Post by Seth Hummel on Apr 1, 2019 14:47:37 GMT -5
Just a quick informing for those unaware of the situation: Saturday evening, one of our Angus heifers was in labor and it was blowing snow and cold outside, so I shut the whole group (five heifers and two calves) inside their 30' x 16' shelter. She had the calf around midnight, and when I first found her, she was down (temporary paralysis of her hindquarters) and the calf was lying with his head pinned underneath his body. I got him out of his predicament, dried him the best I could, and after his mother seemed stable enough to walk, we closed the two into one half of the shelter and left them for the night. By early yesterday afternoon, it was obvious that he had nursed at some point; the mother's udder was not nearly as full as before, and he knew exactly where to go to find food. At that point, however, she was not at all interested in him and certainly didn't want him nursing, even while she was preoccupied with feed. She eventually acted as though she would attempt to jump the fence, and since she was butting the calf, we let her out. She then quickly took to mothering the last calf born (four days earlier).
We're limited on sheltered places to keep everybody separate, and the weather is not conducive to letting them out on pasture yet. We have a headgate/chute, and while I've read that you can restrain the heifer and let the calf nurse, my dad and I have our doubts. If a cow is not wanting a particular calf near her and is stressed by being restrained, how could you get her to let down for the calf? Could they even hold up with a shot of oxytocin? Something just doesn't make sense to me about this concept.....
The calf is hungry and willing to fight to get a meal, but he refused the milk replacer I took him over an hour ago, so we ended up administering it (1 qt.) through an oral feeder. I'm sure since he (miraculously?) managed to nurse earlier yesterday, he doesn't like the feel or taste of the manmade this-and-that. Any suggestions on how to get him past this?