New Calf Question

[wstevenl]

Okay, so we had our first calf on the farm yesterday morning. It's a black, horned bull calf. I found him around 7:30 am and he seemed very fresh, he was still a little wet and the afterbirth looked like it had just came out. I'm used to foals getting up and nursing right away but not used to calves. We left him in the field with her thinking everything would work out on it's own. Then in the late afternoon it didn't look like he had nursed yet so we took them both to the barn by themselves. At 6pm we gave him a bottle of milk replacer and he drank 1 pint. Around 8:30 we got him to drink another 3/4 of a pint and this morning he drank about 1 pint. He will stay standing if I put him on his feet and is taking a couple of steps at a time. The cow licks him all over and is attentive, but he can't nurse from her nose! and that's all he ever sees. The cow wouldn't stand still for me to try and put him on her until this morning when I tied her. He sucked for a minute but I don't think anything was coming out. She has a huge udder but I've not seen any moisture on her teats. She also looks pretty skinny now that he's out. Her hips are bony and she has 1 or 2 ribs showing. Her front half looks great though. Any words of wisdom? When should we call a vet?

We had been trying to worm with Basic H in their water but I wormed her with alfalfa pellet wormer about 4 days ago because they weren't putting on weight like I thought they should on pasture.

[lsg]

Get some colostrum from his mother into the calf as soon as possible. They need the antibodies from the colosturm as soon as possible after birth. Milk replacer won't give him that.

[wstevenl]

We're trying... I tried by hand to milk her but nothing is coming out. She's full like a balloon and it feels like liquid moving around in it when I try to milk her but nothing has started coming out yet. My horse was dripping and could be milked before she foaled... but not this cow.

[marion]

This calf MUST get colostrum (first milk) from his mother, or another fresh cow, or artificial colostrum from the vet. Too many hours have already gone by, and it may be too late for the calf to absorb the antibodies provided by the colostrum. CALL YOUR VET.
Has the cow calved before and nursed a calf? It is unlikely she would have four blind teats. Tie her up, and if necessary put a rope tightly around, in front of the hips and udder so she cannot kick, and open up the plug in those teats. Then try and get the calf onto her to suck..marion

[marion]

Here is a link to a great article about the importance of colostrum:
www.dqacenter.org/university/moreinfo/rh53.htm

Scroll down to "Colostrum Absorption" for info about the importance of timing of that first meal, in achieving passive immunity..marion

[wstevenl]

My wife tried opening up her teats with a warm wet cloth and wasn't able to get anything done. She fed him store bought colostrum about 3 hours ago and the vet is going to be there in a half hour.

[marion]

Let us know how it goes! ..marion

[legendrockranch]

Hopefully the vet will be out soon.

You might want to ask him about giving the dam a shot of Oxytocin, it will help her with her milk let down if she is holding it.

Keep us posted.

[copperhead]

If you can't get colstrum from her, ask you vet, they have a colstrum replacer. I just hope it's not too late for him to benefit from it. Good luck with him.......P.J.

[wstevenl]

Okay so yesterday my wife gave the calf colostrum replacer, and milk replacer until the vet got there. The vet tied a rope around the cow in front of her hips like people had suggested that I do. Then he simply tried REALLY hard to milk her and shot milk out in just a few seconds. They ended up milking well over a gallon out and fed some to the calf and froze the rest. By last night the calf was able to latch on to a teat on his own with out us putting it in his mouth. And this morning he was able to get up pretty much on his own.
The vet said that he must have had a pretty rough delivery because his eyes were blood shot and he gave him an antibiotic because you could hear fluid when he breathed. The vet also asked if the cow was half Jersey because she was hard headed and had so much milk. :-) She did put on quite a show yesterday and does NOT like being restrained anywhere but her halter, but she's doing very well letting us put the calf on her and messing with her udder now.

Thanks for the help.

[marion]

Thanks for the update! Hope your calf continues to improve and maybe you will be able to get a bit of milk for the house too ;D

[Wags]

Hopefully mom & calf both continue improving!

[wstevenl]

The calf is doing even better getting up and nursing on his own.
The cow is letting me milk her easier.
When can we start drinking the milk? Today is the fourth day since birth.

[marion]

That is good news! The milk should be ok to use now. In desperation for a dairy product, I've even used colostrum in my tea and coffee...but then, I'm weird ;D

[Honeycreek Dexters]

glad to hear it made it and all is well, experience and time is the best thing for all at this stage. as far as condition of your cow some dexters have a milk cow look while others are more beef like. yours may be the milk type. you might try a poor on wormer in a little while, the feed thru type doesn't give a consistent dosage some get more than others and may not treat for the rite parasite.