm, but I was worried about her not having nursed yet..

[bumpus]

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Where is the mother cow.

You need to get milk in the calf soon or it will die.

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[Stacy Adams]

I don't know if they got the cow to the barn or not.. I offered them some colostrum that I save each year, but they said she would be fine.. These people have been raising cows for many years, and so I thought they knew best... though I know that goats need it within the hour.. I'll be calling them in the morning to see how she's doing and if they got mom to her or not..

[dosthouhavemilk]

Within the first 12 hours is ideal but 24 won't hurt it.
The stomach lining thickens after 12 hours and so the whole point of the colostrum starts to wane at that point.
We try and bottle feed them their colostrum as soon as we can, even if we leave them out with their motehr. We don't rely on the mother's to it...we make sure we see it and we have a very low calf mortality rate...almost non-existent.

edited to add-
If she was wet and shivering though, fresh warm colostrum is the best way to warm them up and get their blood circulating.

[Stacy Adams]

Thanks for the replys.. I'm praying she makes it through the night, and I'm going to call them in the morning to see how she's doing..

[Ronney]

Hi Stacy,

Yes, Roseanna has the right of it - within 12 hours preferably, 24 hours at the outside. Anything beyond that, forget about it and hope for the best. Your neighbours would surely have known that if they have had cows for years so lets hope they got the cow up to the barn.

Cheers,
Ronnie

[wr]

I'm betting the calf will be fine, raising cattle in a cold climate is an art form and it's not uncommon to have to take baby for a while and warm them up. When you towel them off, you normally never touch the head or bum so the calf's scent remains as it should and the cow won't reject Core temperature will drop very quickly so shivering is not always a good indicator of cold. We take them and thaw them out to prevent pneumonia, hypothermia and frozen feet, ears and tails. Once warm & dry, they are returned to the cow, usually right to the spot where they were born and the waiting cow. It's rare for a cow to have forgotten her calf and if they need a bit of help bonding, we simply move the cow into a stall with the calf and it's all done long before they miss out on colostrum or they die of lack of nutrition.